The Easter celebration is a celebration of triumph, a golden triumph, not only over death and sin but also over despair. The followers of Jesus resembled a scattered community after His passion and death. They wandered without a shepherd. But the resurrection of Jesus empowered them to overcome their despair. The main fruit of Christ’s resurrection is that of consolation and hope. Each one of us can receive consolation and hope because of that empty tomb. We may fear death but we are not terrorized by it. Because of Christ’s resurrection, death was changed from being ultimate to being merely transitional. St. Paul wrote, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?"
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the central event in the history of Christianity. No other religious figure in the whole of human history died and then rose from the dead. The existence of Christianity itself is based on His resurrection. The Easter Sunday is a gift of Heavenly Father to the humanity for the Holy Sacrifice of Jesus on Good Friday. These events are not fables, myths, or fantasies but they are historical actualities.
Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, victim no longer. His glorious, Spirit-filled risen humanity is no longer held in the tomb of shame, isolation and loneliness. He is risen that we might walk in the glorious freedom and dignity of the sons and daughters of God - clothed and no longer naked. Through the power of God's Holy Spirit we can "put on Christ" as St. Paul bids us, put on the risen Christ. We can clothe ourselves in Christ's way of living, in His truth, and in His Spirit-filled, resurrected life. We need no longer feel the shame and the nakedness of living with nothing but our own arrogance; of having nothing to clothe us more than our own self-will, which is transparently nothing other than our own self-delusion.
The celebration of Easter calls us to achieve great spiritual heights and work for our own rising up, our own renewal, our own triumph over difficulties and despair.