After a 40-day period dedicated to fasting, self-denial, and prayer, Christians begin a new phase in their calendar: a 50-day celebration of Christ’s resurrection, which ends on Pentecost Sunday.

It is deliberate that the celebration of Easter lasts longer than that of Lent. And now, at a time of suffering in which hope is more difficult than usual to maintain, it is a good moment to keep that lesson in mind. For all the pain and loss that the world’s peoples are enduring, a brighter future awaits.