Archbishop of Sydney

Cardinal Pell’s Easter Message 2006

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
13/4/2006

When misfortune strikes, Christians will acknowledge that the unfortunate person has received a new cross.  This sort of talk has also passed into the language.

Easter is the most important feast for all Christians, because Good Friday and Easter Sunday represent Christianity’s central claims; that Jesus, the man-God died and rose from death.  The cross, an instrument of death became the tree of life.

While even many unbelievers are happy to celebrate at Christmas the recurring ritual of human birth and the thought that God has visited us, a young man dying is more confronting and cannot be sentimentalized away.  The claim that this young man rose from the dead is fantastic.

But there is more yet.  Christians celebrate the fact that God always forgives, even the worst crimes, when there is repentance, and that God promises heavenly peace for the sick, suffering and oppressed.

Therefore Christians know that the World Youth Day Cross given to young Australians in Rome last Sunday by young Germans is a sign of hope, a symbol of the final victory of love over evil, of life over death.

I wish everyone, especially the sick, the suffering, and the tormented, the peace of the risen Lord, Easter peace.

A happy Easter to all.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

download audio file for Cardinal Pell’s Easter Message 2006 - mp3(3.54MB)