On the first day of the week,
On the first day, God said let there be light, there was light, and he saw that it was good. This first day now became the day of the resurrection, the day when Christ, the light of the world, rose from the tomb.
The light of Christ did not reach everyone immediately. It was "while it was still dark" that the light began to reach in and little by little transform the darkness of doubt and despair into faith and hope.
and [they] saw the stone removed from the tomb.
What did it mean that the stone was removed? It meant that the story was not yet over. There was still more yet to be. But as to just what, it was yet unclear. The disciples showed both that they were drawn toward this revelation by hope and pushed away from it by fear. In fear, they offered the best human explanation they could.
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
In hope Peter and John not only went to investigate, but ran as fast as they could to see for themselves that the tomb was empty, and discern, if they could what that might mean.
John hesitated, perhaps out of reverence for the special place of Peter among the apostles. But Peter allowed hope to make him daring enough to enter.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Peter saw evidence of the resurrection when he looked in the tomb. Grave robbers were not likely to be so delicate in folding the cloths. Peter hadn't understood at the time, but hadn't the Lord spoken not only of death but of resurrection as well?
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
Peter and John were in the first stages of discovering the one thing that would change everything, both for them and for the whole world. Yet it would take further revelation, invitations to hope and believe more, in order to allow them and the other disciples to fully internalize what the two were even now beginning to believe.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
Jesus was revealed to be everything he said he was; he was the Son of God, the judge of the living and the dead, the one through whom believers could receive forgiveness of sins. The Lord himself had said he was the way, the truth, and the life. Now that way and that truth were revealed, now the promised life was available to all who would believe in his name (see John 20:31).
The power of the resurrection is the one and only reality that makes it possible to have new life ourselves. All the grace we receive, whether through prayer or sacrament involve connecting us to this new power source. When we remember and act from the posture of connection and proximity to the risen Christ our own lives are changed and manifest the resurrection life we have received. May the Spirit make us bold to hope in this promise.
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
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