As angels had hovered over Jesus’ cradle, they likewise attended His tomb. In the still of the night, they filled the skies of Bethlehem with the first Gloria in excelsis Deo, heralding the good news of Jesus’ birth. In the hushed silence of the garden tomb, they filled the hearts of three grieving women with joy brighter than the rising sun.
To Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome the wife of Zebedee, an angel announced that Jesus had risen from the dead. The tomb was empty. The Cross is a victory. Death and sin are not the last words.
Startled and half-believing, the women hurried to tell the apostles. Jesus had been raised up. He is no longer among the dead. This is the single most important fact of all history. Jesus is Lord. As Risen Lord who once called Peter to follow Him even to the Cross, He calls each of us.
The Easter message gives us strength to respond to His call. By His Resurrection, He gifts us with the Holy Spirit who enables us to face life’s bitter disappointments and even death itself. The widow standing at a fresh grave; the mother cradling her lifeless child, the handicapped, the victim of violence, war, and poverty, the lonely and the abandoned, the sick, the terminally ill, those burdened with sorrow: each of us filled with His Spirit, stands in wonder before the empty tomb. God has the last word. And it is life!
We look into the empty tomb and see the bright promise of our own bodily resurrection. We have already died with Christ in baptism and have risen with Him to new life in the Spirit (Romans 6:4-6). And, one day – and it is sure to come – the Father will raise us up bodily from our dusty graves to heaven’s glory. For those united to Christ Crucified and Risen, God will take every sorrow and turn it into sweetness. He will transform all grief into glory. And, even now, He makes the sunset of death itself give way to the dawning of eternal life.
