The Tomb is empty! The women come to anoint the body of Jesus in his tomb and find it empty. The guards have fled, the stone sealing the tomb is rolled away and no one is there! The burial cloth is there, but Jesus is not! What follows are stories in which Jesus appears to the disciples in many ways and in many forms. He appears to Mary but she doesn't recognize him until he speaks. He appears bodily and eats, he appears with his wounds from the crucifixion, and he chats with disciples who only recognize him in the breaking of the bread. In all these ways, the gospels tell us that Jesus lives.

Because Jesus lives, we can be "in Christ", as St. Paul's says, living through him, participating in the risen life here and now. When we share in the sufferings of Christ: his compassion for the lost and broken-hearted; his feeding of the hungry; his tender care for the sick and suffering; we bear our crosses just as Christ bore his cross. When we count everything as loss in order to gain Christ, we become the servant and slave of all. When we understand that the world's needs come before ours, we are truly "in Christ" and live in the power of his resurrection.

This road is not easy to travel. But our God is so awesome! God's love is so powerful, so strong and mighty that nothing can stop us when we choose His Way, His Truth and His life. As St. Paul writes in Romans 8:35, 37-39:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

At the end of Matthew's gospel Jesus promises to be with us always, even to the end of time. This gives me hope and in that hope the strength to move forward… to walk my road to Emmaus, to press on… to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness (1 Timothy 6:11). I am inspired to "fight the good fight of the faith" and claim for myself and others the eternal life to which we are called and for which we were made.