Relief Society Easter Message

Posted bymdjasperPosted inUncategorized

President Gordon B. Hinckley once remarked on his gratitude that Easter is a day of celebration, and not sadness, for those who believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Though we may feel pain for what the Savior endured in the final days of His life (and for the trials He endured His entire mortal life, really), that pain is swallowed up when we allow the Spirit to testify to us of Christ’s greatest victory.

President Hinckley further said:

“Since the creation of man, no fact of life has been so certain as death with the close of mortality. When the last of life’s breath is drawn, there is a finality comparable to no other finality. When a father and mother lay the remains of a beloved child in the cold of the grave, there is grief almost inconsolable. When a husband buries the companion of his life, there is a loneliness that is poignant and unrelieved. When a wife closes the casket on the remains of her beloved husband, there are wounds that seem never to heal. When children are bereft of parents who loved and nurtured them, there is an abject destitution comparable to none other. Life is sacred, and death is somber. Life is buoyant and hopeful. Death is solemn and dark. It is awesome in its silence and certainty. Appropriately did Sir Walter Raleigh cry out, “O eloquent, just and mighty death” (in Alfred Noyes, Heath Readings in the Literature of England, 1927, p. 1132).

But death is not final. Though it seems so when its dark shroud overshadows mortal life, to those who accept the Christ and His eternal mission there is light and comfort, there is assurance, there is certainty. Of all the victories in human history, none is so great, none so universal in its effect, none so everlasting in its consequences as the victory of the crucified Lord who came forth in the Resurrection that first Easter morning.”

Elder Paul V. Johnson once shared the story of his daughter Alisa who died of cancer as a young wife and mother. In the midst of her treatment and relapses, she wrote, “Easter is a reminder of all that I hope for myself. That someday I will be healed and someday I will be whole.” Though Alisa knew there was only a slight chance she would survive her cancer, she testified, “But there is a cure, so I’m not scared. Jesus has already cured my cancer, and yours…I will be better.” Elder Johnson then elaborated, “The miracle of resurrection, the ultimate cure, is beyond the power of modern medicine. But it is not beyond the power of of God.” Please read that again. No matter what you or your family or our world is going through at the moment, it is under the watchful care of a loving Heavenly Father and Mother and it is covered by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. No pain is permanent.

When my baby was born almost a year ago, I remember feeling, along with a newfound level of joy, a newfound measure of fear. “What if something happens to him? What if he gets hurt? What if he dies?” I knew the answer was that he will get hurt, and one day, yes, he will die. I remember one day having the anxious thought, “Heavenly Father, why would you give us such a beautiful son to fall in love with if it’s going to hurt so much to watch him suffer in this life? What’s the point?” The answer I got from my loving Heavenly Parents, who know all too well the pain of watching a perfect Son suffer, was that even the worst pain I could imagine–even the pain of being separated by death–that pain was no match for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. That even in the midst of deep sorrow, we can still feel joy because of Jesus Christ. It is a paradox that is hard for me to grasp, but the Spirit tells me it is truer than anything I can imagine.

“Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection.
“And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them”

D&C 42:45–46

I testify that Our Heavenly Parents have it all under control. All that is over our heads is under Their feet. Their Son knows us perfectly and was the firstfruits of the Resurrection so that we can follow. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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