Archbishop of Sydney

Easter Message 2005

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
24 March 2005

Last year Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ prepared us for Easter.  This year the memory of the Boxing Day tsunami is still raw with its hundreds of thousands of deaths followed by a huge wave of generous compassion from every group of Australians.

We tend to take the good times in our stride.  Suffering, evil and death make us pause.  What is it all about?  Where do we go from here?

Not all religions are the same.  Doctrines differ and therefore the consequences for daily life differ.  Bad religion can take us in the wrong direction.

While there is only one God, some images of God are so different, even contradictory, that we are entitled to speak of false gods, phantoms, misleading figments of the imagination.

Easter, with the suffering of God’s Son on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday, demonstrates the Christian conception of God.  Through Jesus’ teachings and actions we obtain insight into what God is like.  That is why Christians love to tell and retell the Easter story.

After all the suffering of the passion Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of love’s triumph.  The Easter message is that love is stronger; stronger than any hate, any evil, any suffering.

To all those in difficulty the Easter message is a consolation.  To all those who are going well Easter is a reminder to count our blessings.