SUNDAY, EASTER SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S RESURRECTION
Acts 10: 34, 37-43; Ps 118 ; Col 3: 1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6-8; Jn 20:1-9 or Mk 16: 1-7 or Lk 24: 13-35
THE DAWN OF UNENDING JOY
Today, the Church shouts with a joy that shakes the foundations of the world. The stone is rolled away, the tomb is empty, and death itself lies defeated. This is the day the Lord has made; a day of unbreakable hope, a day when God’s “yes” to life drowns out every “no” of despair. After the long journey of Lent, after the shadows of Good Friday, we stand here in the radiant light of Easter. But this is not just a happy ending to a sad story. This is the beginning of everything. Today, Christ rewrites the story of humanity, turning our tombs into thresholds and our mourning into dancing.
The Gospel begins in darkness. Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb while it is still dark, weighed down by grief. But what she finds there changes everything: the stone is moved, the tomb is open, and the body of her Lord is gone. She runs to Peter and John, breathless with confusion: “They have taken the Lord!.” The disciples sprint to the tomb, and John, arriving first, hesitates at the entrance. Peter charges in, finding only the burial cloths. Then John enters, and Scripture tells us simply, “He saw and believed.” The empty tomb is not proof – it is a mystery that demands a response. It confronts us with a question: Will we trust what God has done? The discarded burial cloths are a sign of victory. Like a butterfly’s empty chrysalis, they point to a transformation too glorious to contain. The tomb is empty because Christ is alive. Today, the empty tomb invites us to move from fear to faith, from speculation to worship.
But the story doesn’t end at the tomb. Later, Mary Magdalene lingers there, weeping. Through her tears, she mistakes Jesus for a gardener, until He speaks her name: “Mary” (Jn 20:16). In that moment, her sorrow turns to joy. She becomes the first apostle of the Resurrection, rushing to tell the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” (Jn 20:18). This is the pattern of Easter: Christ meets us in our grief and calls us by name. He appears to those who doubt, like Thomas; to those who flee, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus; to those who betray, like Peter. He doesn’t scold them for their failures; instead, He cooks them breakfast (Jn 21:9-12). The Risen Lord is not a distant judge but a friend who walks beside us, breathing peace into our chaos: “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19). Yet Easter is not just comfort, it is a commission. Jesus tells Mary, “Go to my brothers” (Jn 20:17). He tells the disciples, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21). The Resurrection is not a private consolation but a public revolution. We are sent to be witnesses, to carry the light of Christ into the world’s darkest corners.
St. Paul declares, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above” (Col 3:1). Easter is a new way of living. The Resurrection is an invitation to live with holy audacity, to love boldly, forgive recklessly, and hope relentlessly. What does this look like? It looks like the early Christians, who sold their possessions to care for the poor (Acts 2:45). Easter people are those who stare into the abyss of suffering and still dare to say, “Love is stronger.”
This Easter joy reaches its climax here at the altar. The Eucharist is the meal of the Risen Lord, the place where He makes Himself known to us, just as He did to the disciples in the breaking of the bread (Lk 24:35). In this sacrament, the Resurrection becomes present here and now. We receive the risen Lord Himself. The world outside may still seem shrouded in shadows – war, injustice, loneliness, and pain. But Easter equips us to face these realities with unshakable hope. The same power that rolled away the stone is at work in us. We are not called to ignore suffering but to transform it, just as Christ transformed the cross into a gateway to life. Let us go forth as Easter people. Let us be the ones who forgive first, love hardest, and hope most fiercely. Let us feed the hungry, comfort the grieving, and defend the forgotten. The stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. Christ is risen—and because He lives, we too shall live.
Response: This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.
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