The Presiding Bishop’s Easter Message 2004

There is no evil that humankind can commit that Jesus has not taken upon himself and carried freely to the Cross. Through the Cross, evil has been defeated, and life in all its unimagined fullness–-animated by God’s mercy and truth, God’s justness and peace--has been unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.

Such is the power of the resurrection. Such is the ground of our hope. Such is the root of our confidence. Such is the source of our courage and our capacity to wage reconciliation in the face of seeming endless cycles of violence, battle and murder that destroy life around the globe.

Alleluia is our Easter song. As we sing alleluia we are crying no to the poverty, disease, and injustice which afflict millions who, like ourselves, are made in God’s image. We are refusing to accept things the way they are. As we sing Alleluia we are proclaiming an unequivocal yes to the vision of a world transformed, healed and reconciled in the One who has drawn all to himself. Alleluia is our acknowledgement that we have been caught up into Christ, and Christ’s continuing work of binding up and making all things whole and new has become our own.

As we sing Alleluia this Easter may we do so willing to live the deep meaning of our Easter song not only with our lips but in our lives-–for the sake of the world.

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA

(Posted April 1, 2004 on the Episcopal News Service)