Message from our Pastor - Easter Sunday - April 5, 2026

Dear Friends,

Today, together with the Church throughout the whole world, we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter stands at the very heart of our faith. As Saint Paul the Apostle reminds us: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Through His Resurrection, Christ has opened for us the way to new and everlasting life.

Easter is the joyful proclamation that God has validated the life and mission of Jesus, confirming that all He lived and taught is true and life-giving. During His earthly ministry, Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God, revealing a way of life rooted in love, mercy, and forgiveness. His words and actions challenged the values of His time, confronting injustice, hypocrisy, and hardness of heart. For this, He was rejected and crucified. Yet the Cross was not the end. In a way that surpassed all human expectation, God raised Him from the dead. In the Resurrection, the Father confirmed not only who Jesus is, but also the truth and power of everything He lived and taught. Easter, therefore, is not centered on the violence of His suffering, but on the enduring and radiant beauty of His life, a love that overcomes all things.

Easter reveals to us not only that God loves us, but that His love is powerful, stronger than sin, stronger than suffering, and even stronger than death itself. When darkness seems to prevail and everything appears lost, the Resurrection proclaims with quiet yet unshakable certainty that God has the final word. It assures us that no suffering is meaningless, no failure is final, and no darkness is without the promise of light. In Christ, even the Cross, once a sign of shame and death, has become a sign of redemption, hope, and new life.

Easter is not merely the remembrance of an event in the past; it is also a living source of grace for our present lives. We know that life is often marked by trials, the loss of loved ones, tensions within families, financial burdens, illness of body or mind, moments of betrayal, and many hidden struggles known only to God. These are real crosses that we carry. Yet, in the light of the Resurrection, we no longer carry them in despair, we begin to see them in a new way. They are no longer signs of defeat, but paths of transformation. United with the Cross of Christ, through His resurrection, they can become the very place where new life begins.

And thus, the Resurrection is not only God’s answer to the problem of death. It is also His answer to the question of how to live. It proclaims that both this world and the world to come are filled with the promise of new beginnings. When we strive to live as Christ lived, to love, to forgive, and to give ourselves in faith, His Resurrection becomes alive within us. Because of Him, even our darkest nights can give way to the light of a new dawn. Christ has the power to transform every ending into a beginning, if only we allow Him to do so.

May the joy and peace of the Risen Lord fill your hearts and your homes.

Happy Easter!

Fr. Peter Shen