“Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark.” What a great opening line for our Gospel today on this Easter Sunday. It evokes the state of humanity prior to the Resurrection, our nature shrouded in darkness due to sin and death. Yet, in that darkness of early morning Mary encounters the light of Christ in the Resurrected Lord. So too, in our darkness, the Resurrected Lord desires to meet us, to bring us light, joy, peace, and hope grounded in the reality that our God is alive! Our God is a God of light and life in the world. We Christians are called to be the same having been transformed by the Resurrected Christ.
Let us pray today with the image of the Easter Candle. This candle evokes Christ and the light and life of the living God. But a candle stays lit only to the extent that it allows itself to be consumed, that it gives itself away. So too with Christ: he gives himself away, especially in the Eucharist, and this self-gift enlightens our world. We, as Christians, are called to go and do likewise. We are called to give ourselves away through love and by this means to enlighten the world with Christ. Where is the Lord calling us to do that this Easter season?