wfn.org | Presiding Bishop's Easter Message 2001

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April 10, 2001

2001-75

Presiding Bishop's Easter Message 2001

     The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold

     Alleluia. Christ is Risen. The Lord is risen 
indeed. Alleluia. As we acclaim with joy the 
resurrection of Jesus, let us give thanks as well
 that we too have been raised with Christ. The 
resurrection of Jesus is our own resurrection: 
our being set free from imprisoning self-
preoccupation with our successes and failures 
in order that we might enter into the peace of 
God which passes all understanding, and has the 
power to reconcile us to ourselves and one 
another, to heal us and to make us whole. 

     The risen Christ bestows this peace upon 
the disciples and upon us in the Holy Spirit: 
it is his own peace he gives us. It is the very 
gift of himself because he is our peace 
(Ephesians 2:14). Christ's peace is not, however, 
the accommodating, compromising peace of this 
world, but something far deeper: it is a peace 
that inhabits our hearts, transforms our minds, 
and cracks us open to God's passionate desire 
for the wellbeing of the whole creation. It is a 
peace that works in us the mystery of compassion: 
a compassion not of our own devising, but a 
compassion that is formed in us over time as we 
are conformed by the Spirit to the image of the 
risen One (Romans 8:29). 

     The accounts of resurrection bear witness 
to this compassion. They show us a Christ who 
gently draws near and meets us on our way as he 
met the two downcast disciples on the road to 
Emmaus; Christ who companions us and enters into 
the burdens we bear; Christ, the Word within the 
word, who renders scripture alive and active and 
sharper than a two-edged sword as it pierces us 
and causes our hearts to burn within us; Christ 
who reveals himself in the breaking of bread, in 
sign and symbol and sacrament, and the things of 
this earth; Christ who in the silence of the garden 
addresses Mary Magdalene tenderly and intimately by 
name and in so doing sets her free from the isolation 
of her grief; Christ who ministers to Thomas' need of 
certitude by inviting him to touch his wounds; Christ 
who overcomes the awe and confusion of his disciples 
by gently asking for something to eat; Christ who 
delivers Peter from his guilt and shame and rekindles 
his love by entrusting to him the care of his sheep. 

     In similar ways the risen Christ approaches 
us, meeting us in the midst of our lives, our 
struggles and our joys, and with infinite patience 
and great care invites us to come forth into a 
new place, a new reality, a new way of seeing and 
being that can welcome all in the power of Christ's 
own compassion worked in us by the Spirit. This 
compassion is animated by God's love poured into 
our hearts by the Spirit, a love that can bear all 
things, believe all things, hope all things and 
endure all things (1Corinthians 13:7). 

     May this deep compassion, rooted in God's peace, 
be Christ's Easter gift to each one of us who through 
baptism are limbs and members of his risen body the 
Church. And may the Church truly be a community of 
compassion bearing witness in all aspects of her life 
and mission to the risen Lord in whom all things are 
reconciled to God and made whole and free.