Have you heard it? Have you seen it? Have you smelled it? Have you felt it? Almost as a surprise in the night, the birds are singing a new song; the ever-courageous tiny snowdrops are springing forth in our yards; the very soil under our feet perfumes the air we breathe with the unmistakable scent of promise, and the sunlight caresses our cheeks with a warm and gentle kiss. The time of rebirth and renewal has come. Hope is rekindled as the blanket of white slowly slips away.

Yet for far too many of our brothers and sisters across this globe who, a short twelve months ago, we’re enjoying life and living it as fully as possible, there is no spring, only the stillness of death. The pandemic has waged a relentless and merciless invasion into every corner of our world community, leaving in its wake an avalanche of broken hearts, broken dreams, and a collective sense of staggering loss and grief.

“Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavily laden, and I will refresh you,” whispers the quiet voice of God in Christ. To a people who have only begun to glimpse the utter devastation wrought by the overwhelming presence of fear, disease, and death in the fleeting moment of a single year, the voice of the faithful proclaiming God’s presence, God’s assurance of rebirth and renewal is needed now, perhaps more than any time since the Middle Ages. May we, as a global community of faiths, open our hearts to share love amidst the sorrow, share hope in the wreckage of human lives and livelihoods, and share peace arising from the gift of companionship where no child of God walks this journey alone.