Last night, in parishes around the world, the Easter Vigil began in darkness. It represented all darkness, all suffering, all grief - death in all its forms. A fire was struck. The Paschal Candle – representing “Christ our Light!” in our midst - was lit and processed up the aisle. Each person held a candle that was lit from the Paschal Candle. The growing Light dispersed the darkness.
This Easter morning, each of us brings our darkness and our hope. The reality around us challenges our hope. There is so much to discourage us, even frighten us. Each of us brings our personal darkness as well.
Then we hear the good news: the tomb is empty! Jesus is risen from the dead! He has shattered the power of all sin and all darkness. The Preface before the Eucharistic Prayer will proclaim, “by dying he has destroyed our death, and by rising, restored our life.”
Let us enter into this celebration with our whole heart. Let us not hold back at all. Let us let this good news dispel the darkness. This is our hope. This celebration can fill us with joy and freedom and with bold trust. Let us deeply desire this grace and open our hearts to receive it. Let us let ourselves fall into the arms of our merciful and life-giving Lord.
With our minds and hearts filled with Easter freedom, we can better love as we have been loved. We can be a source of reconciliation where there is conflict and division. We can speak truth to power on behalf of those on the margins. The tomb is empty. Let us live our lives full of that freedom.
“Easter does not eliminate the cross, but defeats it in the miraculous duel that changed our human history. Even our time, marked by so many crosses, invokes the dawn of Paschal hope. Christ’s Resurrection is not an idea, a theory, but the Event that is the foundation of faith. He, the Risen One, through the Holy Spirit, continues to remind us of this, so that we can be His witnesses even where human history does not see light on the horizon. Paschal hope does not disappoint. To believe truly in the Pasch through our daily journey means revolutionizing our lives, being transformed in order to transform the world with the gentle and courageous power of Christian hope.”
- Pope Leo XIV, General Audience, Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Rev. Andy Alexander, SJ
Co-founder of Creighton’s Online Ministries, Retired 2025
I served at Creighton from 1996 to 2025. I served as Vice-president for Mission for three Presidents, directed the Collaborative Ministry Office and co-founded the Online Ministries website.
I loved seeing the number of faculty and staff who over the years really took up the mission as their own and made Creighton the Jesuit university it is today. I was also consoled to witness the website – a collaborative effort - touch the hearts of so many around the world.
I’m now living at St. Camillus – a Jesuit care facility in Milwaukee. Many of my days are spent dealing with my own health issues, as I carry out the mission we’ve been given, “to pray for the Church and the Society of Jesus.”
