"Christ is alive! He is our hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world, and everything he touches becomes young, new, full of life. The very first words, then, that I would like to say to every young Christian are these: Christ is alive and he wants you to be alive!
He is in you, he is with you and he never abandons you. However far you may wander, he is always there, the Risen One. He calls you and he waits for you to return to him and start over again. When you feel you are growing old out of sorrow, resentment or fear, doubt or failure, he will always be there to restore your strength and your hope.” (Pope Francis, Christus Vivit, 1-2)
The experience of the Risen Jesus does not break in from outside, but illuminates and transforms our daily life and the life of all living beings from within. He lets himself be seen and experienced quietly but intimately, and cleanses our regard so that we see everything with new eyes. Without denying what we are living and suffering as humanity, and challenged as we are by the destruction to which we are subjecting the planet, the Risen One calls us back to an active hope in order to rebuild a world that is both necessary and possible.
The Easter experience does not erase the pain, it transforms it and confirms the promise of Jesus: ‘Do not be afraid’; ‘I am here’, ‘I am with you always until the end of the world’. The Risen Jesus does not come to resolve the situations that afflict us, He comes to console us and to rekindle our hope.
For this and so much more, let us celebrate Easter in communion with the whole of Creation and experience its fruits: peace, serene joy and renewed hope.
This is my heartfelt wish for each of you.
Sr. Ana María Alcalde