This is the day in which Christ has destroyed death and from the dead he rises victorious.  We have just celebrated the Easter Triduum behind closed doors for the second year in succession. The most sacred season of the year once again without any physical congregation. This is very hard on all of us people of faith. It is amazing what the human spirit can endure and overcome provided it is nourished by the bread of hope. Easter provides an enormous injection of hope for the human spirit. And how much hope is needed, escpecially during this pandemic. This has been a very hard year for all of us and we continue to struggle. We can face anything, endure anything, as long as we know or believe it will not last forever, and that something better will happen. People will face a long, painful and dangerous operation if they believe it will make them well again. We can face the rigours of a long and miserable winter because we know that spring will come again. What all this underlines, is the importance of hope. We have endured a long and strict lockdown and this will continue but we know that this will not last, there is hope and some of you already have received your first vaccine and are feeling hopefull. What we have experienced over the last few days is how Jesus was cut down. Today we experience how Jesus rose again. Jesus rose as a sign to those who loved him and followed him that God’s love is stronger than death. By entering fully into human life, and by experiencing the bitterness of death, Jesus became a brother and sister and Savior to all of us. Its interesitng in the gospel, resurrection encounters take place not only behind closed doors, but in spite of them. “in the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where he disciples were” (Jn. 20,19). A tiny, invisible virus, thousands of times smaller than the head of a pin has tested our resilience, has torn apart our economies and has very much tweaked our priorities. Yet in all of this the Risen One walks among us, carrying us, conforting us, and consoling us. All is different because Jesus is alive and speaks his words of peace to us as he spoke them to the apostles. Just over a year ago Pope Francis spoke in a deserted St. Peter’s square and reflected on the text from St. Mark’s about the strom at sea and how Jesus was asleep at the stern. His message in that rain swept sqaure was and remains that Jesus is very much with us. The Risen One walks by our side. As we celebrate Easter once more in the midst of the suffering the world is enduring because of this pandemic, may we experience the new life of resurrection. Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus is the basis of our hope of eternal life, a hope which enables us to bear patiently the trials of life. Let us pray that the splendour of the resurrection scatters the shadows of death and enables us to walk in radiant hope towards the kingdom where there are no more shattered hopes, strict lockdowns, or broken dreams.