Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Holy Week has been filled with manifestations of the power of evil, with the murderous attacks in Brussels and Baghdad and the ugliness of the presidential campaign rhetoric taking up the vast majority of the news cycle. With less attention but no less devastating consequences are the ongoing social, economic, ethnic, racial, and military oppression and injustice found in every corner of the globe, including our own country. The evil one is evidenced in our present journey as vividly as it was in Jesus's journey to Golgotha.

The hope and redemption of the Resurrection are as incarnate and real, however, as the terror and destruction of the evil we experience today. Jesus's being raised from the dead and experienced in the flesh is replicated daily by the lives of generous compassion, disarming respect, and sacrificial love that are lived by people of faith.

The Resurrection of Jesus proclaims that we can be the triumph of good over evil. It is living proof, proof alive today, that through the way we live, death is overcome again and again and again. In the bold words of St. Paul to the church in Corinth, "Now you are the body of Christ." We are raised with Jesus to bring the world out of death into life.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

This is our triumph song of hope, the words by which we live.

With every blessing of the Resurrection of Jesus,

The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr.

Bishop of Ohio