Sorrow Turns to Joy: Brief Easter Video for Sharing
Dear Friends,
The Easter promise is that sorrow will turn into joy. The tomb is empty. What is broken will be whole again. Life, not death, endures.
When we come face to face with what seems like unending and relentless injustice—poverty, violence, ecological harm—when we see death and fear in the lives of our neighbours, in Pimicikamak (Cross Lake), in the Philippines, it is hard to hold on to that promise.
That is why we have each other—churches, communities, movements.
When we can’t see the Easter promise for the tears, the anger, the pain, we can hold on to another’s hope. We can find confidence in another’s vision. Bearing sorrow, nurturing faith and hope are communal tasks.
That is why we need each other.
Not long ago, I listened to a group of children imagine a just and equitable Canada. In essays, in poems, in art they showed their vision of a Canada, reconciled. Their confidence in our future is contagious.
Despite all they face, KAIROS’ global partners can exude that confident hope. CEIBA, our partner in Guatemala, has organized 70 community consultations where thousands of people have determined their future, claimed their future. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, our partner works with victims of gender-based violence—witnessing to hope, by training them to be advocates for women’s rights.
When I can’t bear the sorrow, I believe somehow we can. When I can’t find hope, I can trust in others’ vision.
Holding sorrow, witnessing hope to one another is how we keep going. It is how we build communities of resilience and transformation true to God’s dream of justice.
This Easter, as we declare Christ risen, let us be grateful for our companions in hope and struggle. Christ is risen, risen indeed, Alleluia.
Jennifer Henry
Executive Director
P.S. I invite you to share this video with your family and friends. Please post it on Facebook. Tweet it. Share it on your congregation or community e-lists. Consider showing it in your church.
