In the Christian faith there is a cry, a breath, a light that crosses centuries and hearts: Christ is risen. This is the heart of everything. And this heart beats particularly strongly at Easter. But this celebration is not just a religious memory. It is much more than just another liturgical moment. Easter is the celebration of life. Not just the life that begins again in the spring, but the life that triumphs, the life that is reborn even after death, the life that is stronger than everything.

What if we dared to believe, really believe, that this promise concerns us today? That it is not just an ancient event, but a power of life that can transform our present.

Easter comes to the heart of our nights

The Easter message is not born in a cloudless sky. It arises from a tomb. It is born in a night of mourning, silence and incomprehension. The disciples have lost everything. The one they had believed in had died on a cross. All that remained was fear, isolation and closed doors. And yet it is here, in this very place, that the light dawns. Not with a bang, but in the quiet morning of the third day. The tomb is empty. Something unimaginable has just happened.

This birth in the night is what makes Easter so close to us. For we too have our nights. Our bereavements, our failures, our exhaustion. And it is there, in those areas that we think are dead, that God comes to bring forth life. He doesn't skip over our pain. He goes through them with us. And one day, he makes a dawn break.

A victory of love over fear

What is defeated at Easter is not just physical death. It is everything that stifles life in us: hatred, lies, violence, injustice, fear. When Jesus rose from the dead, he did not return with vengeance or resentment. He returns with peace. He says to his people: "Peace be with you". He imposes nothing. He gives. He lifts up. He opens. His victory is that of a love that does not give in, even in the face of rejection or the cross. A love that goes all the way, unconditionally.

This is the strength we celebrate at Easter: a love that never dies, a love stronger than death itself. And this strength is not reserved for a few perfect believers. It is offered to everyone, freely, wherever they are. We can draw on it, believe in it, lean on it. It's here, today.

A call to live differently

Easter is not just an inner joy. It is also a call to rise again, to get back on track, to carry this new life into the concrete of our days. To be a witness to the Resurrection is not to have answers for everything. It means living differently. It means forgiving when things aren't easy. It's about hope in the midst of uncertainty. It's about making gestures of peace, truth and care. It's believing that no situation is set in stone, that no person is lost, that no night is eternal.

Easter urges us to become life-bearers too. Not in grand proclamations, but in the small acts of everyday life. A gentler gaze. A word that consoles. A silent prayer. An outstretched hand. The Resurrection often takes very simple paths.

A celebration for today and for all time

Every Easter, the Church repeats that life has conquered. And this proclamation resonates with our wounded world, our anxious world, which is searching for meaning, hope and light. It's not a question of running away from painful realities, but of inhabiting them with a different kind of strength. That of the living Christ. That of a life that does not fade away. That of a presence that accompanies us even in our darkness.

For this is what Easter is all about: the certainty that there is always a way out, always a light, always a path. Even when all seems lost.

Conclusion

Easter is much more than a tradition or a religious festival. It is the beating heart of the Christian faith. It is the profound joy that nothing can extinguish. It is the proclamation that life, true life, full life, is stronger than everything: stronger than fear, stronger than suffering, stronger than death. This joy does not come from an illusion. It comes from an empty tomb, from infinite love, from a God who raises up the living.

What if, this year, we let this light enter a little more into us? What if we welcomed Easter as the celebration of a beginning, of new life, however discreet, however fragile? Because even a tiny flame is enough to chase away the night. And the Resurrection begins there.