by Father John P. Cush, STD
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.” — Psalm 118:24
Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia!
Today the Church cries out with joy, not because a myth has been retold, but because a reality has broken into history. The stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. The crucified one is alive. The Resurrection is not only the climax of the Gospel — it is the beginning of a new creation. The event of Easter is not an ending; it is an explosion that reverberates through every corner of the world and into the hearts of all who believe.
In today’s Gospel from John 20, we see the first light of Easter dawn breaking through sorrow and confusion. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb, and finds it empty. She runs to Peter and John. They see the linen cloths, and John, the beloved disciple, sees and believes.
What does he believe?
Not just that the body is gone, but that everything Jesus had foretold is true: that He would suffer, die, and rise on the third day. And here, at the tomb, the full meaning of Scripture begins to shine forth.
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his commentary on John, teaches that the Resurrection is not merely one miracle among many; it is the vindication of Christ’s divinity and the seal upon all he taught.
In the first reading from Acts 10, St. Peter proclaims the heart of the apostolic preaching: “They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree. This man God raised on the third day … and he commissioned us to preach to the people.”
The Resurrection leads directly to mission. It is not a private consolation — it is a public proclamation. And the one who preaches this Gospel is Peter, the same man who denied Jesus three times. But now, restored and empowered, Peter becomes the rock of the Church’s Easter witness.
As St. John Chrysostom declared in his Easter homily: “Hell was in turmoil, having met its match. It seized a body, and lo, it discovered God. It took earth, and encountered heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.”
In the second reading from Colossians 3, St. Paul exhorts us: “If you have been raised with Christ, seek what is above.”
This is not abstract spirituality. It is the real moral and mystical consequence of the Resurrection. We have died with Christ in baptism, and now we live a life directed toward heaven. Easter is not only about what happened to Jesus; it is about what happens in us.
The risen Christ does not simply return to His former life — he inaugurates a new life, into which we are now invited. This is why Paul tells us to “cleanse out the old leaven” — to live no longer in the shadows of sin but in the light of Christ our Pasch.
Many of the Church fathers saw Easter as the beginning of a new Genesis: St. Gregory of Nyssa called the Resurrection “the re-creation of the human race.” St. Irenaeus wrote that just as Adam brought death into the world, Christ, the new Adam, restores life. And St. Augustine preached: “The Lord’s Resurrection is our hope, just as His Cross is our ransom. … The tomb becomes a womb, the place of death becomes the birthplace of eternity.”
What began in a garden with Adam ends — no, begins again — in a garden with Christ. The stone rolled away is not just a detail of the story. It is the great sign that the wall between us and God has been removed.
So, what does Easter demand of us?
Not just belief, but transformation. Not just wonder, but witness. Not just
joy, but mission.
Like Mary Magdalene, we must run to tell the others. Like Peter, we must proclaim boldly. Like John, we must see and believe.
In a world gripped by fear, the Resurrection makes us people of hope. In a culture marked by death, we live as witnesses to life. In a society filled with noise, we bear the stillness of the empty tomb, where God has acted beyond all human expectation.
Today we do not merely celebrate a past event. We step into the reality of the Risen One. This is the day the Lord has made. This is the day new creation begins. This is the day when love proves stronger than death.
Let us live as Easter people — transfigured by grace, radiant with joy, and firm in hope.
Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia! Amen.
Father John P. Cush, STD, is professor of dogmatic and fundamental theology at Saint Joseph’s Seminary and College.