The angel’s actions also mean that we will walk out of our graves.  The stone sealed human beings in the grave, but after rolling it away, the angel sat on the stone, symbolizing that death is conquered and cannot any longer hold humanity captive to the grave.  Our destiny is now the heights of heaven.

That’s what God thinks of human life, and that’s why we work to end abortion, euthanasia, and every other form of violence.  Ultimately, abortion is a denial of Christ’s Resurrection, but our Easter faith impels us to extend the victory of life.

Now that the Easter Season is upon us, let us take time to reflect on the extraordinary and undeserved gift we have received through Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection — our sins have been forgiven and we are now sharers of eternal life with Christ. The second reading from the Easter Sunday Mass says that we too have been raised to life with Christ (Colossians 3:1).

Even though we celebrate Easter once a year, it is not intended to be a once a year event in our lives. We should continually reflect on Jesus’ resurrection, and experience more deeply our own risen life in Christ on an ongoing basis. Just think, because of what Jesus Christ accomplished through his passion, death, and resurrection, our Heavenly Father has “delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

He Has Risen, Alleluia! The first part of the title for this article: “He Has Risen” comes from Matthew 28:6, when the angel said to the women at the empty tomb the following words:

He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. (Matthew 28:6)

The centrality of the resurrection of Christ forms the whole basis of our faith. Listen to howSt. Paulstates this in Romans 10:9:

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

And St. Paul goes even further in stressing the importance of this truth in 1 Corinthians 15:14

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. (1 Corinthians 15:14)

We Have Risen With Him, Alleluia! The second part of the title: “We Have Risen With Him” comes from Colossians 2:12 and 3:1-4.

You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. Colossians 2:12

You have been raised to life with Christ, Set your heart then on things that are in heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Let your thoughts dwell on things there, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life lies hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ, and when he appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)

This important truth is also expressed in other Scriptures as well:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.

(2 Corinthians 5:17)

If we really believe in our hearts what we profess with our lips, then not only has Christ died and been raised to life for us, but we too have been crucified with him. In Christ, we have died and have been buried, and on the third day we too have been raised to life again in him. How do we know this? Isn’t this what these Scriptures tell us?

Obstacles to Living out the Truths of Our Faith: Because we are fallen human beings, living out these truths is still a work in progress. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says it this way:

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The Lord desires to transform each one of us into his image and likeness, so we can live out the new life he won for us. Unfortunately, we are sinners and so we all have obstacles that can get in the way of doing this, including:

• Past hurts, wounds, memories, disappointments
• Our fallen nature, e.g.,
• Impatience, anger, intolerance
• Wanting to be in control
• Judgmentalism, negativity, critical spirit
• Self-reliance, independence, isolation
• Self-centeredness, self-love, selfishness
• Balancing family, work, and service to the Lord
• Health issues
• Etc., Etc., Etc.

Promises of God: Yet in spite of these obstacles, we have these wonderful promises of God.

And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5,6)

Overcoming Obstacles: What are some ways to overcome these obstacles?

• Believe in and surrender to God’s love for you.
• Rely on the truths of who you are in Christ, not the lies of the evil one or your flesh.
• Remember the promises of God as you come before the Lord in prayer each day and during the day
• Believe that God can and desires to heal you
• Believe in the power of prayer.
• Frequent partaking of the graces that flow from the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation

No matter where we are right now in our walk with the Lord. No matter what issues we have in our life:

• Christ’s victory over sin and death is our victory.
• Christ’s risen life is always available to us
• Jesus is true to his name. Jesus is “Immanuel”: God with us.
• Jesus will never leave us or forsake us.

Let’s ask the Lord for the grace to live out these Easter truths everyday of our lives. He Has Risen, Alleluia! We Have Risen With Him, Alleluia!

Dear Lord, during this grace-filled Easter season, I ask you to continue to deepen the experience of your risen life in me, so I can bear witness to it to others.

Questions for Reflection/Discussion by Catholic Men

1. Take some time to meditate and reflect on the Scriptures in the article. What do you believe the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to you through these Scriptures?

