Christ is Risen! The Lord is Truly Risen, Alleluia!

Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb (John 20:1). Notice that detail: while it was still dark. Not only in the sky, but in the heart. Grief has a way of dimming everything. When love is lost, when hope feels sealed behind a stone, even the dawn can seem reluctant. And yet, that is precisely where Easter begins; not in clarity, but in confusion, not in triumph, but in tears.

Mary comes expecting to tend a body. She was not expecting a miracle. She was just trying to be faithful. Peter and the beloved disciple run, not because they understand, but because they don’t. And what they find is not an explanation, but an absence, the stone rolled away, the tomb empty. The Gospel is almost understated, even a little ironic, the greatest event in history leaves behind only folded linen clothes.

This is because the Resurrection is not something you prove like a theory. It is something you encounter. “He saw and believed” (John 20:8). Faith begins not when everything is clear, but when the heart dares to trust that God has acted.

We know that experience. Think of a family waiting through the long night at a hospital bedside. The hours stretch, the silence deepens and then, slowly, morning comes, and with it, unexpected Good News. Nothing dramatic, just a quiet turning: life where there was fear. That is how God often works, not always with noise, but with unmistakable power.

This is what Easter proclaims: sin is forgiven, death is defeated, and our life, exactly as it is, can begin again. “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad” (Psalm 118:24). This is not because life is perfect, but because Christ is alive.

And here is the heart of it: the Risen Jesus is not locked in the past. He is present. The One who left the tomb does not remain at a distance, He gives himself. Here. Now. In the Eucharist.

What the disciples first discovered in signs, the empty tomb, the folded clothes, we receive in sacrament. The same Risen Lord places himself into our hands, into our lives, not just as a memory, but as a Living Presence.

So, this Easter, do not just stand at the tomb in amazement. Come to the altar in faith. Receive the One who is Life itself. Happy Easter Folks!

Your Priest,

Father Charles Enyinnia