This opinion piece by Bishop Hughes was published by The Record on April 3, 2026.
The Easter miracle is the center of Christian hope. After Jesus’ horrific and shameful death on the cross, his followers faced a devastating loss. Though filled with despair, two of his followers, Mary and Mary Magdalene, went to the tomb with a tempered and reasonable hope: to make sure that his burial was properly observed. Instead, they saw and heard that the impossible had become possible. Jesus lived. God had provided more than humankind could ask or imagine.
Our current moment in history is fraught. Fear and uncertainty stalk people, institutions and governments across the globe. Individuals disappear and whole communities are destroyed in an instant. Yet even those with the power to control these outcomes, and their supporters, seem to be adrift in a sea of discontent. It is natural to wonder who will stand firmly with hope for the good of all.
Like the women at the tomb, we are stunned when God makes the impossible possible. Resurrection was unthinkable, unimaginable, impossible to explain — no one could have thought to hope for it. For us, a restoration of peace and mutual respect may seem impossible to hope for, and yet God reminds us of the miraculous in Scripture and in our own lives.
The Book of Exodus tells the story of the Hebrew people in captivity, and of the reluctant prophet, Moses, called and prepared by God to demand that Pharaoh let God’s people go. When we study Exodus in our churches, we often sing the spiritual, “Go down, Moses, way down to Egypt’s land. Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go.” The strong rhythmic melody and descriptive lyrics evoke the memory of Blessed Harriet Tubman, a saint of the Episcopal Church. Tubman earned the nickname “Moses” as she safely delivered hundreds of enslaved people from degradation and danger to freedom and new life via the Underground Railroad — the impossible made possible in ancient Egypt and in American history.
The New Testament records abundant accounts of Jesus bringing miraculous healing and transformation. Crowds followed him because they needed help, and his compassion for them was profuse and powerful. We who have experienced the compassionate love of Christ are called to be compassionate to all of God’s people, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity or faith tradition.
How do we experience faith and meaning in New Jersey?
Across New Jersey, the rich diversity of faith traditions is lived out in houses of worship seeking to serve God’s people in their particular way. Hunger has been intolerable to many of us. To be without adequate food forces people to make desperate decisions fueled by limited incomes. Members of these faith traditions offer much-needed food through food pantries, meal programs and community gardens. They provide plentiful hope through empathetic listening, connection to social services, and the offer of prayer. Every bag of groceries, every meal served and every warm welcome is a message of hope for the possible in impossible situations. It is resurrection hope that calls us to work to end food insecurity by supporting affordable housing, living wages and access to high-quality education.
Resurrection hope transcends what we see and propels us to act in the way our Risen Savior guides us. “Feed my sheep.” “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” “Pray for your enemies.” These and countless other instructions guide the faithful to keep our neighbors safe — especially those hunted like prey. The tenets of our faith call us to stand with all treated in dehumanizing ways, including the racially profiled, the undocumented, the asylum seekers, the immigrants, the citizenship applicants, the detained.
Upholding dignity and justice is embedded in the United States Constitution and in our rule of law. But a backward look across 250 years yields a pattern of harsh backlash after a movement toward upholding diversity, equality and justice for all. For those celebrating Easter, a look further back — to the time when Jesus lived, taught, healed and transformed life for all — yields a relentless desire to see and hear humankind the way Jesus did. We cannot help but live into resurrection hope because our faith shapes us to respond with the love and compassion that Jesus freely gave to all people. No one is left out, and no one is forgotten.
In these times, it is understandable to wonder where God is now. Holding on to hope is hard. But hope is not ours to manufacture or create; like faith, hope is a gift from God, the source of all goodness. Thankfully, the Creator of all that lives — including you, me, the powerful and the powerless — is not limited by our human imaginations.
The three Abrahamic faiths — Judaism, Islam and Christianity — celebrate our holiest days close to one another, sometimes overlapping. Thousands of years ago, God promised Abraham more descendants than he could count — an impossible promise for an elderly couple. As Abraham’s wife, Sarah, laughed, God responded, “Is anything to impossible for the Lord?” This year, some 6 billion members of the Abrahamic faiths are celebrating their Holy Days. We descendants of Abraham’s faith carry hope to a world full of impossible challenges.
For those celebrating Easter, we expect the impossible to become possible. Resurrection hope is our faith in action. We celebrate it at Easter and live it every day.
The Right Rev. Carlye J. Hughes has served as the 11th bishop of Newark since 2018. The Diocese of Newark is the Episcopal Church in North Jersey, with congregations in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.
