Dear fellow priests, dear consecrated persons, beloved people of God,

St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote in one of his Easter Letters: ”.

Indeed, Easter is our holiday, of the Christians who rejoice in Jesus' victory over death, because in this victory lies our hope. Easter is the feast of hope, proving to us that beyond suffering and death lies joy and life, that tears of sorrow can turn into tears of joy, that darkness can be overcome by light, that although “the Lord of life he is dead, now he is alive and reigns ”(cf. Easter Sequence). It is about that hope in which we were reborn, as St. Peter tells us (cf. 1 Pet 1: 3), it is the hope in which we were saved, according to the well-known expression of St. Paul (cf. Rom 8:24).

Indeed, Easter is our holiday, of the Christians who rejoice in Jesus' victory over death, because in this victory lies our hope. Easter is the feast of hope, proving to us that beyond suffering and death lies joy and life, that tears of sorrow can turn into tears of joy, that darkness can be overcome by light, that although “the Lord of life he is dead, now he is alive and reigns ”(cf. Easter Sequence). It is about that hope in which we were reborn, as St. Peter tells us (cf. 1 Pet 1: 3), it is the hope in which we were saved, according to the well-known expression of St. Paul (cf. Rom 8:24).

The Great Solemnity of the Lord's Resurrection opens our hearts to hope and urges us to live it in our relationship with God. During the Easter Vigil, we renew our baptismal vows just to remind ourselves that they must be lived daily, for a life in accordance with God's will will bring us the fulfillment of His promise to put the crown of the resurrection on our heads. Therefore, let us not be among those who glorify God with our lips, but keep our hearts away from him, as the prophet Isaiah warns us (cf. Is 29:13). On the contrary, let us bear fruit worthy of the Lord, and let our faith in the risen Jesus be seen in our good works, and so may our heavenly Father be glorified (cf. Mt 5:16).

But we should live this hope in the Church as well, especially now that we are walking the synodal path with the Holy Father Pope Francis and the whole mystical Body of Christ. Each of us — a bishop, a priest, a monk, a nun, and a layman — are living stones, built in a spiritual house, which is the Church, to offer pleasing spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Pet 2: 5). We give reason for hope to the Church when we are not mere spectators in our communities, but responsible people, whose spiritual sacrifice is the assiduous and active involvement in the life of the Church, especially in the proclamation of the Risen One, following the example of St. Mary Magdalene.

We must also see the hope given to us by the resurrection of Christ in the eyes of our neighbor, especially the suffering, the poor, the marginalized, the lonely, the refugee, the sick. And that largely depends on us. To give hope to one's neighbor is to ask, "Man, why are you weeping?" (cf. Jn 20:13) and to comfort him with the consolation with which we ourselves are comforted by God (cf. 2 Cor 1: 4); it means to put into practice the urge not to harden our hearts and not to close our hands in front of our neighbor, but, on the contrary, to help him in his need (cf. Deut 15: 7-8), knowing that anything good deeds and every good word does not go unrewarded by God.

My dear brothers and sisters, each of us needs hope. Where can we find her? In the empty tomb, in our faith in the resurrection of Jesus, in Mary, who is the Mother of hope, in ourselves, those born again to a new life. Beneficiaries of the hope that springs from the paschal mystery, let us also become a source of hope for God, for the Church and for our neighbor, and let us spread this hope with the greeting that best shows it: CHRIST IS RISEN!

I greet you warmly, wishing you an Easter holiday full of light and hope!

† Anton Coşa
Bishop of Chisinau