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In the Gospel for the Easter Vigil, we see a few faithful women set out before dawn on Easter morning. The heaviness in their hearts was stifling. Who would roll away the stone so they could anoint the body of Jesus?
It looked like death, but really it was life! The sun was up; the Son was raised. That morning the beauty of the Son of Man, who was the Son of God, gradually came to life in the hearts of his followers. “Do not be alarmed,” the angel said. “You are looking for Jesus... He has been raised!” What joy! What peace!
Two millennia after the resurrection, how often do we, too, feel locked into temporal tragedies of death and despair? But, like those listening to Peter in today’s first reading, we know about the great event that took place. Like Mary Magdalene in the Gospel for Easter Sunday, when we are weeping beside our empty tombs of experience, we have only to listen to hear our name being called by the Lord and raise the eyes of our heart to behold the glory of Christ Jesus, the Risen One.
This Easter season, let each of us who have been raised with Christ through baptism remember that, though “it” might look like death, really it is life – by the power and purpose of God our Father. Alleluia!