He is Risen!

It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb.  She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved.  "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb," she said, "and we don't know where they have put him."

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb.  They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.  Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.  Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed.  Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

                                                                The Gospel according to St. John, 20:1-9

 

When this perishable nature has put on imperishability, and when this mortal nature has put on immortality, then the words of scripture will come true:

'Death is swallowed up in victory.  Death, where is your victory?  Death, where is your sting?'

                                        St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 15:54-55

Easter
by Caryll Houselander

On Good Friday he lays hold of the cross with the hands of a lover, takes to his heart all that dire misery, ugliness, brutality, that is the result of sin; even that he transforms.  Suddenly, the age-long sorrow, death, becomes potent with life.  The seed has fallen into the earth, the great emptiness of the world's heart is filled with the potency of immortal love.

Easter is Christ risen in us; our life is the risen Christ.  Christ will flower in us, will bear fruit in us, will come to harvest in us.

Had he not risen in the flesh, but remained in the tomb, he would have been the prerogative of the devout few.  In every age the Magdalenes and the Johns of the world would have come with their precious ointment of love, but the Christian world would have been a world of weeping.  Because Christ is risen it is a world of joy, an unassailable kingdom of heaven in the midst of surrounding sorrow.

It is for the ordinary man, the creature of flesh and blood, that Christ has risen; for those who cannot look upon folded hands and still feet and listen to the silence of a heart no longer beating.

                                                     excerpt from This War is the Passion



"Do not be men and women of sadness: a Christian can never be sad!  Never give way to discouragement!"

                                                     from Pope Francis' Palm Sunday homily


"We are an Easter people and hallelujah is our song."

                                                                   St. Augustine

The glory of Easter, of the risen Christ, is too great to be contained in one single day.  Therefore, the Catholic Church celebrates a 50-day Easter season, ending on Pentecost Sunday, May 19th.

There is a customary greeting among Orthodox Christians during the Easter season: Christ is risen! with the second person responding, Truly, he is risen!

So, I wish each of you a happy and blessed Easter and this greeting, CHRIST IS RISEN!