Jesus’ Resurrection overcame death with life, and brought with it a new dawn of hope. And so the Church is filled this day with the sound of Easter joy proclaimed in the voices of its people.  

The life of each believer is renewed in Easter joy. Everything which represents blind adherence to accustomed and outmoded practice gives way to a deliberate balance of the new and original – to that which can as yet only be imagined. 

In the joy of Easter our thinking comes alive. Emotion recedes. And, love is once again made fresh – as is our sense of duty toward the Church, our homeland, and the future. We find our service to God renewed in Easter joy as well – a service marked by unconditional obedience to God’s will.  

In fact, the Church's presence today gives fresh meaning to the spiritual and moral dimensions of our world - a world which seems destined sometimes toward an atheistic humanism lacking in soberness of thought, deliberation, a sense of direction, responsible expression, or the aspiration toward genuine reconciliation and the maintaining of order. 

May Easter joy dawn ever more brightly, so that God may guide the Christian world. Had Jesus simply remained in his grave after Good Friday, everything that makes the world so full of energy and life would have long ago turned to dust. Pretense and its attendant confusion would have been the victor. 

Greed would have easily conquered all, and genuine mercy, support, humanity, and service would have been but mirages. 

The message of old is still proclaimed this Easter in 2016: The Lord is risen! This message is the source of joy among the Church’s people this year as well.   For, in this joy, we come to love the Church even more and become ever closer to our homeland and its people. May the joy of Easter remain with us in the love of life – and of the Lord of life.

May God give this joy to the people of the Church. And, with this gift may we worthily celebrate this Easter. May we share this joy not only with fellow believers but with all our brothers and sisters. May Easter joy resound from the thankful lips of the people because the Lord is risen. 

He is risen indeed.

Ecumenical Council of Churches in Hungary

Permanent Council of Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference

Translated by Rev Dr. Frank Hegedűs, priest of the St. Margaret Anglican Episcopal Church in Budapest