He Is Risen

Last night, the Church celebrated the Easter Vigil from the Pope in an empty St. Peter's Basilica to small country churches, also empty, across the globe. This is an Easter foreign to us: no packed churches, no family gatherings. Lockdown prevails. We have only the words of the Evangelists to heighten the reality that Jesus, who died on Good Friday, was no longer in the tomb; he had risen.  Mary Magdalene was the first to see the stone rolled back from the empty tomb.  She ran to tell the Apostles. Peter and John. who, in disbelief, also ran to the tomb and found it as Mary had said.  Going in, they found only the shroud and other burial cloths. Can we put ourselves in their shoes? Rising from the dead was not a usual occurrence, so thinking that someone had stolen the body makes sense, for awhile, until the words Jesus himself had spoken about rising the third day began to make sense, and then to convince and cap off the doubt for sure, Jesus appeared to them on Easter evening.
We are being forced into the shoes of these questioning and amazed disciples as we rely on the internet or TV to put us in touch with this momentous event.  May we take the time today to read the gospel stories of the Resurrection, look at as much as we can on what is offered on screen, and reflect in our forced confinement what it would be like to be "free" again.   We will have some inkling of what Jesus did to free us from the bondage of our sins...For this we cannot sing Alleluia enough.
Bro. Rene