When we think of the experience of the Mother of Jesus, His friends, and followers during that first Holy Week, we can imagine the absolute devastation they must have felt.
Imagine thinking of a man whom they loved being abandoned and abused, a victim of those hell-bent on protecting their power, though, it must have seemed as if all the powers of darkness and evil had undone all that Jesus had said and done in his years of ministry.
But, after he was placed in the tomb and the dust settled, a new reality set in. He is gone. What happens next? What was left for them?
However, in the light of that first Easter morning, what had been lost was not only re-discovered, rather, it was transformed.
The darkness has disappeared and everything was changed as the light of the Risen Lord shone forth, like that cross in the charred remains of “Our Lady’s” church.
The light of the Easter morning was the dawn of a new era, of freedom for humanity and the fulfillment of promises.
The resurrection of Jesus was indeed a hidden event. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave to surprise his opponents, to make a victory statement, or to prove to those who crucified him that he was right.
Rather, Jesus rose as a sign to those who loved him and followed him that the divine love of God is stronger than death. And to those women and men who committed themselves to him, he revealed to them that his mission had been fulfilled.
But to those who took part in his ministry, he gave them the sacred task to call all people into the new life within him.
For those who are able to look with the eyes of faith, the promise of Easter spread out to all of life, even when it seems that darkness and death will prevail.
Easter is a definition of who we are as followers of Jesus, and confident about the new life offered to us by the Risen Savior.
“.Today is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!”
Have a reflection on your experiences during Lent and the renew your baptismal promises on Easter Sunday.
The fact is that, we pay more attention to dying than to death. We’re more concerned with getting over the act of dying than to overcome death.
As Socrates mastered the art of dying; Christ in the other hand, overcame death as the last enemy. And there is a real difference between the two things; the one is within the area of human possibilities, the other means resurrection.
This is not from ars moriendi , the art of dying, but from the resurrection of Christ, that a new and a purifying wind can blow in our present world. And we are to live in the light of resurrection, that is what Easter means.
