Easter Sunday is the Church’s principal celebration – the most important day of the year.

Easter, and all the events associated with it, gives us proof that God really does love us, and offers us the promise of eternal life, so that when our earthly lives come to an end we need not fear, for we have something even better to look forward to. The physical death of someone we love is always difficult to deal with – we are naturally sad at our loss, grief is very real, it is hard to continue to trust in God, especially when the death is of a younger person.

The Easter story continues for a further fifty days, as the disciples and followers of Jesus wrestled with their own bereavement and came to terms with the resurrection appearances. They needed to walk that hard journey and spend time in a lonely place, so that when God sent the Holy Spirit upon them they would be ready to receive it. In the same way you and I cannot lose someone dear to us and just simply carry on unchanged. We must work through our sadness, whilst holding on to the promise made to us by Jesus that everyone who believes and trust in him will live eternally, before we are able to accept and live out that promise.

Easter gives us a chance each year, before we are assaulted with real grief, to express our faith and trust in God, and to rejoice that Death, our greatest enemy and fear, has been beaten by God’s love in Jesus. Alleluia! is our cry.