Cardinal Bo at Easter Vigil: Rejoice for God accompanies our agony

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

"Beneath the ashes of war, displacement, devastating natural disasters and grief, we declare a bold truth that echoes from the empty tomb: “The stone has been rolled away.
The Lord is risen. And hope is alive!”

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon and President of Myanmar's episcopal conference, expressed this in his homily for the Easter Vigil.

"Happy Easter to us. This is a great day of Hope, a great day for healing," Myanmar's Cardinal insisted, "In this Jubilee Year of Hope," he said, "we gather not as strangers to sorrow, but as a people baptized in suffering, yet born anew in the fire of resurrection." 

According to current figures, the death toll from the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28 has reached 3,726, with over 5,105 injured and 129 still missing. Recovery efforts are severely hampered by continuous aftershocks and a lack of essential resources, leaving many areas without basic services such as clean water, electricity, and healthcare, and compounding the other crises affecting the suffering country.

At the same time, Cardinal Bo, with faith, rejoices, and reminds how God sees, hears, and is present with His people.

God accompanies our agony

"From the burning bush to the blood-stained Cross," he said, "Scripture tells us one powerful truth: our God does not look away. He hears the cry of the poor. He knows the agony of the oppressed. He sees every tear that falls on Myanmar’s wounded soil.

God, he highlighted, accompanies the suffering people in their quest for liberation.

"God is not seated far above the pain of the people. He is not a distant deity behind a veil of indifference. No," he underscored, stating, instead "He is the God who descends into the fire, into the sorrow, into the camps and the human conflicts and brings liberation and peace."

Dreaming again for our children and nation

The Cardinal also reminded his suffering people that Christ is beside them and "enters into their wounds."

He reminded that this year, Easter and the Myanmar new year come in the same week.

The convergence of Easter and the New Year is "no mere coincidence," but "a divine invitation to begin again," "to plant seeds of peace in soil that has known too much pain," and "to dream again for our children, our neighbors, our nation."

A holy beginning

"Let us rise," he encouraged, "not just as individuals but as a people—with hands ready to rebuild, hearts open to forgive, and eyes fixed on the rising sun of justice and healing."

If the stone was rolled away from the tomb, Cardinal Bo reasoned, "then surely all the oppressive and enslaving stones can also be rolled away from the
soul of our land."

Therefore, Cardinal Bo prayed, "Let Easter in Myanmar 2025 be not just a holy day but a holy beginning."

"Let it be said of the Myanmar people: they stood together when everything shook, and they rose—stronger, gentler, more united in compassion —because they believed that love is stronger than death, and hope is never in vain."