2. Why is the resurrection of Jesus Christ so central to our faith?

3. How frequently do you reflect on the fact that Jesus Christ is risen and you are risen with him? What steps can you take to do it more often?

4. We all have obstacles that keep us from living the risen life, the new life in Christ. How would you describe the obstacles you have?

5. The article lists several ways to help us overcome these obstacles. Which of these are you using in your life right now?

6. What additional steps can you take to overcome any obstacles in your life?

7. Take some time now to pray that you would experience more deeply the transforming power of the risen life of Christ during this Easter Season. Use the prayer at the end of the article as a starting point.

The serpent’s bite was a deadly one.  The venom had worked its way deep into the heart of the entire human race, doing its gruesome work.  The anti-venom was unavailable until He appeared.  One drop was all that was needed, so potent was this antidote.  Yet it was not like Him to be stingy.  He poured out all he had, down to the last drop.  The sacrifice of His entire life, poured out at the foot of the cross – This was the Son’s answer to the Problem of Sin.

Three days later came the Father’s answer to the Problem of Death.  It was equally extravagant.  For Jesus was not simply brought back to life like Lazarus.  That would be resuscitation, the return to normal, human life, with all its limitations.  Including death.  Yes Lazarus ultimately had to go through it all again . . . the dying, the grieving family, the burial.  Jesus did not “come back.”  He passed over, passed through.  His resurrection meant that he would no longer be subject to death.  Death, as St. Paul said, would have no more power over him.

You may say that physical death was not the worst consequence of sin, and you’d be right.  Separation from God, spiritual death, is much more fearsome.  But enough with the talk that physical death is beautiful and natural.  It is not.  Our bodies are not motor vehicles driven around by our souls.  We do not junk them when they wear out and buy another one (that’s one  problem with the reincarnation idea).  Rather, are bodies are an essential dimension of who we are.  Our bodies and immortal souls are intimately intertwined, which makes us so different from both angels and animals.  Therefore death separates what God has joined.  So it is natural that we rebel against it and shudder before it.  Even the God-man trembled in the Garden.

So Jesus confronts death head on, for our sake.  The Roman Easter sequence, a traditional poem/song stretching back into the first millennium, highlights the drama: “Mors et vitae duello, conflixere mirando.  Dux vitae mortuus regnat vivus.” (“Death and life dueled in a marvelous conflict; the Dead Ruler of Life reigns Alive!”)  Gandalf the Grey who sacrificed himself to take out the Balrog, returns as Gandalf the White (Tolkein heard this sung for many Easters before he wrote The Lord of the Rings).

“He descended into Hell” of the Apostle’s Creed means that Jesus endured the wrenching of body and soul for our sakes and came out the other side endowed with a new, different, glorified humanity.  How does the Bible describe it?  Well, Mary Magdalene did not recognize the Risen Christ at first, until He called her by name.  The disciples on the road to Emmaus didn’t recognize him either.  But doubting Thomas shows us that his wounds were still evident.  And though he could pass through locked doors, he proved he was not a ghost by asking for something to eat.  Paul describes it as a “spiritual body” in I Corinthians 15, which sounds like an oxymoron to me.  But we have to take off our shoes here, realize that we are on holy ground, and that we do not have words adequate to describe the awesome reality of the new humanity he has won for us.

For resurrection is not something that He intends to keep for Himself.  All that He has he shares with us: His Father, His mother, His Spirit, His body, blood, soul, and divinity, and even His risen life.  And we can begin to share in this Life now, experiencing its regenerating power in our souls and even in our bodies.  We have access to it in many wonderful ways, but especially in the Eucharist.  For the body of Christ that we receive is his Risen, glorified body, given to us so that we too might live forever (read John 6:40-65).

Each of us will have to pass through physical death, but not alone.  He will be with us, just as the Father was with Him as He made his perilous passage.  And while we will experience indescribable joy when our souls “see” him face to face, this is not the end of the story.  He will return.  And the resurrection will have its final and ultimate impact.  Joy will be increased still further when he makes our bodies like his own, in glory.  “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen!”

Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio writes from Texas.  For his resources or his pilgrimages to Rome and the Holy Land, visit www.crossroadsinitiative.com or call 1.800.803.0118.

