Easter Sunday, The Resurrection of The Lord
Easter of resurrection
On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. Jn 20,1-8
The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone on which the church is based. It is the certainty that he is alive. It is the event that gives value and light to the entire life and work of Jesus: the miracles, the parables, the sermon of the mountain. It is the Father who credits Jesus of Nazareth and points out in him the beginning of a new creation. By the resurrection also our death is won. It is the beginning of a life and of a new hope for the all of us. It is the beginning of a new social justice: to be rich or poor, healthy or sick, young or old, handsome or ugly is not important anymore. By the resurrection we are all wealthy, healthy, young and beautiful. It is since two thousand years that the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth runs all over the world, it is a wind of hope blowing on the whole history of the humanity. “We are not Christians because we believe in the death of Jesus – st. Augustine says – on that we all believe being it an historical fact. We are Christians because we believe in the resurrection”. To believe in the resurrection, it means to be reborn from the inside and this new life that throbs in us becomes the true and real testimony that Jesus is risen. To believe in the resurrection, it is the arrival of the Christian joy and to be witnesses of the resurrection it means to be witnesses of the joy. We, in the light of the facts, are – it’s true! – witnesses of the resurrection of Christ, but we are mostly witnesses of our resurrection. And the people will believe in his resurrection because they will become aware of our own. To believe in the resurrection, it gives meaning to our every morning meeting to pray and to meditate on the gospel. To believe in the resurrection, it means to grow old in serenity and joy, because the concept of the time is replaced by that of the eternity. To believe in the resurrection, it means to say that our loved ones who have believed before us, live and they are waiting for us in the “communion of the saints”. We do not care at all if the time goes, we are destined to the eternity.