In our journey through the Sacred Triduum we come to the very heart of the Paschal Mystery. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us: “The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God’s grace, “so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom 6,4)” (CCC 654) St. Paul in his letter to the Romans affirms this truth and encourages us, “Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6,11) Hidden within this mystery lies the secret to our happiness and joy in life.

To leave sin behind and to live for God in Christ Jesus. Just considering that possibility brings happiness to my heart. For those of us who are the children of God, our happiness would be to live for God in Christ Jesus. However, there is something huge within me that resists that happiness, that new life, that bright and shining light in which there are no shadows. There is the resistance of fear. Out of fear, I have learned to live for myself, to look out for number one, to be self-sufficient and to make sure that my needs are met first. In the world of suffering I have learned to be selfish. To cross the threshold of new life I must first die to my self so that I may be reborn and live for God. To cross the threshold of the tomb means to surrender to the death of sin and selfishness, to let go and place my life into the hands of God. To cross the threshold I must put fear behind me and enter into a new life of faith.

To shove past resistance, to overcome our fear and to cross the threshold of new life and enter into the life of faith will bring us to the true life that our hearts desire. Our life is Christ and our happiness is in sharing in the divine nature and living for God in Christ Jesus. We must boldly cross the threshold into new life if we want to experience true happiness and peace. For true happiness, we must walk in the newness of life, we must live as children of the light, we must be reborn in the Spirit. But first, we must overcome our resistance and cross the threshold. Here is the problem. Resistance is like a huge stone that lies between us and the new life of Christ. “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” (Mk 16,3) Like the ointment bearing women, we realize that we don’t have the strength to move that stone alone. We must rely on God’s grace to help us to overcome our resistance and to move the stone. This is where the angel comes in.

The angel comes down and simply pushes the stone aside, then he sits on the stone to show that it is no longer an issue, no longer an obstacle for us. No problem. God’s grace and our cooperation in faith can move mountains, surely it can remove a little stone – our resistance is futile. “Come and see,” (Mt 28,6) the angel invites the women to cross the threshold of the tomb and to see that “Jesus the crucified” is not among the dead, that he has emptied death of its power and its hold over us. Death is no longer the ending to life, now it is a passage to new life. “Go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.” Behold, I have told you.” (Matt 28,7) We can not “see” Jesus only as the one who has died, but rather we will “see” him as the one who lives. He has entered into new life and opened the way for us into a new life. “If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God.” (Rom 6,8-10) He who was made sin for us, put to death sin and lives eternally for God the Father so that we also might live for God in the newness of life.

In the account of the empty tomb in John’s gospel, John and Peter run to the tomb. Love impels John to hope and he runs faster than Peter but he stops short of crossing the threshold of the tomb, he meets with his own resistance – his heart has already been pierced when the lance was thrust through the heart of Jesus and he is afraid to take a chance on love and hope again, he is afraid of being disappointed in his hopes. Peter pushes by him and rushes into the tomb. Peter is faith. Faith perfects love and perfect love casts out all fear. Faith pushes aside resistance. Faith pours the perfect love of the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we have a confident hope that will not disappoint us. (Rom 5,5) Peter is once again the rock of faith upon which the Church will be built. Faith arrives and now the beloved disciple can enter in, see and believe.

We also must accept the invitation of the angel to “come and see” and then to “see and believe.” (Jn 20,9) There is visible proof of the Resurrection that we can “see” but we also must rely on faith to understand what rising from the dead might mean. To understand we must live in faith and then we will come to encounter the Risen Christ and understand what the empty tomb means for us. What we can “see”: death is emptied of its power, the tomb is empty, Jesus the crucified is not there. Jesus was not taken from the tomb as Mary had first reported. No one stole the body away for the burial cloths are still there. What we must “believe”: Jesus is risen. God has raised Jesus from the dead. We have a new life in Christ.

We must come to “see” that we are freed from sin. We are no longer slaves to sin. Sin has no power over us. Sin can be mastered in our life. We must come to “believe” that by his Resurrection, Jesus has opened the way for us to new life. We must not be afraid to step into that new life and embrace the new relationship with Jesus the Way, the Truth and the Life. Now along the road of life, “we walk in the newness of life.” We are now adopted into the family of God, we live for God, our lives are hidden now with Christ in God. We are brothers and sisters of Christ, the children of God and children of the light. On the road of our life we will encounter the Risen Christ, now revealed in his glorious Resurrected body. Now we will encounter him along the road in mission as in Galilee, (Mt 28,10) now we will encounter him in the place of prayer as in the Upper Room (Jn 20,19) and now we will encounter him in sacrament as we break the bread of the Eucharist. (Luke 24,35)
We begin this journey through the Paschal Mystery in the darkness of sin and death living only for ourselves out of fear but we finish in the Light of Christ, in the light of a new life, a new life of faith, a new life in which we live for God. Out of darkness, into light. Out of fear, into faith. Out of death, into new life. Out of sorrow, into joy! Christ our light. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! He is Risen indeed!

(We are offering some help in overcoming resistance with Matthew Kelly’s book, Resisting Happiness. Pick up your copy on the way out of mass today as our Easter gift to you. It is a good read.)