Easter is a fantastic time! It is truly a special day for the heart! We can explain what the implications of our belief in Easter are, but we cannot really explain the event itself. Easter is something we feel. Theologians and Scripture scholars have written volumes trying to explain Easter. Unfortunately, explaining something so fantastic as someone rising from the dead cannot be proven or explained. This goes far beyond our intellects.
In the Easter Gospel, we discover that coming to believe is not a ―lightning-bolt event.‖ The Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday morning speak only of an empty tomb. There was real terror for some of the disciples and confusion for some of the others. Nevertheless, with a little help, there was also faith. Slowly, recognition came to each of them. The disciples on the road to Emmaus even argued about the event and what it meant. Recognition came slowly - but when it came, life changed!
We want our lives to change also! So, what does Easter say to us? Easter says that there is hope. Easter tells us that God is bigger and more powerful than we can ever imagine. Most importantly, Easter tells us that there is always tomorrow! No matter how bad things may seem today, there is tomorrow! God has given us the Resurrection! No matter the pain, the loneliness or the suffering, there is always tomorrow! We can endure.
We can even do more than merely survive. We need to believe this. If we are to survive a world of sin and death, we must believe this. This is our ultimate hope: that there is indeed life after death! And how do we come to an Easter faith, a faith that promises hope and joy? Again, our Easter Gospel contains a clue. No disciple came to believe on his or her own, or in isolation. Faith always came in the company of other people. This is especially true of the faith of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They came to believe in the breaking of the bread. They remembered what Jesus said: ―Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am.‖
Why do we come to church on Easter Sunday, and why should we continue coming every Sunday? We simply have to! Here is where the disciples are gathered! Here is where we discuss our lives along the road of life! It is here in this context that Easter really begins to be believable. Faith comes when we are with other people, sharing with them their sorrows and pain, their fears and their sufferings. It is here, too, that we remember what Jesus said to us. With Easter in mind, we listen to all that He said. We begin to grasp the horror of sin as we bring with us our own sinfulness. We begin to experience the reality of another tomorrow as we encounter others who have had a share in our particular problems. They live again, and so will we! It is here, with other disciples, that we feel the reality and the power of the Resurrection, of hope! MAY THE RISEN CHRIST TRULY FILL YOUR HEARTS WITH HOPE AND JOY!! HAPPY EASTER!!