Easter Vigil
Luke 24:1-12
A First-Day Story of New Beginnings
“He is not here, but has risen.” That’s it. That’s the core of the Easter message. The simplicity of this statement is profound, and yet it often seems too simple for everything it means. We don’t have all the answers, and we certainly can’t explain how it happened, but what we do have is the message of life, hope, and the possibility of transformation.
This message has not changed since the first Easter. It’s the same as it was then: “He is not here, but has risen.” Yet, How can this be? How can life rise from death? How can resurrection spring from despair? Death is so real, so constant in our experience. When we hear news of violence, loss, or injustice, the promise of Easter can sound like an idle tale—a comforting but unbelievable story.
The women who first discovered the empty tomb experienced this, too. When they brought the message of resurrection to the apostles, their words seemed “like a fairy tale.” When we face suffering, death, and pain, the resurrection message can seem equally impossible, even silly at times. But this is precisely why we gather today.
We come together on Easter Sunday to hear again that message: “He is not here, but has risen.” We come because we need to be reminded, despite our experience of death and loss, that there is more to this life. The resurrection doesn’t deny the harsh realities of our world; rather, it meets us right in the middle of them. It speaks to us in the midst of our suffering and says: this is not the end. Death does not have the final word. Jesus is alive, and because He is alive, there is hope.
The resurrection of Christ does not change the world’s circumstances, but it changes us in the midst of them. It calls us to live in the light of that resurrection—knowing that God’s power to bring life out of death is at work in us.
The “first day” in Luke’s gospel is not just a literal day on the calendar. It’s the beginning of a new creation. The resurrection marks the dawning of a new era. It’s the first day of a week of re-creation, a week where all things are made new. And the “first day” doesn’t just belong to Jesus; it belongs to all of us. Every resurrection moment in our lives is a “first-day” moment—a moment where the light of God breaks through the darkness, where new possibilities are born.
Think of the first days in your life—the first day of love, the first day of your child’s birth, the first day of hope after a season of despair. These are all “first-day” moments. They are filled with possibility, full of potential, and the promise of new life. And every one of them, just like Easter, holds within it the hope that we can begin again, that we are not defined by our past, but by what God is doing in us today.
The Easter story is for every person who feels trapped by regret or fear, who struggles with what the future might hold. The resurrection means that there is always a way forward, no matter the weight of the past or the uncertainty of the future.
The resurrection guarantees a future. A future where life, hope, and new beginnings are always possible. “He is not here, but has risen” is the promise that we can live that future today. This is the good news, the message that does not change, no matter what happens around us. It is the message that calls us to rise, to live, and to love in the light of the resurrection.
“He is not here, but has risen.” And because He has risen, we too can rise.
© Claretian Publications, Hong Kong, China
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica 2025
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