We have just heard these words spoken by and Angel to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, who on going to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, found his tomb empty.  This empty tomb is the foundation of our Easter hope:  Christ is risen, just as he has promised.  Because Christ is risen, we share in his Resurrection, we too can live in hope.  In the letter to the Romans, St. Paul tells us: 

““Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, so that we too might walk in newness of life.  If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly be united with him in his Resurrection.” 

What does this mean: to die to sin, to die with Christ, to rise with Christ, to live in Christ, to be a member of his crucified and risen Body, to share in his glory?  The suffering, broken body of Christ is all around us indeed.  As the Church, as a global community, as nations and cities and families, we share in that brokenness. But we also share in the promise of renewal, of restoration, of rebirth: of Resurrection.  And this is what Easter, ultimately, is all about.

This year, Easter coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passsover.  And indeed, on this Easter night, we have passed over.  This is OUR Passover Feast.  In the dark of night, a spark was ignited, a pillar of flame in our darkness: the Paschal Candle lit, blessed, acclaimed, light and life passed on to each of us.  This good news of Christ’s Resurrection comes as the climax to a great story: that of God's loving and life-giving covenant with his people Israel.

This covenant with all humanity begins in creation, continues with God’s choice and call of Abraham and Sarah and their descendants, finds a new realization in the journey of Moses and Aaron and Miriam and the enslaved people of Israel from bondage to freedom.  With prophets old and new – with Isaiah and Baruch, with a 26-year old mother and poet from the Marshall Islands, and a Salvadoran bishop martyred for defending the dignity and rights of his people – we learned that God’s peace triumphs over war and injustice, God’s bounty over poverty and deprivation, God’s wisdom over foolishness and indifference, God’s justice over racism and sexism, tyranny and environmental degradation,  violence and religious intolerance, and all the -isms that forever threaten to splinter our unity. Then, with fragrant flowers and dazzling light, with ringing bells and Glorias and Alleluias, we proclaim Good News beyond our wildest dreams: Christ is risen! Alleluia!  Truly, he is risen! Alleluia!

All four Gospels report the story of women disciples arriving at the Empty Tomb, a vision of angels announcing that Jesus is not there, that He is risen, and the women sent off to report the good news to the apostles.  Unfortunately, some of the Apostles treated the women’s report of the empty tomb as an “idle tale”.  Not exactly the happy ending we were expecting!  But it is realistic.  It took time for the disciples of Jesus to get over the shock, grief, anguish, and guilt connected to the events surrounding Jesus’ passion and death, before they could fully believe in his Resurrection. 

Luckily for us, those women did not give up.  They overcame their fears and refused to be silenced by the disbelief of their fellow disciples.  They continued to bear witness to this Good News.  Eventually, the rest of the apostles met and saw and touched the risen Jesus themselves.  Word began to spread.  People came to believe, from personal experience or by believing the testimony of trustworthy witnesses, the Good News signified by this empty Tomb: that Jesus was alive.   

The rest, as they say, is history. The same Jesus who rose from the dead returned to his Father and sent forth the promised Holy Spirit to these timid and frightened disciples. From this Pentecost experience, the Church was born.  No longer hiding away in upper rooms behind locked doors, Jesus’ disciples were empowered to speak, and speak they did!  With confidence and conviction, they proclaimed God's great love, the healing power of forgiveness and mercy offered in Christ.  Everywhere they went, they spread the message of Jesus’ life and death and Resurrection.  They were hope-filled people spreading a message of hope, of faith, of love.

One of my best friends, Bishop Don Bolen of Saskatoon, puts out a video-message every Easter.  I found his words inspiring, and I share them with you on this Easter night:

“In his death and resurrection, God takes upon himself all the darkness humans can muster, and transforms that darkness to light. We are redeemed by a boundless love. God’s mercy does not end there.  In the Spirit, God equips us too to be agents of transformation in our world. Entering into places of darkness and bringing light; to situations of despair, bringing hope, and joy for those who mourn; entering into places of conflict and violence, and bringing dialogue and peace. Bearing another’s burdens, giving of ourselves generously. And trusting always in God’s love. That is God’s way, And even now we hear God say to us, this is the way, walk in it.

Whenever we see hope rise from despair, death transformed to life, and hate to love, we hear anew the redemptive strains of resurrection. Christ is risen, let us rejoice!”

In a few moments, together with Tanya, who is to be baptized, and with Iain, Ji, Cindy and Brent, who are to be confirmed and received into the full communion of the Catholic Church, we too will renew the promises of our baptism.  In a secular world which marginalizes our faith, which even ridicules and diminishes it, we will accept the call to live as an Easter People, baptized into the death of Jesus, sharing in his Risen Life.  

So let us embrace our vocation, our calling to live as an Easter People: baptized into the death of Jesus, and so sharing in his Risen Life.  Because Christ is risen, we live in hope: free to grow, free to trust in the goodness of life, in the power of love.  The risen Christ is our hope: He lived and died and rose again so that we might share in the fullness of his life, and of his love: unconditional, mind-blowing, death-defying, life-giving love.  May we know the depth of this love.  May we all – as individuals, as a community – become Spirit-filled witnesses to the power of the Risen Christ to transform our broken world.  For Christ is risen! Alleluia!  Truly, he is risen! Alleluia!