Realize that in you Christ lives his risen life, that he has already overcome death - died and risen from death and overcome it. If you will only realize that, you will soon be convinced that you will also come right up through the darkness into the light…let this seed of supernatural life fight its way out through darkness, just as an ordinary seed fights up through the darkness and heaviness of the hard, frozen earth. First it has to sharpen its own green blade in the night and cut through the ground or pierce the wood if it is a leaf on the tree, but suddenly it breaks into flower or leaf; and when it does that, it does not see its own beauty—the world outside it sees that; what it sees is the glorious sun that drew it up out of the darkness…So too will it be with you; your soul, your mind, will break into flower and you will find it is flowering in the midst of light, the light of Truth and Beauty and Life.
Christ is not in the tomb. He doesn’t seem to be anywhere, and yet he is everywhere. This week the Liturgy will recount various appearances of the Risen Lord to his disciples, events which are just as mysterious and elusive as the empty tomb itself. His Spirit moves us to turn in simple faith to him who now lives his Risen Life within us and among us.
Jesus came back from the long journey through death to give us his Risen Life to be our life, so that no matter what suffering we meet, we can meet it with the whole power of the love that has overcome the world. . . He has come back as spring comes back out of the ground, renewing the earth with life, to be a continual renewing of life in our hearts, that we may continually renew one another’s life in his love, that we may be his Resurrection in the world. We are the Resurrection, going on always, always giving back Christ’s life to the world.
The life of the Risen Lord is given to us to give to one another. To stand in awe before the fact of the Resurrection and the hope it carries does not mean to stand still or alone. It is through his risen life in us that Christ sends his love to the ends of the earth. The empty tomb has given each of us this mission - we who often struggle along the uncertain, dark, and mysterious journey of our own personal lives are sent forth to give Christ’s life to the whole world through the daily bread of our human love.
Drawing by Brother Mikah. Meditation by Father Dominic with quotations by Caryll Houselander.
