“The resurrection of the Lord is our hope- Resurrection Domini, spes nostra”
Jesus rose again so that we, though destined to die, should not despair, worrying that with death life
is completely finished; Christ is risen to give us hope.
Indeed, one of the questions that most preoccupies men and women is this: what is there after
death? To this mystery Easter’s solemnity allows us to respond that death does not have the last
word, because Life will be victorious at the end. This certainty of ours is based not on simple
human reasoning, but on a historical fact of faith: Jesus Christ, crucified and buried, is risen with
his glorified body. Jesus is risen so that we too, believing in him, may have eternal life. This
proclamation is at the heart of the Gospel message. As Saint Paul vigorously declares: “If Christ has
not been raised, our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” He goes on to say: “If for this
life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:14,19). Ever since
the dawn of Easter a new Spring of hope has filled the world; from that day forward our
resurrection has begun, because Easter does not simply signal a moment in history, but the
beginning of a new condition: Jesus is risen not because his memory remains alive in the hearts of
his disciples, but because he himself lives in us, and in him we can already taste the joy of eternal
life.
The resurrection, then, is not a theory, but a historical reality revealed by the man Jesus Christ by
means of his “Passover”, his “passage”, that has opened a “new way” between heaven and earth
(cf. Heb 10:20). It is neither a myth nor a dream, it is not a vision or a utopia, it is not a fairy tale, but
it is a singular and unrepeatable event: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, who at dusk on Friday
was taken down from the Cross and buried, has victoriously left the tomb. In fact, at dawn on the
first day after the Sabbath, Peter and John found the tomb empty. Mary Magdalene and the other
women encountered the risen Jesus. On the way to Emmaus the two disciples recognized him at the
breaking of the bread. The Risen One appeared to the Apostles that evening in the Upper Room
and then to many other disciples in Galilee.