When I was learning how to drive, my instructor insisted that before changing lanes or before entering the traffic, it was not enough to look at the side mirrors but also to turn my head to the back of my shoulder so that I could cover my “blind spot”.

We are in the joyous season of Easter and today we are invited to share this joy with the Apostles of Jesus, especially Thomas, who struggled to believe that Jesus is alive.

In each of the four gospels there are wonderful resurrection stories in which we see the early followers of Christ struggling to grasp the fact and the meaning of the resurrection of Christ.

Life presents to us many Good Fridays, in the form of obstacles, helplessness and brokenness. But what brings us to Easter Sunday is our understanding that we don’t get upset with the little hardships in life because our life’s journey is like a road and difficulties are like humps. They help us to avoid dangerous accidents.

So, learning to enjoy the challenges of life and moving on is the key to eventually arriving at Easter.

As this edition of In the Word reaches you, we are about to embark on the Easter Triduum, those blessed days of entering into the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s a busy time for many of us, with all the liturgies to attend and be part of. But on the flip-side, it is also, for Christians, a time of profound un-busyness, of deep quiet, of fasting, prayer and reflection.

The very comforting words of Jesus in today’s Gospel give us some hope, dear friends, in our challenging world of today. The rapidly changing times and situations make us realise that nothing seems to be the same every day. 

Happy Easter to you! May the blessings of the Risen Lord be with you all.

I don’t know about you, but aside from the spiritual joy of the Easter season, I always seem to feel an extra spring in my step as well.

Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation, ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, states, “There are Christians whose lives seems like Lent without Easter”. Are we that?

Lent as a traditional season has always had a positive impact on me, giving blessings in disguise through reconciliation, prayer and fasting. I encountered Lent this year with the same natural and rich instinct brushing aside all the temptations. At times I found it harder than I had thought it would be in a new missionary arena.

Many of us try to be somewhat disciplined for Lent and give up something that we really like and what we think needs eliminating. That’s great! Fasting has always been an important tradition of Lent. This year however, I thought we could also consider other things that we could give up, keeping in mind all the Biblical texts that guide and confront us ...

Happy Easter. For a Christian, there could be no more wonderful day than this—when we shout with joy that death itself has been defeated forever — we celebrate the victory of life over death. And even more, that this victory can reach back to the very beginning of time, till the end of time.