Easter Message For 2009

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
9 Apr 2009

At the Christian feast of Easter, we recall the death and resurrection of Christ nearly 2000 years ago.

Our prayers of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday are being offered and our claims for redemption and salvation are repeated in a time of unusual financial turmoil and uncertainty.  Unemployment is rising, more families are running into problems with repayments and governments are piling up enormous debts for the future in the hope of improving our present situation.

Australia is still better off than most other places, even when we leave aside the recent awful earthquake at L'Aquila in Italy and the continuing violence in e.g. central Africa and the Sudan.  We thank God for our good fortune in Australia as we pray that our leaders devise adequate programmes for longer-term growth rather than short-term gains which will weaken us in the long run.

Christians do not offer alternative economic solutions, even if we remind our financial planners that market economies too can only function efficiently, when most people accept notions of right and wrong, and understand that enduring orderliness presupposes a substantial measure of justice, the spread of basic wealth across the community.

This much is fundamental, but the Christian expressions of hope at Easter are not just the best of human wisdom and reasonable claims for optimism.

Christian faith in the one true God includes that notion that God is interested in the welfare of every human, especially in our troubles.  Christian faith teaches that human history is not blind and cruel, but has a good purpose and is moving to a point, beyond death, when love and goodness will triumph and the scales of justice will balance out, especially for the poor and suffering of this world.

The Christian claims at Easter are extravagant.  We believe the Son of God suffered and died so that goodness could win out over evil and that meaning can be found in sufferings.

Hard times should prompt us to re-examine our priorities, so that we come to realize that possessions cannot return our love and that plenty of money cannot guarantee happiness.

Christians do not hide from suffering nor pretend it does not exist.  They confront suffering, help each other to cope and draw comfort and strength from the fact that the Son of God suffered also on the way to the resurrection.

Easter peace to everyone and especially to those who are battling with difficulties of any kind.