Words of Light and Hope from Tony Hawes

Words of Light and Hope from Tony Hawes.
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have
loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know
that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13.34-35.

The friends of Jesus saw him and heard him only a few times after that
Easter morning, but their lives were completely changed. What seemed
to be the end proved to be the beginning; what seemed to be defeat
proved to be victory; and what seemed to be the basis for despair proved
to be the basis for hope. Suddenly a wall becomes a gate, and although
we are not able to say with much clarity or precision what lies beyond the
gate, the tone of all that we do and say on our way to the gate, changes
drastically. Henri J.M.Nouwen.

Brothers and sisters, this is the greatest hope of our life: we can live this
poor, fragile and wounded existence clinging to Christ, because he has
conquered death, he conquers our darkness, and he will conquer the
shadows of the world, to make us live with him in joy, for ever. Christ is
present everywhere, he dwells among us, he hides himself and reveals
himself even today in the sisters and brothers we meet along the way, in
the most ordinary and unpredictable situations of our lives. He is alive
and is with us always, shedding the tears of those who suffer and adding
to the beauty of life through the small acts of love carried out by each of
us. Sisters, brothers, in the wonder of the Easter faith, carrying in our
hearts every expectation of peace and liberation, we can say: With you, O
Lord, everything is new. With you everything begins again.
Pope Francis, Easter Sunday 2025.
Thanks be to God. Amen.