In the light of this Easter morning that is now dawning, I want to ask you, especially those of you gathered here to make your new commitment to Christ in baptism or confirmation: Do you expect, do you long, with Mary Magdalene, to ”˜see the Lord’ in this life? And if so, what can this mean? What is it so to ”˜see’ the resurrected Jesus, to commit yourself to a belief in him, and his life beyond death? What is it to assert, with this, that there is a divine, transcendent force in our universe which rises beyond death, tragedy and failure, which captivates our hearts and minds and turns our lives out of darkness into light?
Everything hangs on this question for us as Christians. If there is no resurrection, if ”˜one did not rise from the dead’, then our faith is indeed ”˜in vain’, as St. Paul puts it. The problem only comes ”“ let us be honest ”“ in clarifying what, exactly, we are being asked to do in believing this….