During our Easter Sunday service, I shared this quote, I have also seen it shared online. “No matter how dark your Friday, Sunday will always come…” It comes from a message given
by one of our previous Apostles in our church organisation, but has always been a meaningful perspective to me about the Easter series of events.

I think it is easy for those of us with religious affiliations to refer to and repeat the joyous message of Easter as a ‘catch all’ for any issue or problem. However, behind this routine celebration I have become far too aware of those who do not feel so associated to God or Christ. This may include concerns relating to doctrine, injustice, loss or grief of any kind – the list is sadly long. This though, is why I appreciate this quote. I think many of us are still stuck in our ‘Fridays’, or even our ‘Thursdays’ when we consider the agonising suffering experienced in isolation by Christ in the Garden.

For me it is really important to acknowledge this. If we try to rush our own suffering, or the suffering of others we risk insensitively devaluing the experiences of the individual. I believe that what Christ suffered prior to his Resurrection mattered and it should not be skipped over. Likewise, we all must and should be kinder to each other and to ourselves as we navigate the darker moments of our lives.

The message of Easter that has come to mean something more to me this year is that the pattern of those events gives us reason to hope for something better, something different and often unexpected. I do not know when my (or another’s) dark moments are due to end but I try to hope for a better day. In that spirit, I sincerely wish everyone a (belated) Happy Easter.

Whatever path you find yourself on, I believe you and your experiences matter. I hope we can all come to value our differences in opinion and choice as much as we value our personal way
of thinking.

Here is a longer quote from the talk referenced:

“Each of us will have our own Fridays – those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken
times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death – Sunday will come. In the darkness
of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.”

‘Sunday Will Come’, (Joseph B. Wirthlin; General Conference, October 2006)

J Patel
Bishop at The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints