There was a body in the grave. It was cold, it was definitely a dead corpse, it did not breath, and the heart did not pump. You could see it; you could touch it. It looked no different than any other corpse. For those of you who have had a realistic experience with a dead body, you know that it is profound experience. When one sees a truly dead body, a corpse there is no doubt that it is dead. In my training as an EMT we were taught over and over how to check to see if a body was dead. Check the breathing, check the pulse, recheck. However, when my first opportunity of during CPR on a real body came, there was no doubt the person was dead. It was obvious.

The disciples of Jesus had such an experience with the dead body of Jesus. They saw it hanging on a tree. They saw the spear go deep into the side and without a doubt pierce the heart. They saw the blood and water come forth. They saw the corpse laid into Mary’s arms. The women touch it as they prepared it for burial.

What a profound experience then, it must have been to see the empty tomb. What vivid realism it must have impressed on Peter as he saw where the body was laid. This was the place without a doubt, their were soldiers guarding who would never let their guard down for fear of the punishment, which was the punishment of death.

St. John’s Gospels is filled with words to describe this profound experience of Peter. The whole scene in the tomb paints a picture of the resurrection. However, elements of this are lost in the translation, which are more apparent in the Greek language.

In the phrase “The linen clothes lying there” the Greek indicates that the clothes were flattened, deflated, as if they were emptied when the body of Jesus rose—as if it had come out of the clothes and bandages without their being taken off, passing right through them (just has Jesus entered the upper room when the doors where locked). The Greek says the clothes where fallen, flat, lying, after Jesus’ body—which had filled them—left them. On can readily understand the amazement and realism that this conveyed on the witnesses to it.
The language to describe the shroud that wrapped Jesus head, says that it was not on the top of the clothes but to one side. It was like the clothes stilled rolled up, but unlike them, it still had a certain volume, like a container, possibly due to the stiffness given it by the ointments. It reminds me of paper mache formed around a balloon and then the balloon popped.

These details point to a body being raised in a heavenly manner, which transcended the laws of nature. It was not just a body being reanimated as happened in the case of Lazarus, who by the way had to be unbound before he could walk. Because of this unique experience of the state of the linens left behind the two Apostles realized that it was not a question of a robbery, which is what Mary Madgalene had thought

This realistic experience of the empty tomb left many facts perceptible to the human senses, but the resurrection still requires faith to be accepted. Christ’s resurrection is a real, historical fact: there was a dead body and it come back to life, literally. It was a real physical body that had its soul reunited to it. This was apparent because Thomas could touch it-he put his hands into the nail holes and into the pierced side, “My Lord and my God.” But yet, there was something also different about the body. It could pass through the burial cloth and walls. It could no longer suffer damage, decay, pain; it could no longer change.

The resurrection of Jesus, although historical, is also supernatural event, that is, it is far beyond our capacity in this life to totally understand. It transcends sense experience, it requires a special gift of God to accept it as a fact with certainty, and that gift is the gift of faith. As St. Thomas Aquinas says in his great work the Summa Theologica, “the individual arguments taken alone are not sufficient proof of Christ’s resurrection but taken together, in a cumulative way, they manifest it perfectly. Particularly important in this regard are the spiritual proofs specially the angelic testimony and Christ’s own post-resurrection words confirmed by miracles. (cf Jn3:13,; Mt 16:21; 17:22; 20:18).

This gift of faith in the resurrection is what we as believing Catholic Christians are celebrating with great joy this day. The apostles’ faith is strengthen through the Holy Triduum, the time from Thursday evening to Sunday morning. We too have just passed through this time, symbolically, in the Church’s celebration of this Holy time. But Christ has left us something even more remarkable to strengthen our faith and joy in the resurrection. He as left us the great mystery of the Holy Eucharist.

“At every celebration of the Eucharist, we are spiritually brought back to the pascal Triduum: to the events of the evening of Holy Thursday, to the Last Supper and to what followed it. We return to Good Friday, the hour of our redemption. In spirit and through the power and authority of the Holy priesthood, as the priest who acts in the person of Jesus Christ, we are all able to be present at the foot of the cross, present alongside St. John and the Blessed Virgin Mary. “This is the wood of the Cross on which hung the Savior of the World, come let us adore! And we are present too at the empty tomb and are able to proclaim, “The Lord is risen from the tomb; for our sake he hung on the Cross, Alleluia.”
The Holy Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice, it does not it multiply it. It makes Christ’s one definitive sacrifice always present in time. But, the Holy Mass not only makes present the mystery of Christ’s passion and death, but also the mystery of the resurrection which crowned his sacrifice (EE:14).

