Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants  – we are all an Easter people. For two thousand years we have – through faith in historical documents and human witness – been invited to believe in a divine act of revelation: the Easter resurrection of our Lord and Savior; for it is in that act that our God shows us who He truly is.

We believe that the resurrection of Jesus is a historical and spiritual fact; and that the resurrection of Jesus not only explains the truth of His promises but it demonstrates what has been promised to us.

On the first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John saw that the stone had been rolled away from Jesus’ tomb; and as they looked in  – they came face to face with their eternal destiny. Since no stone could have stopped the resurrected Jesus, it was pushed away not to let Jesus out – but to let them – and us – in.

Like Mary, Peter, and John, and all the others, we come to realize that we are an Easter people – which means that we are an eternal people – members, through our holy baptism, of the family of the eternal high God. The tomb could never hold the resurrected Jesus, and – as a people of faith – it cannot hold us.

St. Paul tells us in his epistle to the Hebrews that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (11: 1)

But what is hope? Hope is trust based on a divine promise. We have hope because we trust the words and deeds of Jesus Christ. We trust in His promises to us.

Our hope interacts with our faith in Him – and we are forever changed because of it. You and I are certain of our faith, because we understand and rejoice in the hope that our God does not lie – our Scriptures do not lie  – our Sacred Tradition does not lie; so as an Easter people we possess the hope that St. Peter speaks of when he says: “…we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.   (1 Peter 1:3).

As we celebrate the Easter season, let us – as our Lord tells us today – “Be not afraid”  – let us be joyful and thankful for the gift of faith and the willingness, in the face of all odds, to share our faith and joy with others.

May God grant you a joyous and creative Easter season!

The attached sacred image was painted by Fra Angelico in 1441 and is entitled “The Women at the Tomb.”       Copyright © 2012 Deacon Paul O. Iacono All Rights Reserved