‘Easter asks more of us’: Bishop Niall Coll’s call to embrace the Resurrection

Bishop Niall Coll has spoken of the importance of the Resurrection and the power of Baptism.

The St Johnston native, presiding over his first Easter Vigil Mass since his installation as the Bishop of Raphoe in January, told a packed St Eunan’s Cathedral that the Christian faith is a faith in the Risen Christ - “nothing less”.

Eight people were baptised during Saturday night’s service, while others either received the sacrament of Confirmation or were formally received into the Catholic Church. The hundreds in the pews also renewed their baptismal promises on the night.

During what he described as a “beautiful and elaborate liturgy”, running close to three hours, Bishop Coll reflected on Ireland’s long-standing spiritual tradition.

“Perhaps we Irish, shaped by a long history of hardship and persecution, have always had a deep love for the passion, the suffering and death of Jesus,” Bishop Coll said. 

“The Stations of the Cross, Lent, Good Friday, fasting and penance. These have touched our hearts for generations, and rightly so, but Easter asks more of us. Thus, I ask, do we give the same weight to the resurrection? Do we really grasp its significance? Not just for the next life, but for this one.

“If we lose sight of the resurrection and its importance, Jesus slowly becomes just another figure from history; admired perhaps, but distant. 

“Once that happens, it's only a short step towards a simple belief in God alone. Something we see, for example, in Islam's clear emphasis on the one God without the mystery of the risen Christ, but the gospel does not allow that.”

The Easter Gospel, he said, was “striking in its simplicity” and added: “From the beginning, the resurrection is not an abstract idea. It is a witness, a message carried, a life transformed. And in our own time, we know how much that type of hope is needed.

"As war and suffering continue throughout the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere, with so many lives broken and families displaced, the message of Easter speaks with a new urgency. Death and violence do not have the final word. 

“As Pope Leo has recently reminded the Church, the resurrection is not only something we believe, but a reality we are called to live, bringing hope into a wounded world.”

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He turned to those being baptised and confirmed as part of the liturgy.

Bishop Coll said: “Even though the form of celebration has changed across the centuries - total immersion in our northern climate would lead to pneumonia - its meaning has not. Baptism is new life in Christ. That is why Pope John Paul II could say that the most important day of his life was the day he was baptised.”