The terrorist attacks this week in Brussels are the most violent to hit Europe since the November attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Yet this is not the first, or even the second or third, terrorist attack in that time. We must not forget Bamako, Tunis, San Bernadino, Istanbul, Jakarta, Ouagadougou, Ankara, Mogadishu and Grand-Bassam, and Ankara and Istanbul for a second time, let alone the on-going and daily struggles in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza. The litany of death and violence in our world, and on our own streets, has the danger to make us sink into the helplessness and hopelessness of the situation.
Yet it is for times of doubt and darkness like Brussels, Ankara and Paris that Easter provides a glorious message of encouragement. Through the darkness of despair came the Easter dawn. It is impossible to believe in the Resurrection and at the same time believe that the darkness of this world will overthrow the light of Christ. At the empty tomb, we know that right is might, and that evil, in the long run, will succeed only in its own death and destruction.
For us, who stand this side of the cross in the light of the Easter revelation, there is no greater calling than to do our part in bringing about God’s Kingdom of justice and joy, peace and love. In his rising, the Living Christ shows the triumph of life over death, the complete and final triumph which gives us more than hope. In the Living Christ we have the eternal promise that in the end, always and everywhere, Life wins.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
A blessed Easter to you all.
