Easter Message from the Archbishop of Dublin

The Archbishop of Dublin, the Revd Dr Michael Jackson, has issued the following message ahead of Easter:

The story of Easter unfolds rather rapidly on the first Easter Morning. We are greeted by the exuberance of Mary of Magdala who tells the other disciples: I have seen the Lord (St John 20.18). Mary has come directly from the graveyard. There she has been greeted by the friend and teacher of The Disciples of whom she is one. Her grief has been turned to joy by the fact that Jesus calls her by name. She glows with confidence as someone who is known to the Risen Lord by name.

Recognition is part and parcel of resurrection. This is good for us to learn at Easter 2024. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is an investment by God in the good order of relationships and in the good order of society. Such gracious recognition travels wherever Christians are and go. They are its ambassadors and its practitioners. The direction of travel of the sorrowing disciples brings them into a realm where they are not unknown to the person who still inspires them and who has conquered death and sin to share new life.

The world to which we waken up on Easter Morning is spattered with the blood of warfare and the detritus of community. It is also spattered with the incapacity of states and religions to make peace, to keep peace and to give peace. The human irrelevance of people to one another right across the inhabited world asks of us, who are Christians today, carrying the responsibility for Godly peace: What does it mean for us to say: I have seen the Lord?