Easter Sunday - The Resurrection of the Lord 2019

Recently an aged friar in the Province had to be moved to a nursing home. I remember going to his old room in the priory to get some of his belongings to take to him. I was struck with how different the room seemed without him. Even though the room had furniture, clothes, and personal items, without the presence of the friar, it seemed so empty. There was a noticeable void. No body, no voice to greet me, no smile. Just inanimate objects filling space.

I think of this emptiness when I imagine Peter and John looking into the tomb on that Easter morning. The burial cloths were there, but there was no body there. The crushed body of Jesus was gone. They were struck by the void, the emptiness, and did not understand. How could they?

Yet this empty tomb was the first evidence of the resurrection, of new life. From emptiness, death, a void, there came new life, in a way no one could have expected or imagined.

A classic definition of evil is the absence of the good. As darkness is the absence of light, evil is nothingness, merely a void. That must have been the sense of Peter and John looking into the tomb in the early morning. But even then, light was beginning to enter the emptiness of the tomb. As light enters the dark church with the Paschal Candle at the Easter Vigil, light entered the darkness of the empty tomb on the first Easter morning. “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!”

From the void of sin, suffering, isolation, despair, even death, Easter is the promise of new life. Through the power and love of God, light has conquered the darkness. Sin, death, ignorance, despair, and emptiness are not the final reality in the kingdom of God. They are replaced by hope, life, love, truth, and fullness of life.

Easter is such an amazing mystery, it cannot be fully appreciated in one day. That’s why the church gives us a whole season of 50 days to reflect on the Resurrection. We will never fully comprehend it until we experience eternal life in Christ.

Today we joyfully sing with the universal church: “Jesus Christ is Risen Today! Alleluia!”