Christian faith can turn crucifixions into resurrections, Calvary-like suffering into the rolled-away stones of Easter morning.

Against beliefs in extinction of self at bodily death or loss of identity in reincarnation stands the truly human-friendly hope celebrated by Easter faith: a personal, immortal reintegration of body, soul and spirit for which Jesus Christ’s Resurrection is the prototype.

Hope beckons to a death-bound human race from the open doorway of Christ's empty tomb.

The deformity of Christ forms you. If he had not willed to be deformed, you would not have recovered the form which you had lost. Therefore he was deformed when he hung on the cross. But his deformity is our comeliness. In this life, therefore, let us hold fast to the deformed Christ.

If human hearts allowed God to rule as He rules the universe, His kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Embrace the pain in life's struggles, but let go of them when they're over.