Bishop John Easter Message
Sunday 12th April 2020Watch Bishop John’s Easter Message here:
Hello, I’m Bishop John, Bishop of Salford and I’m delighted to be able to speak to you on this occasion.
Let’s celebrate Easter. It’s the fulfilling of God’s promise to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. What the disciples must have suffered, particularly on Good Friday when they thought it was all over. But Jesus couldn’t possibly be the Messiah because he is being crucified what they thought was going to happen couldn’t happen.
He was dead and then that uncertain time when they must have been terrible recriminations among them, before he appears to them.
First to the women, but they are not too sure about that, when they hear the news of that the tomb is empty, but then the better news and then his appearance to his disciples to reassure them. Yes, it is true. I have risen from the dead.
It renews everything. It gives us a new sense of purpose. It tells us that even when we’ve been in doubt and felt really overwhelmed by events that there are good reasons to celebrate.
I hope this Easter for you and your families will be very important indeed. Jesus is risen from the dead and we can look forward in hope and we must celebrate these days because they are proof of God’s love for us. That he’s always with us until the end of time and then we can take seriously Jesus’ invitation, no command. Go out to the whole world and proclaim the good news. As Pope Francis says you and I, each and every one of us, missionary disciples taking the gospel with us wherever we go. Showing God’s love to all those that he places in our lives each day.
God bless you. On this Easter Sunday.
