A sower went out to sow....

What is Easter for you? Another Sunday in the Malls? Saying “Happy Easter” to the people you meet and go with your everyday life? Posting Easter greetings and electronic cards at your friendster or facebook account? Is it a day you join your children in an Easter egg hunt? Why is Easter not what Christmas is? For Christmas we prepare for weeks, no, months. We sing Christmas carols, decorate our houses and our rooms. But Easter? It is sad that Easter does not play the role in our lives as Christmas does. After all, Easter is the celebration of the foundation of our faith. If Christ had not risen, our faith would be foolish, St. Paul said.

The four Gospels present different stories about that first Easter morning. They vary in details but all agree on the essential points: that the tomb was empty and that Jesus’ disciples have seen the Lord. We rely on this testimony of the first disciples. Resurrection, therefore, is a matter of faith. Without faith, we would say, the bones are rotten, it’s over; or: the body was stolen, as the enemies of Jesus did. Only in faith and trusting the witness of the disciples can the empty tomb lead us to confessing that Jesus is truly risen and alive among us.

The resurrection of Jesus changed the lives of the first disciples. Does it change ours, too? If not, what might be missing?

Love played a great role in those hours after the resurrection. Mary Magdalene, we read, loves Jesus so much that she cannot sleep but runs to the tomb as early as possible. Then it is the disciple whom Jesus loved who saw the empty tomb and believed. Love gives eyes to read the signs and a mind to understand. Later, Jesus would confront Peter and ask him three times, “Do you love me?” Love is the great interpreter. Love grasps the truth when the intellect gropes in the uncertain. The more we love the Lord, the more we will be able to experience the transforming power of His risen presence in our lives and in the world. With deep love for Christ, our life changes. Like the first disciples, we will experience resurrection in our lives, too. For Christ makes everything new.