The Resurrection of the Lord is our hope” (Augustine Sermon 261:1). With these words, Saint Augustine explained to the faithful that Jesus rose again so that we, though destined to die, should not despair, worrying that with death life is completely finished.
Indeed, one of the questions that most preoccupies men and women is this: what is there after death? To this mystery today’s solemnity allows us to respond that death does not have the last word, because Life will be victorious at the end. Jesus is risen so that we too, believing in him, may have eternal life.
From that day, our resurrection has already begun. The resurrection of the Lord, becomes our resurrection because of Baptism that incorporates us into God.
Jesus is risen not because his memory remains alive in our hearts, but because he himself lives in us, and in him we can already savour the joy of eternal life.
Ever since the dawn of Easter a new Spring of hope has filled the world; just as the rays of the sun in spring cause the buds on the branches of trees to sprout and open, so the light that emanates from Christ's Resurrection gives strength and meaning to every human hope, every expectation, desire and plan.
Jesus tells Luisa that during His earthly Life He did nothing but enclose the Divine Will in His every act, breath, gaze, in everything, and as He enclosed it, so the Divine Will prepared for Him the glory, the light in His Resurrection, whereby His Resurrection, more than shining sunshine crowned His Humanity, making even His smallest acts shine with such splendor and wonder that Heaven and earth were astonished. Without the Resurrection it would have been like the sky without sunshine, without warmth and without life.
The Lord wants to overwhelm us in this light as well, to cast in us as many germs of resurrection for as many acts we perform in His Will. The Divine Will by its very nature is light, and for those who live in It, It has virtue to transmute thoughts, words, deeds and everything it does into light. The Resurrection is the true glory of every Christian, It is the only one that resurrects the soul and body to glory, It is germ of resurrection to grace, germ of resurrection to the highest and most perfect holiness.
May Holy Easter mark our rebirth in God, make life blossom where death seemed to reign, make light return where darkness seemed to dominate, restore hope where despair reigned, and make us certain that we are never alone in life's journey:
I am with you always, every day, until the end of the world (cf. Mt. 28:20)