Archbishop Ziyaye preaches love on Easter Sunday: Pope delivers plea for peace

Archbishop Tarcisius Ziyaye of the Catholic Lilongwe Archdiocese, has offered a message of love and hope  on Easter Sunday, urging  the faithful to pray and love one another, saying if everyone in this country stood steadfast by the principle of the common good Malawi would have been a far much better place.

His Grace Ziyaye said during the Easter Sunday mass at Maula Cathedral in the capital Lilongwe for which he was main celebrant.

According to Ziyaye, “even corruption” would not have existed “in this country” if Malawians always meant well.

He said the resurrection of Jesus Christ should bring about hope in the faithful because it is the whole bedrock of Christian faith.

“We celebrate today the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a great mystery, and should stiffen our faith and make us hope that we too have a chance to eternal life,” said the Archbishop.

Quoting the Holy Bible in the book  of 1 Corinthians 15:14 he said, “if Christ had not risen, then our preaching would be in vain and our faith too in vain.”

Ziyaye then took  time to thank the faithful for their unity, and diligence in helping further expand the Church of God.

Speaking earlier, parish for the cathedral, Father Aloysius Kupinga, thanked Ziyaye for taking time of his busy schedule to be with them.

Kupinga said the members should offer the Bishop of their total support in whatever circumstance.

“It may not just mean material support. Any support that we can manage to give to you in our capacity we are ready to come in and help,” said Kupinga.

Christians across the world celebrated Easter which began with the Holy Thursday last Thursday, Good Friday on Friday, Easter Vigil on Saturday and Easter Sunday.

It is a commemoration of the passions of Christ and his resurrection.

And Ziyaye said much as Christmas—the commemoration of the birth of Jesus—is celebrated more, Easter was more important.

“By dying he destroyed death, and by rising he restored our lives,” said Ziyaye, quoting a Catholic acclamation said during Holy Mass.

In Vatican,  Pope Francis addressing  80,000 pilgrims in St Peter’s Square , called for “reconciliation” in the Middle East and an end to the “carnage” in Syria.

The Holy Father said the resurrection of Jesus offered hope in a world “marked by so many acts of injustice and violence,” including parts of Africa affected by “hunger, endemic conflicts and terrorism”.

His Holiness in his “Urbi et Orbi” message (“to the city and the world”) also asked God to heal the wounds in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and urged dialogue on the Korean peninsula.

Pope Francis, 81, recited the biblical parallel of the grain of wheat that must die in order to bear fruit as an example of focusing on the long term. “It is the power of the grain of wheat, the power of that which humbles itself and gives of itself until the very end, and in that way renews the world,” Francis said.

The Pontiff, regarded as  the moral compass for Christians, began the Easter Sunday celebrations by tweeting: “Our faith is born on Easter morning: Jesus is alive!

“This experience is at the heart of the Christian message.”

Elsewhere, hundreds of Christians marked Easter by flocking to Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where they believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

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