KUCHING, March 31 — Christians congregated at churches here to observe Easter today.

Easter is a day commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and marks the end of the Holy Week, the conclusion of Lent, the last day of the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday), and the beginning of the Easter season of the liturgical year.

At St Joseph’s Cathedral here, congregants gathered as early as 6am to attend the English-language mass which began at 7am, led by Fr Stanley Goh.

In his sermon, he said that Christians need to have a personal celebration on Christ’s resurrection and spread the Easter message and joy to others.

"We sing about the Lord rising from the dead, destroying death and giving us life — but what do we want to say to Jesus? What is our reaction, what do we feel as we hear about this? What goes on in our minds and hearts as we, along with Peter and the other disciples consider the reality of the risen Lord in our lives?

"How has the past days of the Triduum help us to build this anticipation in encountering the Lord?

"Today is the day of all days — today is the day when the Lord rose from the dead; that has to mean something to us. That’s why we’re all here,” he said.

The Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia masses, which began at 9am and 11am respectively, held a Rite of Initiation to welcome new members of the Catholic church.

At St Thomas Cathedral at Jalan McDougall here, Bishop of the Anglican Church in Sarawak and Brunei, the Right Reverend Datuk Danald Jute, addressed the congregation with the parishioners listening attentively to the narration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

"Our Lord is not dead, he is alive — and we have this great hope in Him, and because of Him, and together with millions of Christians around the globe; we say praise to be God, hallelujah indeed.

"The resurrection of our Lord Jesus is one and the same event with what happened on Friday — when we ponder upon the cross, we see the Lord bleeding for us and cried out: ‘It is finished’ — he died for our sins again. If He, the Lord Jesus who died on the cross, is not raised from the dead — if he remained in the tomb, his death would mean nothing.

"And so, it is central to our faith that we hold firmly to this belief — the truth that Jesus is risen indeed,” Danald said in his sermon. — The Borneo Post