BISHOP DON SPROXTON 2018 EASTER MESSAGE: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton has greeted the Perth faithful with the words, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! In his 2018 Easter Message. Photo: Ron Tan.
By Bishop Don Sproxton
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! It is with these words that I greet everyone at Easter.
They are the words that Christians have exchanged from the earliest times when meeting one another on Easter Day. The greeting has always been one of enormous joy.
Easter is the time of renewal in our pilgrimage through the year. We have arrived at the greatest celebration in the Christian calendar, after the intensity of the Lenten preparation.
Our commitment to prayer, penance and fasting through Lent has been aimed at our own reorientation from selfishness and self-interest to a life lived with God. We may have had to face up to the ways where we have not wanted to listen to the Lord and how these choices have left us discontented and sad.
Yet Lent has been a great gift. We may have found that we have been able to face up to something that has been an awful burden for a long time, and with the grace of God we now find ourselves free, in the sense, that it does not have the same control over us that it has had for so long. I see this as a fruit of Christ's Victory over death.
With such an experience, it is possible to greet our brothers and sisters in the faith with joy in our hearts, "Christ is risen! ", because the power of Jesus, risen from the dead, has manifested itself in us. We feel as though we have been born again.
Our joy will be the witness to others that something has changed for us and that we are living with new life. Maybe the response to our greeting by our brother or sister will be with equal joy, "He is risen indeed! Alleluia ", for the same power of the Risen Christ may have been experienced by them too.
Easter is the time for great celebrations, especially for anyone who has experienced healing and being remade through the love and mercy of God. I want to send you all my Easter greetings and assure you that your intentions will be included as I celebrate the great Paschal Liturgy of the Resurrection.