“He has risen; He is not here.” These words of the angel are much more than information. They put into words the hallmark of all God’s saving ways with us.

Isaac was to be sacrificed, but when Abraham’s knife eventually fell, Isaac wasn’t there. He had risen from the altar at God’s command. Israel was to be massacred by the pursuing Egyptians at the Red Sea, but the Israelites were not there. They had risen through the Red Sea, led by the hand of God. Again, they were to be eliminated in exile in Babylon, but the prophet Baruch proclaims their return to the Holy Land by the hand of God. They were not there. They had risen.

These are just examples of the marvellous deeds of rescue which the Lord works for His own. They are but faint predictions of the greatest marvel of all: Christ’s resurrection from the dead. When the angel says, “he is not here”, it’s not just because he is not in the place they laid Him and can instead be found in Galilee. The “here” where Jesus is no longer to be found is this mortal human life of ours. Like Isaac and Israel, though in a much more sublime way, Jesus escaped death. Not in the sense that He avoided death as they did, but because He went through it, conquered it and came out the other side with its keys in His hands. And He came out of it not only spiritually, but in what once had been our mortal flesh. The whole of Jesus has risen, body, blood, soul and divinity. Nothing of Him has been left in death. He is now more alive than ever He had been.

When a loved one dies, we know they have gone. With the angel, we can say, “he, she is not here.” We cannot also say with the angel, “he, she has risen” to explain why they are no longer here.  …. Or can we? The reason Jesus was buried was because his body was mortal. In a very real sense, our bodies become our tombs. In youth they promise and give great life and joy, if we don’t die prematurely. But inevitably, they weigh down our spirit until they abandon it. It is the body which leaves the soul. It returns to the earth. The soul returns to God. It rises back to God, we might say.

We instinctively rebel against this tearing apart of our humanity. We just know that it should not be. And, indeed, death was never of God’s fashioning. He rebels against it, too. He is on our side. … And He did something about it. He took on a mortal body in order to enter into death. The difference between Him and us is that He had no sin. He did not carry Satan’s hallmark as we do. When Jesus died, therefore, Satan’s power over death was snatched from him by Christ. Satan came looking for Jesus in death, but instead Jesus commanded him, “get lost – death now belongs to me.” The Omega point is no longer permanent death but the Life who is already the Alpha point. As He says in the Book of Revelation, “I am the Alpha and the Omega. I was dead, and behold I am alive and hold the keys of death and of hell.”

This tremendous battle and victory of Jesus was for our sake, and so it is also ours. It is He who has done all the heavy lifting so that we can share in its fruits. He makes it easy for us in a way that only His mighty love for us could dream up. He gives us the sacrament of Baptism. In Baptism the hallmark of Satan, original sin, is removed from depth of our soul and is replaced by the hallmark of God. Baptism means that without being crucified, we share in Christ’s crucifixion; without dying, we share in his death; without entering into the tomb, we share in his burial. As yet we have not shared in his bodily resurrection or ascension, but one day we shall. On that day, the Spirit of Pentecost will invade our flesh and bones with the divine life and love and, together with all of redeemed humanity and the redeemed cosmos itself, we will rise in glory to form the great Mystical Body of the Risen Christ to the glory of God the Father.

Baptism far surpasses Isaac’s rescue, the miracle of the Red Sea, or Israel’s repeated rescues from exile and the threat of elimination. Abraham, Isaac, Israel and all of the ancient patriarchs and prophets could only have dreamed of such a wondrous thing! The saints and martyrs were gripped by its power and beauty to the point that they preferred to die to themselves – the martyrs literally – and to live only for the Risen Lord. He so captivated their minds, so invaded their souls, so ravished their hearts, so enlivened their flesh that for them life was and is Christ and death gain. “Not I, but God”, as young Carlo Acutis puts it. To paraphrase the words of the angel to the women at the tomb: it can be said of those who truly fall in love with Christ: “we are not here, for He has Risen, and our real life is now hidden with Him in God.”

Easter is not just a feast, a celebration or a holiday. It is more a mentality, an outlook, a source of motivation, inspiration and lifestyle. It is most of all the renewal within us of the life of the Risen Lord received in baptism. That life is not merely a commodity lying somewhere inside us, but is a personal relationship with the living God who demands all the love, hope and faith of which we are able, and who invites us to purify our minds, hearts and bodies of all that is not worthy of Him or of ourselves.

My Easter sisters and brothers, we can’t live this earthly life of ours as if it were an end in itself. If we do that, death has won. Nor therefore can we live our life of faith as if it were just one more or less secondary aspect of our lives. Rather, it is our life of faith which gives depth and meaning to everything. Our life here will only attain its true purpose if we live it restlessly and relentlessly in the awareness that “He has risen; he is nothere.”  In the end, Baptism is not just the doorway to the sacraments, but to the throne of God. It is the hallmark which will one fine and glorious day enable us to gaze upon God. Our world needs the Gospel of Easter. We have it. In fidelity to our baptism, let’s live it and give it. The angel was there because Jesus wasn’t. Today, we are that angel.