Easter Sunday, John 20:1-18

In Christian churches, we sing joyful Alleluia again and feel elevated because Easter is here, bringing with it the event of the empty tomb of Jesus, who is alive and has set the whole world in motion before us.

We also find testimony to this event in today’s Gospel. Jesus has risen from the dead! The unprecedented event sparked considerable debate, and we can observe with the passage of time how the Jews, members of the chosen nation, reacted when they heard this news.

Some waved their hands and said: They have taken away his body, and now they are spreading the news that he has risen. He who is dead is dead, and that is all! However, some said, “Perhaps he was only half-dead, and when he got to the cold tomb, he woke up from the cold, and his disciples are now hiding him.” Others just shrugged their shoulders, because this event did not excite them in the least, and commented on it: If they took away his body, let them find it, show it, and the matter is settled. If he escaped from the tomb, then he is hiding somewhere and is recovering from his serious wounds. It will not be a problem to find him at all, because a seriously wounded man will not be able to run away, and he will be finished. But time passed, and neither Herod nor Pilate showed Jesus’ body; the soldiers did not find a place where he could recover from his serious wounds, and they did not find Jesus’ disciples hiding either. That was how it was in the beginning.

But everything changed on the day of Pentecost, when something was felt in the air, people were tense, and the time had come to resolve the incident with Jesus of Nazareth once and for all. Then something extraordinary happened. At a certain place in Jerusalem, there was a huge crowd of people surrounding a group of Jesus’ disciples, from which a strong, distinct voice rang out: “We are witnesses of all that Jesus did in the land of Judea and in Jerusalem.” But they hanged him on a tree and killed him. God raised him on the third day and granted him to be revealed – not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen in advance by God, to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he whom God has ordained to be judge of the living and the dead. To him, all the prophets testify that through his name, everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness for sins. Although they were from different nations, everyone understood this message. Here and there, some slipped away from the crowd and claimed that the apostles were drunk. However, those who continued to listen to Peter believed his words and were baptized.

Under such circumstances, the news of the empty tomb began to spread, dividing people into two groups: those who shrugged their shoulders and did not care, and those who continued to listen, which culminated in their baptism. And what about us? Do we want to stay? After all, how many temptations are around us! Will we be able to endure? Aren’t we tired of listening to what God says and does for his people? We too can leave, shrug our shoulders, but we will not do it, and the fact that we have come here today testifies that we take the news of the empty tomb of Jesus seriously, which, at the same time, we declare in our baptism.

The apostles met Jesus on a new level of life. These were great and profound encounters for them. Therefore, immediately after the Holy Spirit was sent, they began to talk about this great experience: “We are witnesses of everything that Jesus did…” Nothing could stop them. Neither prison, nor whipping, nor death. And although they had no temples, no religious orders, nor a press, they nevertheless turned the world of that time upside down.

Don’t we feel that we lack the fervor and enthusiasm of these witnesses? Nothing should threaten or stop our enthusiasm, which must persist as it did with Sister Vincentia. She was Chinese, a young and intelligent woman who joined the order during the nuns’ missionary work in China. However, the establishment of the Red government in China forced the missionaries to flee. The Americans solved the problem of transporting them to the USA. However, since Vincentia was Chinese, she had to stay at home and literally disappear. For many years, no one had any news of her. She wrote to her superior only in 1986, when the post office between the USA and China opened. She wrote: I have not seen a priest for over 30 years, I have not been to Holy Mass, and I have not received any sacrament.” The only thing that kept me going was what I learned from you. I secretly read the Holy Scriptures; I often renewed my holy vows, and later I managed to find three other nuns who had suffered the same fate, and together we recalled all the religious customs. And now, when I met a priest for the first time in a long time, I renewed my holy vows before the Church.

We ask what gave this religious sister strength?” It was love for Jesus! He was alive, glorified for her, and she accepted him. No agitator or threat could stop her enthusiasm. She lived with Christ. She was aware of the Apostle Paul’s prophetic words: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” But in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. And I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins, and the heavenly Father accepted this sacrifice by raising him from the dead and by his ascension into heaven, showing that he truly accepts what was offered to him and, in Christ, accepts us as well.

The Easter ceremonies began with the blessing of the fire and the candle. The priest lit it, walked through the church, and sang: Christ, light of the world! The faithful then, with the help of assistance, lit their own candles from the Easter candle, thus expressing that the light of Jesus must spread throughout the world and to every place through the brave lives of the faithful, through their responsible work and noble behavior.

Let us also become spreaders of this light, not only during Easter, but throughout our entire lives!