The feast of the Resurrection is an important and significant feast for the Church and for us Christians.
The preparation for this feast began with the 40 days of Lent, and then with Holy Week and the Sacred Pascal Triduum. So, there was Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday.
On this evening of the Easter Vigil, the gospel brings us back to that moment of the revelation of the mystery of our salvation.
The women went to the tomb very early in the morning and there was only one question in their minds: Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb?
Obviously, it was a very big stone, and entrance of the tomb is cut and shaped in such a way that the stone will seal the tomb permanently.
The revelation begins with that stone already rolled back, and the tomb was empty.
So, what really happened? Who rolled the stone away? And what happened to Jesus, or what happened to His body?
As the mystery of the Resurrection unfolds, that big stone and the empty tomb reveal who Jesus is, and they also reveal something about ourselves.
From the various accounts of the gospels, the message is one and the same: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
But it is a message that is not accepted by all. Even for us who profess our belief in the Resurrection, we have our questions about it.
But today we reflect about that big stone and the empty tomb, as symbolized by the empty Tabernacle.
And that question comes back again. Who rolled back the stone at the entrance of the tomb?
We could have guessed that it was not rolled back by human hands. It was by the Finger of God that rolled back that stone, and that Finger of God is pointing to the Risen Christ.
Yes, we want to believe that Jesus is risen, we want to believe in the Resurrection.
We want to believe that Jesus will also raise us up from our sinfulness to a life of holiness.
But we have to show Jesus those stones that burden our lives.
We are not just talking about kidney stones or gallbladder stones. Those kind of stones can cause some serious physical pains.
We are also talking about stones that have blocked and burdened our lives.
It may be stones of anger and resentment, stones of revenge and retaliation, stones of pride and unforgiveness.
Those kind of stones cause our hearts to be hardened.
It may also be those rough and sharp stones that have cut our hearts with disappointment and regrets, and made us feel small and rejected, lowly and even useless.
Whatever the stones are, today Jesus comes to us to renew our faith by renewing our Baptismal promises.
It was by water that we are baptized, and Jesus is the living water in our lives.
In the encounter between stone and water, the stone will give way to the water.
Water has that gentle power to dislodge those big stones.
Water has that flowing power to smoothen the sharpest of stones.
To believe in the Resurrection is to believe in the power of our Baptism over the troubles of our lives.
May the living waters from the Risen Lord Jesus roll away the stones of our hearts and fill our lives with His peace and joy.