In his Easter message for 2025, Archbishop Peter A Comensoli revisits the moment when the risen Jesus appeared before his disciples and showed them the marks of his wounds. These marks, he says, were not just proof of what Jesus had suffered; ‘they were proof of what he had done.’ Jesus wanted to show his friends ‘that he had taken their wounded lives into his own body.’
Our own wounds, Archbishop Comensoli says, ‘can feel like the end of our story. They threaten to define us, to trap us. They try to tell us there is no way ahead.
‘But Easter speaks another word: a healing word, a forgiving word. Easter tells us that our wounds are not where the story ends. Easter shows us there is a path to healing, and a vista onto a new dawn.’
Transcript:
When Jesus stood among his disciples after the resurrection, he showed them his wounds, the marks of his crucifixion.
Those marks were not just proof of what he had suffered; they were proof of what he had done. Jesus wanted his disciples to see, with their own eyes, that he had taken their wounded lives into his own body.
St Peter, who was there that day, never forgot this. Later he would write, ‘By his wounds, you have been healed’ (1 Peter 2:24).
In his crucifixion, Christ carried the full weight of our failures, our hurts, the injuries done to us, and the damage we have done to ourselves and others. He did so knowing we could not heal them alone.
In his resurrection, he stood before his friends with a body bearing our wounds, yet gloriously alive. The resurrection of Christ was a declaration: nothing we carry is beyond his power to redeem. No injury too deep. No past too broken. No heart too far gone.
The wounds we bear can feel like the end of our story. They threaten to define us, to trap us. They try to tell us there is no way ahead.
But Easter speaks another word: a healing word, a forgiving word. Easter tells us that our wounds are not where the story ends. Easter shows us there is a path to healing, and a vista onto a new dawn.
The risen Christ, bearing his crucifying marks, is the sign of hope we need. He entered fully into the depths of our brokenness, so that we might emerge with him, healed.
This is the promise of Easter: that in him, our wounds do not have the final word. Life does. For we are healed in the crucified and risen Christ.