…As we leave it is early morning. It is still dark outside, and the obscurity cloaks us, much like that which suffocates our hearts. Sadness, pain and other such sentiments chase each other around within us, as though our feelings had gone crazy. I do not know how to explain this unjust death, which in its inevitability has struck again.Who knows why this time we thought that it would have been different, that it could not have happened.By now, it was almost day as we drew nearer to the tomb. We immediately realized that the heavy stone that sealed the tomb had been rolled away. Before it stood two men who told us WHAT WAS UNHEARD OF: He is no longer here, He is risen…Fear, disbelief, and dismay came over me, but at that same moment, a voice within me shouted with an unspeakable violence: it’s true! The light of day dispersed the darkness of the night and within our hearts also, there was a new light.
I had always asked myself what they must have felt – those women who were the first to receive the announcement of the Resurrection. I think that after the first moments of bewilderment and fear, an inexplicable joy must have invaded their hearts. Furthermore, how would we feel if the person most dear to us, after tragically disappearing, were to suddenly return to life? We could affirm with certainty that indeed it would be a day impossible to forget. Would we not announce this with an uncontainable enthusiasm? It is upon this surprising news of a man dead and risen that our faith is founded, our belief in God. This is because God could give no greater proof of His Divine Power than BY defeating the grasp of death, (that )which he himself as man wanted to experience.The resurrection of his Son, Jesus, was not simply a return to earthly life, but rather an “entering” with humanity into the life itself of God immortal. It is for this reason that for more than two thousand years, this day is called Sunday, the day of the Lord, because no one could every forget the wonderful event accomplished by God that changed man’s destiny. From that moment on, from the dawn of 30 AD, you and I have the right to believe that death does not have the last word over our life. A memorable day, in the truest sense of the word – that is, a day to remember, to recall and relive with joy that which God had wanted and desired for us – life for eternity. Thus, Sunday becomes a day on which we gather and with joy trace the stages of what God has done for us.
Accompanied by the words of Sacred Scripture that we listen to during the Mass, we prepare ourselves to penetrate ever more into the reality of God-with-us. And when the moment of Consecration arrives, another mystery is disclosed to us – that Resurrection which Christ lived in His life is not a fact that pertains to Him alone, but it is your destiny and mine.We can hope and believe in it exactly because the Eucharist is the presence of the risen Jesus among us, thus He is alive forever, a presence which makes itself “food” for us, so that He can enter into us, and within us infuse His eternal life. It is for this reason that ever since we were children, we have heard it repeated how important it is to go to Mass on Sunday. I was once told that “A Sunday without Mass is like a day without the sun”. Indeed, this is true, for without the sun, life on earth is impossible. Likewise, without the Eucharist, that is without the risen body of our Lord who gives Himself to us, you and I would have no escape, there would be no way to give eternal life to our souls, to our most intimate being. Who can give us such a great gift? Do you know anyone who, regardless how much they love you, can save you from death? There’s only one who is able to do that: Jesus Christ. Let us live our Sundays with renewed joy; let us live with the Lord the day that is dedicated to Him. We will discover the secret hidden in that Host that alone can quench our deepest desires and wipe away every tear. Just like the news of the Resurrection cleansed the tears of the women that 2000 years ago went to the tomb to honor a dead body and found that which could have never been hoped for.
Sr. Michela.
