Carry His light to the world

We are living our precious faith in these times of pandemic under the protection of the Cross of Christ which, contrary to the world’s view of it, stands as an ever burning and undimmed torch lighting our way to follow Jesus. How can this be?
 
It is the Crucified and Risen Lord Who reveals this to us that first Easter. Recall the Gospel narratives for the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. Saint Matthew describes how the holy women go the Lord’s tomb “as the first day of the week was dawning” and encounter the angel of the Lord who tells them: “Do not be afraid!” He proceeds to assure them that Jesus Crucified is truly risen just as He said and then he sends them to the Apostles with the message, “He has been raised from the dead, and He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him” (Mt 28: 1-10).
 
St. John describes how again the Apostles hear the astounding news from Mary Magdalene that the tomb is truly empty, and the Lord is not there, Peter and John run to the tomb and find it just as they had been told and then St. John says that “he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that He had to rise from the dead” (Jn 20: 1-9).
 
What do these Gospel passages teach us? The Risen Lord clearly calls them and us to “Come, follow Me, I am going before you.” Resurrection-faith, our faith, is a real stepping forward along the way of Christ. It is following in the footsteps of Christ, a discipleship of Christ. This is why our sacred Christian Tradition deliberately speaks not simply of Jesus but of following Christ. We follow not a dead man but the living Christ. To say and do anything else is to rob discipleship of what is essential to it, what it is by its very nature: Cross and Resurrection and Christ’s Divine Sonship.
 
As St. John said of Peter and himself, they saw and believed only after being in the empty tomb because until then, experiencing the Crucified and Risen Christ, they had not understood the Scriptures about His resurrection. Our discipleship too is born of our experience of the Crucified and Risen Christ in the Church and the sacraments. 
 
Our discipleship, like that of the Apostles, only happens in the light of the Cross, in the true losing of self for His sake; it is a stepping forward into what is hidden in order to find what it is to be a human being who has been redeemed by pure Love. The call to be joyful at Easter is a vocation we must share because the Lord has given us joy and the world is waiting for it because the world needs it.
 
During these difficult days, our faith and hope remain intact and hopefully we have strengthened them by our prayer, good works and sacrifices and thus, we have encountered the Crucified and Risen One because we have been following Him. If these things are true of us, then we can bear witness to Him and carry His light to the world.  We can be His disciples.
 
The message of Easter is our message to the world. Easter is not an account of a miracle that happened a long time ago, it is the event that has defined the meaning of all history. Let us tell the world: Christ is indeed Risen!