Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday 

            While the men were sleeping, women went to Jesus’s tomb. Women are always more on top of things. They didn’t have time to finish anointing Jesus’s body on Friday night. They waited till Sunday, because on Saturday it was forbidden to work. We must be like them, awake, here on the most important day of the year, waiting for Jesus to rise from the dead. We believe that he is going to rise, because he does so every year. We are celebrating his resurrection. The women’s love and generosity made them first to come to the tomb. Not their personal qualities or talents, but their feminine genius. If you love God and you are generous with Him, you’ll be first too.

            The apostles must have asked these women where they were going at this early hour of the morning. They answered: “To anoint Jesus’s body.” The apostles must have pointed out the obstacles, with clear male logic: “Don’t you realise that there are soldiers guarding the tomb? And there’s a big stone covering the tomb. Who is going to move it? Are you going to bribe the guards?” The women answered as a matter of fact: “We don’t know, but we are going.” God likes us to go ahead in spite of the difficulties. If we do our best God will help us. We shouldn’t leave everything to God. If you are praying to win the lottery, you need to buy a ticket.

            These women were real apostles, meaning emissaries, the ones who are sent off, the first ones to find out that Jesus had risen. Mary Magdalene ran to tell the apostles about Jesus’ resurrection. That is why we call her the apostle of apostles. We Christians are also apostles by our Baptism. We need to show with our lives that we believe that we are witnesses to his resurrection. Some angels told them that he had risen: “He is not here for he has risen.” Angel means messenger. We forget that we have a guardian angel. Many things that happen in our lives, near misses, great ideas, remembering things, come from our guardian angels.

            The resurrection of Jesus is very important for our faith, crucial. That is why atheists try to deny the resurrection. Saint Paul says: “If Christ had not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” If Christ didn't rise from the dead he would have been a nice guy but not the Son of God. That is why Easter is so important. That is why we celebrate the day of the Lord on Sundays. He has risen and he is walking with us. The spiritual life is being aware of his presence. The devil thought that killing Jesus was going to finish everything. Imagine his surprise at Jesus’ resurrection, his frustration. At the same moment when he thought he had won, he lost everything. These are the best movie endings, when what the baddie does thinking it is the best, actually is the cause of his destruction. Like “The Lord of the Rings”, when Frodo at the crucial moment cannot bring himself to throw the ring into the fire of Moria, and Gollum comes to his rescue without realizing it, by biting off his finger and falling down into the molten lava. Only God can bring good out of evil. Only man can bring evil out of goodness.

            Tradition says that Jesus appeared first to his Mother. It was so obvious that the Gospels don’t talk about it. You can imagine the embrace of mother and son without words. A long embrace. It is all over, like a happy ending of an action movie.

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