This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor as a reflection on the scripture readings for the various masses of Easter and is reproduced here by permission of the author.

In this prophetic and symbolic act, Ravasi writes, Jesus draws a sharp contrast between a religion of superficiality and self-absorption and a pure faith, centered on his person. God can no longer be present in a Temple that has ceased to be a place of encounter, the “meeting tent” of the ancient Hebrews; that Temple, however magnificently constructed, had become a place of superstition and self-interest. In cleansing the Temple, Jesus is declaring that God is now present to his people in a new and perfect way and in a new “meeting tent”: the incarnate Son, “the Word … made flesh” who dwells among us, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He, Jesus, is the new Temple, and to recognize that and live in this new mode of the divine Presence one must “remember,” as St. John writes at the end of the Temple-cleansing story (2:22).

And remember what? Remember Easter. Remember the Resurrection. Through the prism of that extraordinary event that changed both history and nature, everything comes into clearer focus. Only a mature, paschal faith—an Easter faith—can perceive who Jesus is, understand what Jesus taught, and grasp what Jesus has accomplished by his obedience to the Father. Only in the power of this paschal “memory,” Cardinal Ravasi concludes, can we recognize that Jesus is the Christ, the Holy One of God.

Easter faith—the faith which proclaims that “he … rose again on the third day”—is not one article of Christian conviction among others. As St. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 15, Easter faith is that conviction on which the entire edifice of Christianity is built. Without Easter, nothing makes sense and Jesus is a false prophet, even a maniac. With Easter, all that has been obscure about his life, his teaching, his works and his fate becomes radiantly clear: this Risen One is the “first-born among many brethren” (Rom 8:29); he is the new Temple (Rev 21:22); and by embracing him we enter the dwelling place of God among us (Rev 21:3).

In the Gospel readings of the Easter Octave, the Church annually remembers the utterly unprecedented nature of the paschal event, and how it exploded expectations of what God’s decisive action in history would be. No one gets it, at first; for what has happened bursts the previous limits of human understanding. The women at the empty tomb don’t understand, and neither do Peter and John. The disciples on the road to Emmaus do not understand until they encounter the Risen One in the Eucharist, the great gift of paschal life, offered by the new Temple, the divine Presence, himself. At one encounter with the Risen Lord, the Eleven think they’re seeing a ghost; later, up along the Sea of Galilee, it takes awhile for Peter and John to recognize that “It is the Lord!” (John 21:7).  These serial episodes of incomprehension, carefully recorded by the early Church, testify to the shattering character of Easter, which changed everything: the first disciples’ understanding of history, of life-beyond-death, of worship and its  relationship to time (thus Sunday, the day of Easter, becomes the Sabbath of the New Covenant).

Easter also changed the first disciples’ understanding of themselves and their responsibilities. They were the privileged ones who must keep alive the memory of Easter: in their preaching, in their baptizing and breaking of bread, and ultimately in the new Scriptures they wrote. They were the ones who must take the Gospel of the Risen One to “all nations,” in the sure knowledge that he would be with them always (Matt 28:19-20).

They were to “be transformed” (Rom 12:2). So are we.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. 

What Happened to Mary at the Tomb?

If we look at the scriptural accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, we can see that a group of women led by Mary Magdalene brought spices to anoint Jesus’ body. Why would they do this if they believed Jesus’ promise that he would rise again? They must have been convinced that he was dead. In essence, they allowed good human logic to replace faith in Jesus’ promises. But then, just as they were wondering how to roll away the stone that covered his tomb, they found that it had already been moved for them. They must have wondered what happened. They must have been puzzled as to why the guards had abandoned their post as well.

Even more disturbing than the missing guards and the rolled-away stone was the fact that Jesus’ body was missing. Still assuming that he was dead, they wondered whether someone had taken his body, perhaps as a hoax or worse, to defile it in some way. That’s when two angels appeared, dressed in pure white robes. “Why do you seek the living one among the dead?” They asked. “He is not here, but he has been raised” (Luke 24:5-6).

