Easter Pastoral Letter by the Bishops

 
 William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Le Saintes Femmes au Tombeau (1890)

Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!

As we learn from Luke, when the world had its first Easter morning, a group of women travelled to Jesus’ tomb at early dawn, with spices ready for what they expected to be his lifeless body. What they found, however, was an empty tomb. An angel came and asked them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.’ (Luke 24:5)

It seems our Easter this year is one of problems – serious problems for the whole world. But what exactly does Jesus’ resurrection have to do with us humanity in such a time?

Back when 2025 was still young, the Global Risks Report was published ahead of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Its pages detailed trends of worsening division on the global stage, intensifying tension in geopolitics, and rising environmental, social, and technological challenges, all of which are threats to stability and progress. Linking to all of this, from social to geopolitical tension, is the undercurrent of economic risk.

None of us would be a stranger to this overpowering ‘economic risk’ – the whole world is now caught in a ‘Tariff War’. Some of us may even ask: can this world be saved?

When people think that they can establish order in this world by their own designs instead of God’s, then conflict would be the inevitable result. Even worse, humanity as a whole have ‘improved’ our art of war so much, that our conflicts are now more lethal than ever, affecting the whole world and in ways never seen in history. With our current trade war, we see how a simple announcement made stock markets all over the world extremely volatile within minutes. Some economists fear that such rapid dips and rises will lead to a global recession, worsening the disparity in wealth between the rich and the poor. Such a crisis sets a perfect stage for more crises to follow: extreme poverty, hunger, disease, plagues, and various natural disasters.

That the foolishness of man would plunge the whole world into disaster is, unfortunately, a more than familiar thing when we study history. We only need to look at what happened since the 20th century: two World Wars, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, and many other bloody conflicts – and who can say that greed, vanity, and hatred are not the reasons behind such bloodshed? Did the perpetrators not, time and again, convince others to wage war due to ‘righteous’ reasons, all the while committing atrocity after atrocity? And as to those millions who had the tragic privilege to face death and destruction – theirs are the voices and the lives who are forgotten.

As we journeyed through the Holy Week in the past few days, we rediscovered how during the Passion of Jesus Christ, there were also many people who willingly forsook their own conscience and rationality: the religious leaders, Pharisees, Chief Priests, Pilate, and even the nameless soldiers. Whenever a person is given power, it is used and then abused fully. Sometimes all it takes is the collective madness of a crowd born out of ignorance – considerations of innocence and goodness be damned.

But the most tragic part has to be the crowds, who only just welcomed Jesus with such pomp and circumstance on Palm Sunday, hailing him as their King. They wished that Jesus would bring them power, both political and economic. But when they learnt that these are not what Jesus came for, their hope turned into dismay, and dismay turned into vile hatred. They conspired to destroy Jesus, and condemned him to the cross.

Thus we see it is, yet again, the thirst for power that brought us disaster – the disaster that forced Jesus onto the Way of the Cross.

But Jesus is no ordinary person. If we judge his ‘mission’ by the usual short-sightedness of humanity, then we could safely say he completely failed. He did not seek any power, and he did not leave behind a single written work. He did not found any schools, nor did he write any hymns, or built any churches. He held no political position, and he was a nobody in proper society. In his prime years, he was arrested and crucified. If we judge him as a man like any other, we would say he is a complete failure. And yet, when he was nailed to death, high on the cross, as he was surrounded by both those who hated him and those who loved him, he said to them, ‘It is finished!’ (John 19:30)

‘It is finished.’ Stranger still, here we have this powerless and weaponless man, who did not even attempt to argue in defence before getting crucified, saying that he has finished and accomplished ‘it’. What has he finished? Let us have a look at history and see.

According to the Guinness World Records, hymns and poetry on the subject of Jesus number more than five hundred thousand, making him the most popular thing to write about amongst poets. Jesus himself did not pen a single song, but the greatest composers who ever lived wrote countless pieces of music about him: Handel, Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, to name but just a few. Jesus did not found a single school, but in 2025, Christian universities, schools, and kindergartens can be found all over the world.

Indeed, Jesus was crucified on the cross thousands of years ago, dying the most shameful death a man could be sentenced to, but today he is the most powerful force and advocate for the dignity of humanity. This man, who left not a single painting or work of literature, became one of the most inspirational subjects for artists throughout history. This man, who was once deemed to be the lowest and the most despised, is now worshipped by the greatest amongst us.

How could such an extraordinary turn happen? There are no shortage of great persons in history, each contributing immensely to humanity, but after their deaths, none of them received the same reverence as Jesus, and none of them could be said to be more impactful to us than Jesus. How could this be?

The answer is simple: for he is risen! By the resurrection of Jesus, we are offered a glimpse into the infinite splendour of eternity. With but this glimpse, we can overcome all difficulties and dangers. The resurrection of Christ gives us the necessary hope to face anything that our future brings us.

The French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) painted his Le Saintes Femmes au Tombeau in 1890. In it he portrayed three women at the entrance to Jesus’ tomb. The tomb is opened, and a light shone from within, surprising the women.

An angel appeared to them, saying, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’ (Luke 24:5) Such a wonderful sentence this is! The women have come to the tomb for a person they loved, but the angel told them that this person is not in the tomb, because he has resurrected. At that moment, the women had to find a new way to seek for their beloved Jesus.

What we today are seeking and hoping for is no longer those things that are valued by the standards and mores of the old world, nor is it the things that have passed away, or those things which will inevitably pass away in due time. No, what we are seeking and hoping for today is something new: it is the powerful life that the resurrected Jesus has given us – such a life that changes our hearts, and welcomes the arrival of the Kingdom of God in our midst.

The greatest promise that God has given us is that of eternal life. (1 John 2:25) Even the most powerful person in our world is, like anyone else, a sinner who is journeying from life to death. But it is Jesus alone who is the risen Lord who walks from the grave to life. When the angel asked, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’, the women woke up from their spiritual slumber, and discovered that they should not be seeking for Jesus’ lifeless body to express their love for him; instead, they should share in Christ’s death and resurrection, for ‘He is not here, but has risen.’

Brothers and sisters, as we turn from Lent to Easter, as we face the many problems still plaguing us in this world, let us turn to our risen Lord, Jesus Christ, who brings us, our families, and all our neighbours from death to life, and who grants us our world a new hope and a new blessing.