"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad." Easter is the great celebration of victory of life over death.

Ours is an Easter religion. We do not deny or turn away from the evils that surround us: the wars that have killed some 100 million people in our (last) century; the poverty that grips more than half of the human race; the hunger that kills millions every year and ruins the lives of millions more; the discrimination that divides the human family into contending parties.

We do not deny these miseries, but we refuse to surrender to their power because of our faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Suffering will be vindicated; death will be overcome; a new life will arise: that is the Easter message of the paschal mystery.

"Let us feast with joy in the Lord." Just as Christ passed through death to resurrection, so too will the world pass through its suffering to the glory of a new life.

There is no room for despair: our Easter faith tells us that God will "raise us up and renew our lives."