Death, since the beginning of history, has been seen as an entity without remedy, becoming part of our daily life. We have discovered that death is inevitable and have experienced and suffered the hurt caused by death. Likewise, it is the desire of our human nature to leave behind somebody or something to remember us. We all want, in some way or another, to be immortalized. In the ancient world, emperors and pharaohs left big mausoleums, temples and high pyramids. In our present world presidents erect big statues as memorials. But time tells us that people have turned them into a place of ruins. We too want to leave something behind not to be forgotten, a big family or a big fortune perhaps, but time also tells us that time erases the memories of those who lived before us.
During these past three days the liturgical readings have been narrating Jesus’ pain and suffering; from the Upper Room all the way up to the Cross. As the disciples witnessed Jesus’ death and burial, all his promises turn out to be a failure; his teaching, his miracles, the Last Supper, all the way up to the Calvary, his death and the place where they put his body to rest would be the only things left to remember this man called Jesus. And so it will be for us if we end our journey at the Calvary Cross of Golgotha.
My dear brothers and sisters, we cannot end our journey here, we must move on. Golgotha must lead us to the empty tomb of the Resurrection. As Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI said: “The Cross alone could not explain the Christian Faith, indeed it would remain a tragedy, an indication of the absurdity of being. The Paschal Mystery consists in the fact that the Crucified man ‘was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures’.
Jesus immortalized himself, not by leaving behind big temples or doctrines, but by means of an empty tomb. And it is here where we, each one of us, are immortalized. It is not in the cross but in the empty tomb that we have a new kind of future. Death, darkness, emptiness, desolation are not our ultimate destiny. It is in the risen Christ that we have a future full of meaning, purpose, joy, and hope. 
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary experienced in a human way the reality of the empty tomb. They were bewildered, confused and went back to tell the other disciples what the angels told them. The disciples’ reaction to the women’s news was taken on a big “aw†as they went to the spot where they were told Jesus was not. They did not know where he was but for the time being they were more interested in where He was not. And it was here, inside the tomb where they remembered and understood what He had told them about rising from the dead.
The empty tomb of the Resurrection has been the mystery, the scandal, the big question mark for twenty one centuries and will continue being for centuries to come. The empty tomb of the Resurrection is the proof that we can give to our fellow men that we have found the secret of our life. The disciples were given a mission. “Go and announce the good newsâ€. Today the church gives the same mission. “Go and announce to the world this good news.†Announce that we have found the means to immortality.†Announce that we do not need to turned to the supernatural world for answers, or to metempsychosis in order to live a longer life, we do not need to search for the Philosopher’s Stone or to achieve physical immortality through spiritual transformation.
The example set by Jesus demands us to begin. We are not expected to do everything, but every one of us is expected to do something. There is no greatest mistake than he who does nothing because he can only do little. Day by day we are called to let Jesus’ resurrection to become the driving force of our new life. Just knowing about the resurrection is not enough. The good news of the resurrection must be brought into the concrete realities of our daily life.
The light of the Easter candle will reminds us of the sure hope that the Spirit of the Risen Lord continues to act in our lives and in our world. Easter is a time when we realize that what humankind has long for in the depths of our hearts has become a reality. Easter is a joy born on the belief that the resurrection of Jesus is our ransom from death. If we really believe that the tomb is empty, that the Lord is truly risen and is with His Church we should have no fear in bringing this message, as it is, in all its authenticity, into our world and to our younger generation.
May God bless each and every one of us and may the peace of the risen Christ be with you and your families. On behalf of Saint Dominic’s Priory Community and on my own behalf I would like to thank you all for coming and forming our community of prayer this evening. May sadness forget you, may goodness surround you and may the risen Christ always bless you. Wish you all a Blessed Easter.
Fr. A. Salcedo
Prior