Dear brother and sisters in the Risen Lord:

“I have risen and I am with you still.” 

May these words resound in our hearts this Easter! Jesus’ pilgrim way on earth was over. He completed his journey in the tomb, as all of us will, but he conquered death. By an act of pure love, the Lord opened his grave and rose from the dead. 

Despite all the suffering, mourning and death of this past year inflicted by the pandemic, we still joyfully shout that Jesus is alive. He is our hope who brings joy to the world. He is with us in our disappointments, hardships, and doubts. He is with us even when we stray and cannot find our way home. The Risen One is always there for us.

With the ancient liturgical Easter Sequence, we gladly repeat: “Christ, my hope, is risen!” After the darkness that has engulfed us now for more than a year, this Easter we are receiving a new and living hope. It comes as a gift from God, who brings life even from the grave.

On Calvary, Jesus fulfilled his word: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:32). And, at dawn on that first Easter morning, he was lifted on high. The Son was exalted in glory to the right hand of his Father. This most astonishing event in the history of humankind attests to the victory of God’s love over sin and death.

The Resurrection solidly anchors our hope. Jesus’ light once dispelled the darkness of the tomb. Today he wants that light to penetrate even to the darkest corners of our world and of our lives.

It is through his death and resurrection that Jesus rescues us and gives us new life. United to him in baptism, we too have risen. We have passed from death to life, from the slavery of sin to the freedom of love. 

For Jesus to draw “all people to himself,” to answer the questions and quell the yearnings of people everywhere, He needs us, his People. We are his eyes and ears, his arms and legs in this world. 

He has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, to proclaim everywhere his mighty works. Just as he entrusted his disciples with a mission before returning to his Father, the Risen Jesus today sends us everywhere as his heralds of hope. He reassures us: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).

As my Easter greeting to you, dear friends who labour with such commitment in this corner of the vineyard, I make my own this prayer of Pope Francis: “With you, Lord, we will be tested but not shaken. And, whatever sadness may dwell in us, we will be strengthened in hope, since with you the Cross leads to the Resurrection, because you are with us in the darkness of our nights; you are certainty amid our uncertainties, the word that speaks in our silence, and nothing can ever rob us of the love you have for us.”

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, silent witness of her Son’s death and resurrection, increase your hope that in him who promised that he would make all things new.

With my blessing and prayers that you and your loved ones will enjoy the many graces of the Easter season,

I remain, sincerely yours in the Risen Lord,

+ J. Michael Miller, CSB
Archbishop of Vancouver