Christ is risen. What joy to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. Easter is the greatest and the most important feast in the Church for three reasons: First of all: The resurrection of Christ is the basis of our Faith. It is the greatest of the miracles, for it proves that Jesus is God. That is why Saint Paul writes: If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and our faith is in vain. That is true: If Jesus did not raise we would not be here celebrating the Eucharist.
Can you imagine the New Testament without the Resurrection of Jesus? Without the Resurrection, Jesus would have remained forever a good person who met a tragic end. But thanks be to God, Jesus is risen, all the doctrines of Christianity are founded on the truth of the Resurrection. So, this is the core of the preaching of the apostles, because Jesus had prophesied His Resurrection as a sign of His divinity. We rejoice, we celebrate for the Resurrection of Jesus is a good News. It is a great news that needs to be shared.
The gospel tells us that Mary Magdalene and another Mary went to the tomb. But they found the empty tomb. Then the angel told them, He is not here. He is not in the tomb because He is raised. Overjoyed, they went to announce, to proclaim the good news of the resurrection to his disciples. So, the good news of the Resurrection changed the lives of the apostles. It gave them joy, hope and encouragement. The same thing we can say today, we have encountered the risen Christ in our lives, we have meet Jesus in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist. We have met Jesus in the Scripture. We have experienced God’s presence in our lives. And the truth of the Resurrection should transform and change.
First of all: Easter is a feast which gives us joyful message that we are Easter people. Christians, we should be happy people. This means that we are expected to live a joyful and peaceful life because Jesus defeated death and gave us the guarantee for our own resurrection. We are suppose to be joyful people because the Lord Jesus is alive. He is with us. His presence give us strength in the midst of suffering, pain and tensions of our day to day life. We need to remember Easter in our Good Fridays: Easter reminds us that every Good Friday in our lives will have an Easter Sunday, and that Jesus will let us share the power of his Resurrection.
Each time we display our love of others, we share in the Resurrection. Each time we face a betrayal of trust and, with God’s grace, forgive the betrayer, we share in the Resurrection of Jesus. Each time we fail in our attempts to ward off temptations – but keep on trying to overcome them – we share in the Resurrection. Each time we continue to hope – even when our hope seems unanswered – we share in the power of Jesus’ Resurrection. In short, the message of Easter is that nothing can destroy us – not pain, sin, rejection, betrayal or death–because Christ has conquered all these, and we, too, can conquer them if we put our Faith and trust in Him. We are to be bearers of the Good News of the Resurrection power. Resurrection is Good News, but at the same time, it’s sometimes painful because it involves death. Before the power of the Resurrection can take hold in our own lives, we’re called to die to sin, to die to self. We may even have to die to our own dreams, so that God can do what He wants to do with our lives.
Resurrection is about seeing our world in a new way. Early that Easter morning, Mary did not find what she was looking for, the dead body of Jesus. But she found something better than she could have imagined: the Risen Jesus. Sometimes, the things we think we want most are not granted to us. What we get instead is an experience of God’s new ways of working in the world. That’s the power of the Resurrection. When those moments come, we must spread the news–just as Mary did: We have seen the Lord!
