“ They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” Mary Magdalene’s words ring with alarm and likely some fear, but also with certainty. The body of Jesus was clearly not there. The same thought probably occurred to Simon Peter and the Beloved Disciple as they entered the tomb and made the same stark discovery. All they could remember was Jesus dying on the cross and his dead body taken down and laid in the tomb. But now, there was no body, no Jesus.
 
Stop! No Jesus? The body of the Lord was not there, obviously, and the heavy stone was removed. But Jesus, what happened and where was he? All they had to go on was the physical body of the Lord and the memory of his message. They knew Jesus had died, but not knowing what had happened to his body likely generated confusion and deeper sadness. Still, in the midst of that, hope – a new possibility – began to dawn.
 
As they understood, tombs are for the dead. Grief over Jesus drew Mary of Magdala, Simon Peter and the Beloved Disciple to the tomb, but faith and hope drove them from it to seek Christ where he could now be found, not among the dead, but truly alive.
 
The empty tomb, the missing body of Jesus had a purpose. Those two realities signaled an eternal one: Resurrection. It all points to a new reality, a new beginning: Jesus Christ was no longer in a tomb, but he is present, near, and alive.  Pope emeritus Benedict XVI provides a helpful insight: “Jesus’ Resurrection was about breaking out into an entirely new form of life, into a life that is no longer subject to the law of dying and becoming, but lies beyond it.”
 
The challenge for the disciples was to grasp new life, not only the physical and earthly, but eternal; not only understand it in terms of Christ, but also for themselves. They had to evolve from the Jesus they had known to the Christ who was now calling them to know and believe in his resurrection, his fullness and their new mission.
 
Through their tender encounters with the Risen Lord, Mary Magdalene and all the other disciples discovered where Christ was and that he can always be encountered. Easter gives us the opportunity to find Christ, not where we might expect, but that he is truly present to all and longs to be with us: in the physical and the spiritual, in our struggles and in the suffering of the people around us, in the Eucharist here and now and in his Father’s heavenly Kingdom.
 
Pope Francis stresses to us that the Resurrection is not only belief, but a summons to mission and a purpose for our lives:

Let us go back to proclaim, to share, to reveal that it is true: the Lord is alive! He is living and he wants to rise again in all those faces that have buried hope, buried dreams, buried dignity....Let us go, then. Let us allow ourselves to be surprised by this new dawn and by the newness that Christ alone can give.

The tomb is empty, Christ has risen. The questions remain, are our hearts full of mercy and hope? Do we long for the Lord’s promises? In Christ, there are no end times, in Him there are no endings, only new beginnings. Easter – the Resurrection – brings to us the “breaking out” of new life. Easter is Christ; in this holy time and time of difficulty, let us be about him; let us welcome new life into our world and into our hearts and minds.

 
Peace in the Risen Lord,
Fr. Charles Johnson, O.P.