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Bishop Silva's 2026 Easter Message

April 5, 2026

(Romolo Tavani / Shutterstock.com)

Jubilee of Jubilation!

Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, recently closed the Jubilee Year for Pilgrims of Hope, which was opened on Christmas Eve 2024 by Pope Francis. Pope Leo also declared this year, from Jan. 10, 2026, to Jan. 10, 2027, as the Jubilee of St. Francis of Assisi, because it marks the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis on Oct. 3, 1226.

On July 9, 2026, we in the Diocese of Honolulu will be officially opening a local Jubilee to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries in Hawaii. On July 7-9, 2027, we will have a grand celebration of this bicentennial. July 7 was the day the missionaries arrived in 1827, and July 9 is the feast day of Our Lady of Peace, the patroness of our diocese and of our Cathedral Basilica.

It seems that we are always rejoicing! The special Jubilees noted above only occur rarely, but our reason for rejoicing is with us always: the death and resurrection of Jesus!

Could anyone love us more than by laying down his life for us, dying so that we might be freed from sin? Could there be any greater reason for joy than the Resurrection of the Crucified Lord, freeing us from death itself? The Easter celebration, which lasts from the Great Vigil on Holy Saturday night until the solemnity of Pentecost, is the season of greatest joy and jubilation in our Church.

Unfortunately, such a great celebration does not erase the tragedies we experience in our personal lives and throughout the world: natural disasters; the death of a loved one; debilitating sickness; depression; homeless brothers and sisters; mass shootings; political fighting; wars. Whether on a personal level or a global level, these tragedies are still with us.

We are still called as disciples of the risen Lord Jesus to bring healing, justice and peace to the world in his name. And what is our greatest weapon against these tragedies? Joy and jubilation!

We who dare to call the Friday on which the Son of God was unjustly and cruelly put to death on a cross “Good Friday” know why it is good. It is the kind of self-sacrifice that leads to the resurrection from the dead. It is the kind of self-sacrifice that St. Francis embraced. It is the soul-changing and world-changing kind of sacrifice we are all called to make, so that there can be joy and jubilation in place of the dark cynicism of the world. It is the true antidote to the toxicity of sin and injustice.

No matter how we may feel; no matter what difficulties we are experiencing, we can only make real changes when we refuse to be pulled down into the mire of misery, and when we rise up in the midst of suffering, death and darkness, to live out our joy and jubilation. This is why Easter is so important to us and so important for all the world. It is the feast of love overcoming sin, forgiveness overcoming injustice, and life overcoming death. In the light of such great love, can we be anything but joyful?

Happy Easter to all as we celebrate this Jubilee of Jubilation!