•They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. (Acts 10:39b)
•The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. (Psalm 118:22)
•For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)
•On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning… (John 20:1)
•…the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. (John 20:8,9)

 

•What was Mary of Magdala seeking at “the tomb early in the morning”?
•What did the other disciple see in the empty tomb?
•What are you seeking this Easter from the resurrected Jesus?
•How is your life hidden “with Christ in God”?
•How do you enter the tomb (death) or die to self to live in Christ?

Real death is separation from God, and this is unbearable; real death is faithlessness, hopelessness and lovelessness.…

Real death is the chaos where human beings find themselves when they disobey the Father, it is the tangled web to which they are reduced by their passions, it is the total defeat of all their dreams of greatness, it is the disintegration of their whole personality.

Real death is emptiness, darkness, desolation, despair, hatred, destruction. So…Christ agreed to enter this death, into this separation, so as to identify himself with all who were in separation, and to save them.

When he touched the depths of their despair he announced hope with his resurrection.

When he was immersed in their darkness he made the brightness of the truth burst forth with his resurrection.

When engulfed by the abyss of their lovelessness he showed them the infinite joy of love with his resurrection. By rising from the dead he made all things new.

By rising from the dead he opened new heavens.

By rising from the dead he opened new life.<sup>1



1</sup>Carlo Carretto: Selected Writings, Orbis: Maryknoll, NY, 1994, p. 147, 8.