Easter is a time of suffering but also a time of great hope as Christians overcome persecution

Apr 16, 2017 by Jill

by George Carey, The Sun:

The growing climate of hostility against Christians in many parts of the world is only serving to strengthen our faith.

ARSENE WENGER, my favourite football manager, apparently once said: “Christmas is important but Easter is decisive.”

He got it absolutely right. Easter, which so many associate with Easter eggs and bunnies, good Welsh lamb or, for the lucky, a week in the sun, is all about life emerging from death.

The first Easter, you know, was a cruel business of unbelievable suffering.

An innocent man was whipped, beaten and then subjected to a kangaroo trial and eventually a painful death only meted out to the worst of all political criminals.

The death of Jesus was essentially a political act. He got in the way of the powerful of his day and was crushed.

Nothing has changed.

We may pretend to believe in “progress” and cherish sentimental notions that human behaviour is becoming more civilised and equal.

But even the most advanced civilisations can return to barbarism with only a little bit of pressure — a few days of hunger, or a breakdown in technology — or under the influence of radicals or demagogues.

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