As the Church’s great celebration of Easter was made possible the passion and death of Jesus, our share in its saving power is made possible by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. At every Mass we are enable to be present at all of these events, not in mind, but in reality. And not only are we able to be present sacramentally, truly—we are able to share, here on earth, in the Joy of that eternal Easter in heaven.

The Holy Mass makes truly present, not only the saving events of our salvation but makes truly, sacramentally present the one who is our salvation—Jesus Christ and his self emptying sacficie of love for us. And so, at Masss we, by our baptism, are enabled to offer ourselves to the Father through Jesus Christ by uniting ourselves to Jesus’ one and only Sacrifice of Love. And we are also enable to receive Him into our bodies and souls and be transformed into His Body, into Love incarnate.

Those who feed on Christ in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life: they already possess it on earth as the first fruits of that eternal life. For in the Eucharist we also receive the pledge of our bodily resurrection at the end of the world; “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day: This pledge of the future resurrection comes from the fact, that the flesh of the Son of Man, given as food, is his body in its glorious state after the resurrection. With the Eucharist we digest, as it were the “secret” of the resurrection. For this reason Saint Ignatius of Antioch, rightly defined the Eucharist as “a medicine for immortality and antidote to death.

I took the last few sentences from an Encyclical on the Holy Eucharist released on Holy Thursday in 2003 by Blessed John Paul the Second. I recommend to all of you to read this incredible Letter.

In this encyclical John Paul points out that the Joy of the Resurrection is more than just a pipe dream in your life and mine. It is a tangible and livable reality because Jesus, the crucified and the resurrection one is still in our midst. He is truly here, not just in our hearts, not just in the proclamation of the word, not just in our community gathered, Jesus Christ is still physical with us. Let me repeat it, Jesus Christ is still physical with us, in his resurrected body, a real body, albeit a glorified one. Jesus Christ Emmanuel, He who promised he would be with us until the end of the ages, becomes physically, sacramentally present, IN HIS BODY, BLOOD, SOUL, and DIVINITY at this very Mass and He comes into us at Holy Communion. For this reason we know the grave is empty, there are no bones of Jesus in the ground anywhere. He lives again in His body which is present in its entirety in the Holy Eucharist

This is the reason for our Easter Joy! A joy that is real, because the Eucharist is real. A Joy that is obtainable in the midst of our sorrow, pain and death, because Jesus suffered sorrow, pain and death. But he has defeated death—He has risen! Jesus is the resurrection and the Life. Ever Holy Mass is an Easter, because At every Holy Mass we can encounter the the Risen Jesus in the Holy Eucharist…this is a real encounter with Him in His resurrected and now living body and if we have faith He will transform us into His otherselfs as His love for the world…O Come let us adore His resurrected body at this Mass in the Holy Eucharist which I acting in His person am about to make present—physically—sacramentally—truly, on this altar of Sacrifice.

Let us, as John Paul the Second has taught at the beginning of this new millennium, put out into the deep of Jesus’ love by offering ourselves totally to Him, with Him, in Him, to the Father. Let us adore Jesus--beholding the face of Jesus through the eyes of the Virgin Mary, she who will be with us to help us in our offering of ourselves. For we are weak and we need a mother’s help. Let us pray, to Jesus through her, “Hail true body that was born of Mary, the Virgin, that truly suffered and was offered in sacrifice on the cross for man and that gave forth true blood from its pierced side. Be to us a foretaste of heaven…”

Our sense fail to see the Risen one, but faith alone rooted in the words of Christ handed down to us by the Apostle is sufficient. Our words become the words of St. Peter spoken to our Lord after he revealed the mystery of the Eucharist and the necessity of eating His body and drinking His Blood in order to obtain eternal life…“Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68). A BLESSED EASTER to all of you and your families.