Any doubts that Mary and the other women might have had were erased once the angels spoke to them. Any worries about where the body was or about what had just happened were removed. Their faith returned, and it even increased! They realized that Jesus had overcome even death itself. He did what he promised to do, and they were filled with amazement. Does the reality of Jesus’ resurrection fill you with joy and amazement? It really should!

Take a Second Look

What happened to Mary before she saw the angel can happen to us as well. We too can doubt Jesus. We too can be fooled by the philosophies of the world. We too can fall into the trap of making human logic the primary basis for our faith. But if we do this, we will end up minimizing Easter, seeing it as a good event but not giving it the highest place in our hearts. We will never find the living God among the “dead” ways of this world. We will find him only as we seek him in faith, only as we knock on his door and ask him to open to us.

While there are many similarities between John’s account of the resurrection and the three other Gospels, one difference is that according to John, Mary actually met Jesus before she went to tell Peter and the others about the empty tomb. At first, Mary didn’t recognize Jesus. It sounds incredible, doesn’t it? How could she not know him? She knew what he looked like and how his voice sounded. She had spent a lot of time with him, so she would have known his mannerisms. Still, Mary looked right at Jesus but couldn’t tell who he was. Is it possible that this happened because Mary was too convinced that Jesus was dead to believe otherwise, even when he was standing right in front of her?

Whatever the reason, Mary did recognize Jesus when he called her by name. It was in her second look that she finally saw him for who he is. Sometimes this is just what we need—a second look. Sometimes our first look doesn’t go far enough. Sometimes logic or fear or worry or doubt get in the way and keep us from looking deeper. Sometimes these distractions keep us from simply throwing ourselves into prayer, into the Scriptures, and letting Jesus set our hearts on fire.

Easter Is …

Brothers, Easter is expectation. Easter is enthusiasm. Easter is anticipation. Easter is exhilaration. Easter is God’s own power and energy. It calls for a second look, and a third look, and even a fourth look. Easter is nothing less than the promise of eternal life.

So thank God for the miracle of Easter. What happened on that first Easter Sunday is incomprehensible to the human mind. But while no one can fully understand it, everyone can believe it. Why? Because people like Mary and the other women, the eleven apostles, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and everybody else who saw the risen Jesus could not possibly deny what they experienced. Why else? Because Jesus himself promised to bless those who could not see him and touch him but believed. And he never makes a promise he cannot keep.

(Joe Difato is the publisher of The Word Among Us devotional magazine. To contact him, go to his website at www.joedifato.com. Many thanks to The Word Among Us (http://www.wau.org/) for allowing us to use his articles from their 2009 Easter Issue. Used with permission.)

Questions for Reflection/Discussion

1. Mary Magdalene and the other women heard the angels speak these words at Jesus’ tomb: “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised” (Luke 24:5-6). The article says that when they heard these words: “Any doubts that Mary and the other women might have had were erased once the angels spoke to them. Any worries about where the body was or about what had just happened were removed. Their faith returned, and it even increased! They realized that Jesus had overcome even death itself. He did what he promised to do, and they were filled with amazement.” What about you: “Does the reality of Jesus’ resurrection fill you with joy and amazement?” Why or why not?
2. The article goes on to say that “Whatever the reason, Mary did recognize Jesus when he called her by name. It was in her second look that she finally saw him for who he is. Sometimes this is just what we need—a second look. Sometimes our first look doesn’t go far enough. Sometimes logic or fear or worry or doubt get in the way and keep us from looking deeper. Sometimes these distractions keep us from simply throwing ourselves into prayer, into the Scriptures, and letting Jesus set our hearts on fire.” What are the “distractons” in your life that keep you from turning to Jesus and more fully allowing him to “set our hearts on fire” for him? What role does your prayer life and Scripture reading play in this? What can you do to deepen these areas?
3. “Easter is expectation. Easter is enthusiasm. Easter is anticipation. Easter is exhilaration. Easter is God’s own power and energy. . . Easter is nothing less than the promise of eternal life.” What do these words mean to you?
4. What steps can you take individually, or as a group, to experience more deeply the transforming power of the risen Christ in your life?