After witnessing the empty tomb, the women fled with fear and great joy to tell the disciples. Fear—a natural response to something beyond comprehension—mingled with joy, the recognition that death had indeed been conquered. This paradoxical emotional state perfectly captures our own spiritual journey during Easter. We too oscillate between trembling before the awesome mystery of resurrection and exulting in the promise it holds. Like these faithful women, we are called to move through our fear, not allowing it to paralyze us, but rather letting it propel us toward sharing the good news.
While the women hurried to spread word of Christ's resurrection, the guards and chief priests conspired to contain it with lies and bribery. How often we witness this same pattern in our world: divine truth confronted by worldly deception. Yet what strikes us most is the futility of their efforts. No amount of silver or fabrication could keep the risen Lord confined to the grave. The resurrection cannot be suppressed by human schemes, regardless of how powerful or well-funded. The truth of Easter persists despite all attempts to silence it.
On our journey through Easter Monday, we follow in the footsteps of those first witnesses, carrying within ourselves both their initial doubt and their eventual certainty. The road from Jerusalem to Galilee is our own path from hesitation to conviction. Jesus directs his followers back to Galilee, the place of ordinary life and daily labor. This reminds us that the resurrection isn't merely a historical event to be commemorated but a living reality to be encountered in our everyday existence—in family gatherings, workplaces, and community service.
The guards were paid to spread a falsehood that persists "to this day," as Matthew writes. Similarly, there are still those who dismiss the resurrection as myth or metaphor. Yet for those with eyes to see, the evidence of new life abounds everywhere—in the renewed creation of spring, in reconciled relationships, in communities of faith that continue to thrive across millennia. Easter Monday calls us to live as people transformed by resurrection truth, allowing the radiance that first illuminated the empty tomb to shine through us into a world still hiding in darkness. The light cannot be extinguished; it can only be received or rejected.
©2025 James Dacey Jr.
