The National Chaplains' Easter Message

It seems to me that no sooner have we packed away the tinsel, baubles, lights and tree than we are once more in the season of Lent and heading at a more leisurely pace towards Easter, the liturgical season that quite literally gives us Hope eternal. And in this Jubilee Year of Hope, it seems all the more appropriate to dare to believe that death has truly been vanquished for ever.

Although the actual date of Easter varies from year to year, the season of spring in which Easter falls under, brings hope into our lives once more. That which for a time, seemed dark, dismal and grey becomes bright with colour and life as trees blossom, and flowers bloom. The darkness of the cold tomb on a hill far away, once devoid of both life and light, is on that first Easter morning now bathed in the glory of Gods true light. The promise made by Jesus to his disciples is fulfilled and death has now been conquered, now they begin to understand, now their joy is complete, now with new hope in their hearts, they go out to proclaim the message of resurrection to all who will listen to them.

This Jubilee Year of Hope is our opportunity to do the same. Not only to speak of hope but also to be hope to all those we may meet along the way. For sadly in our world of worries and woes, of wars and disasters, of unemployment and civil unrest, hope is often all we may have to cling to in the rough and sometimes stormy waters of life itself.

In all these calamities that may occur, the risen Jesus holds out his wounded hand to catch us from falling and remind us that He will be with us for all time. And so, filled once more with Easter joy and renewed hope, we rightly proclaim, Alleluia Alleluia!!

On Behalf of the Catholic Police Guild may I wish you and your family a blessed Easter season.

Fr. Barry Lomax

National Chaplain & Fellow of the Catholic Police Guild.