297th Meditation
“Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:55).
We can exclaim it with jubilation on this day, the day on which the Church proclaims the Resurrection of the Son of God: The Lord is risen! Indeed He is risen! Hallelujah!
The Father has fulfilled all that had been foretold. And what is yet to be fulfilled will surely come to pass, for He is the Eternal, the Most Loving and the All-Fulfilling.
Now, after the long season of Lent, the time has come. Now is the time of Easter joy, the time of glory, for death could not hold back the Son of God, who will ascend to the Father and take us with Him as the prize of His victory.
The Risen One, who will return at the End of Time, showing Himself with the transfigured wounds He suffered for us, is our future. In Him, the Father already grants us spiritual resurrection, when we leave behind the ways of sin and His grace begins to work in us. This path will one day lead us to the bodily resurrection, so that, with a transfigured body, we will be with God for ever.
Although the Risen Lord ascended into heaven after instructing His disciples and was no longer visibly among them, He did not leave us orphans. Rather, He assured us of His constant presence and left us with a commission:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Mt 28:18-20).
The Risen Lord wants to continue His work with us throughout the centuries, so that all people may be saved and return to the house of our Heavenly Father.
What a holy mission the Lord, truly risen, entrusts to us! Praise be to Him, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit! Alleluia!