Good Friday and today, Easter Sunday, are the most joyful, solemn and holiest of holy days celebrated in the Christian world,
Easter is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the foundation of the Christian faith.
We think of the apostles who followed Jesus during his short earthly ministry. For three years they fervently loved, followed and believed Jesus, even if they did not understand everything that was happening to them. Just two days after their world came to an end with their beloved teacher crucified on the cross, the disciples became part of the miracle that changed that world. It is a miracle that continues to resonate in our world today.
Today, the sun will rise on many worshipers attending services at churches around the world, joined together by their belief in a miracle that happened 2,000 years ago.
It is fitting Easter comes in the glorious season of spring. Like the season, it offers us the opportunity for a new beginning after months of cold and darkness. It offers us the gift of hope. Whether Christian or of another religion, hope is what this world can use.
And let us hope Christ's message of love and salvation will be with us all this day.
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Earth's saddest day and gladdest day were just three days apart.
Susan Coolidge
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The joyful news that He is risen does not change the contemporary world. Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice. But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline and make the sacrifice.
Henry Knox Sherrill
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And he departed from our sight that we might return to our hearts, and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here.
St. Augustine
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But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise." And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.
Luke 24:1-11
