CHRIST TRIUMPHANT Pilgrims pose for pictures at the foot of the statue of the Risen Christ at the top of a hill in Lubigan village in San Jose, Tarlac City. Monasterio de Tarlac, caretaker of what is believed to be a part of the cross of Jesus, sits on the hill amid the lush Tarlac Ecotourism Park. EDWIN BACASMAS
Filipinos have gone through adversities in recent months, but Easter, the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, offers them hope and joy.
“Remember Yolanda. Remember Mamasapano. Remember the frustrating unsolved problem of government corruption. Remember the loneliness of our loved ones toiling abroad. Our memory is full of broken hopes and dreams. The litany of frustrations is endless. But we have hope,” Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, says in an Easter message that he will deliver at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Dagupan City today.
“Easter is the greatest and most important feast of our faith. If Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is irrelevant and meaningless, dry and dead,” Villegas says.
He calls on the faithful to “go beyond the customary greetings and feasting” and continue the mission of the Risen Christ by bringing His message to more people.
“Be like the Risen Jesus. Look at the Risen Jesus. Love the Risen Jesus. Follow the Risen Jesus. What is it in Jesus that we must carry with [us] through life? It is his joy,” Villegas says.
“Our calling is to return to the joy that comes from the Gospel and from sharing the Gospel,” he says.
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