Christ is risen! Part 2: Something has happened, and it has set us free.
Early on the first day of the week, the women went to the tomb. They went to anoint a dead body. To revere the remains of the one they loved. To treat with honour the body that had been so disgracefully abused. And it was not there. The tomb was empty.
And here the mystery begins. Something has happened. Theories about the body being stolen or the disciples just making up a story sound feeble. We understand that ancient minds did not think like ours and perhaps the story of the resurrection is a story – but a true story to express deep truths about what Jesus means to them. We understand the power of religious experiences that can transform our lives – and then the gospel is written to give literal expression to what are inward, spiritual truths. But the first disciples were not stupid, or gullible. They knew that dead bodies do not come back to life. None of them had any inkling that such a thing could happen. The male disciples hid in fear and the women went to attend to a dead body. Thomas is no dupe. He did not go along with the rest just because they said Jesus was alive. “Unless I see the mark of the nails on his hands, unless I put my finger into the place where the nails were, and my hand into his side, I will never believe it”.
Christ is risen!
What does it mean?
Life is indestructible. We know that life is so very fragile and Jesus’ death has just demonstrated how easily it can be snuffed out. But the life that God imparts is indestructible. That quality of life that Jesus had opened up to his followers, with its intense sense of God’s presence, infused with an extraordinary love, could not be snuffed out. Once you have found it, it is yours, and it can never be taken away from you. The community of hospitality, created by Jesus’ generous compassion, that freed people from their guilt and opened up to them hope of new life, enabled people to leave behind everything that diminishes life and to embrace everything that enlarges and enriches it. People who were closed in on themselves, and lived in hostile suspicion of others, found that they opened up, reached out, and in forgetting themselves found over-flowing joy in caring for others. People who were used to suffering, who expected injustice, who presumed the powerful would impose their will, found that in Jesus’ presence, it was goodness that triumphed and it was the truth that was, not simply spoken, but which won the day.
Spiritual Devotion 