“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!”
This refrain today expresses the fundamental truth of Easter. It could only be of the Lord our God.
Death is swallowed up in victory. He is risen! Life is now eternal!
The drama of the Easter news is wondrously proclaimed in nine verses of John.
Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb while it was still dark and discovers that the stone had been removed. She ran to tell Simon Peter and John, who then ran to the tomb with John outrunning Peter — then waiting before entering.
They discovered the burial cloths — obviously the body had not been stolen or the cloths would have been taken, too.
Empty tomb. Burial cloths. They saw and believed. They did not understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.
Ten words sum it up and explains some of our religious experience.
How often do we experience life, recognizing spiritual themes and realities as a part of that life? How often do we interpret realities, seeing good or evil spirits, and seek an understanding that makes common sense?
If we can understand in these 10 words a religious experience within an ordinary experience and recognize that ultimately we can believe and not always understand, perhaps we will find some important answers for our faith.
Try to explain to a child that grandpa, who just died and was buried in the ground, is raised up and will live with God forever. They are easy words to say. Are they easy words to comprehend?
Perhaps, full comprehension — the ability to explain everything, claiming to know all — is not as important as some would think.
Would we be satisfied to discover the empty tomb, burial cloths, then see and believe while at the same time admitting that we couldn’t comprehend it all?
Or perhaps there might be an almost limitless opportunity to go deeper, grow deeper, and find many levels of meaning and truth.
This is no ordinary day we celebrate. This is not just another day — “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!”
Father Perry D. Leiker is pastor of St. Bernard Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142, Ext. 112; email perry.leiker@gmail.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
