Have you ever found your heart heavy, maybe so heavy that you wondered if life was still worth living? Such moments can arise when we find ourselves grieving the loss of someone or something dear to us. I imagine such was the pain Mary Magdalene and her companions felt as they walked in the early dawn toward the tomb of Jesus.
In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl describes what having a heavy heart was like after spending three years in a Nazi concentration camp, knowing that everyone in his family had perished there. He emerged from the camp emotionally drained but soon he discovered that one could begin life anew.
Shortly after being liberated, he walked through the nearby countryside, admiring the flowering meadows and listening to the joyous music of larks nearby. Aside from the larks, he was alone. At that moment, as he walked, one sentence kept coming to mind. “I called upon the Lord from my narrow prison and he answered me in the freedom of space.” Frankl doesn’t recall how long he knelt in the meadow repeating that line, but he knew on that day, in that hour, a new life started for him.
Hopefully none of us will ever experience the trauma that Mr. Frankl endured in the holocaust yet any one of us may have personally experienced moments when we too felt very much alone, perhaps grieving the loss of a valued relationship, the onset of a major illness, or the death of a close friend.
Sometimes it takes such an emptiness to discover what Easter is truly about. Easter takes on new meaning when we experience the power of Jesus changing our lives into a new beginning, just as he has done for many others in the past.
Consider the disciples. Before the tragedy of Good Friday, Jesus was the person who gave meaning to their lives. Leaving their boats behind, they had pinned their hopes on him.
Then came Good Friday. With the thrust of a soldier’s lance, all their dreams of a new Israel died on the cross. As the sun went down that day, they felt their world had been buried in the tomb with Jesus.
Then the unexpected happened! As the sun rose on the first Easter morning, the empty tomb was discovered by Mary Magdalene and her companions, who were told, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him.'”
How could these women not be amazed? They did not come expecting an empty tomb. In fact, they wondered, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” And this many years later, we gather, still amazed by what happened then and what has happened ever since. The story of Easter, more so than the story of Christmas, changed the world. After all, every person experiences birth, but no one else in history has ever risen from the dead.
The power of Easter began to change the world by first changing the lives of the disciples who encountered Jesus that day in Galilee. They were transformed from a band of grieving disciples into a brigade of daring missionaries who then set out to carry its message of new life to every corner of the world.
Everywhere they went, the power of Easter began to work in the lives of those who listened. Despair gave way to hope, darkness gave way to light, hatred gave way to love, sorrow gave way to joy. In other words, the miracle of Easter did not end on that morning when Mary Magdalene first found the empty tomb. The miracle of Easter continues to happen in our time, in our place, in our lives.
Easter is more than just our reflection of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Easter is the good news that we too are destined to be transformed, just as Jesus was on the first Easter morning.
Easter is the good news that Jesus also wishes to transform our present lives, just as he transformed the lives of those who first followed him and witnessed his presence as the risen Lord. That can happen each time we partake of the Eucharist where he is present to us in his risen body and blood.
Easter is the good news that every Good Friday in our lives can be transformed into an Easter Sunday. That is, nothing can defeat us anymore; not discouragement, not pain, not misfortune, not even death if we open our hearts to the risen Christ.
Easter is the good news that we don’t have to wait until we die to share in the risen life of Jesus. We can begin right now, in this Mass, in this Easter celebration for he is with us here and now, inviting us to a new life of faith, hope and love.
Keep in mind that Easter is not a single day, but a season that lasts 50 days until Pentecost, which we celebrate on May 27. Finding the empty tomb is what we did this day. Finding the risen Christ will be our endeavor in this season to free us from our past and give us a fresh start, a new beginning. Come back next Sunday. You do have something and someone to live for.