No, Easter does not banish tragedy and suffering; it does not signal the end of all our striving, the drying of our tears. Instead it takes us and shows us deep down into the heart of things where Christ is working his endless work of love. It shows us the triumph, the resurrection, that is laid in store for us beyond tragedy. On this day of waiting, the day after the struggle is over, this day of brimming regret a sudden stillness falls on the battlefield, for an instant the smoke clears. We catch sight of the high eternal hills; then the urgent thrill of a trumpet call, and there is Christ going before us, walking on broken feet into the everlasting kingdom.

This death and its strange and glorious sequel do not banish tragedy. The world still suffers and grieves and regrets. But know that another thing is happening and this same tragedy, like Christ’s wounds, is being transformed into a glory that gives a meaning beyond all our meanings in a time beyond all the time we know.

So this is one moment, but we also know another, yet now another, for it is the same moment in its truer meaning. That moment is the moment of the Resurrection, which is the meaning of the death of Jesus from the side of God’s purpose.

A New Heaven p.83 – by Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh, which book, published in 1978, I have read again each Easter Triduum for the past 30 years, and which never fails to move me.