Season of HOPE

Easter is the greatest celebration and the pinnacle of all celebrations in the Catholic Church.

It is the completion of Holy Week that ends with the resurrection of Jesus.

Tamavua Parish pastoral council chair Daniele Vakalututabua said Easter offers humanity a way to live (and to die).

“What happened at Easter enables us to let go of our loved ones in faith. This does not mean that we forget them. We pray for them and they pray for us,” Mr Vakalututabua said.

“This also means for us, that through the Church’s Easter liturgy, the message ‘Do not look for the living among the dead. He is not here. He has risen’ is our celebration that not only has Jesus overcome death, not just for himself, but for all of us.

“He is the first ‘to rise’ from the dead and we are to follow him.

“For the Christian then, there is no such thing as death in the sense of final extinction.

“For our family at St Joseph the Worker Parish Tamavua, the truth of the resurrection enables us to deal with the trials of life.

“This is a position of faith, and faith is a gift, but faith ‘works’ wonders in our lives and helps us to come to an inner peace knowing that life is stronger than death, love is stronger than fear and hope is stronger than despair.

Easter is the most important season in the catholic church.

Head of the Catholic Church Archbishop Peter Chong said passion and the cross are two of the most important Easter and Christian symbols.

He said they reveal who God is and He redeems humanity.

“To understand the Easter message, we must understand the wisdom behind the passion and the cross and how they give meaning of life,” Mr Chong said.

“What the cross tells us, more clearly, is that God is absolutely and utterly nonviolent and that God’s vulnerability is a power for intimacy with God and with each other.”

Easter triduum programme for the Holy Week includes: -

• Holy Thursday (Washing of the feet followed by the adoration the cross)
• Good Friday ( Stations of the cross)
• Holy Saturday  (Easter Vigil)
• Easter Sunday (Resurrection)

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