The sun sets and the day ends. A man comes to the end of his life and he dies. A flower blooms in beautiful colors, then it fades away and dies. A meteor streaks across the sky, brightening the darkness of the night for a moment and then it is gone. Such is the natural order of things. Everything eventually comes to an end.
And yet, do things really come to an end? Another day dawns and the whole cycle of life starts anew. With spring, the flowers come back and break into a wild explosion of colors into summer. New meteors are continuously spit out by the millions from the stars that have guided and inspired men since time immemorial. And deep inside me, there is this something or someone that assures me that I shall not die but will go on and on. How, where or why, I have no idea but it does feel like a sure thing.
Eternal life. Resurrection. Are they just idle tales? Are these but the deep-seated wish of a self-conscious life that refuses to fade away and die? Or the desperate longing of people wanting to prolong the little joys they enjoy or to find justice and justification for all the difficulties they have gone through? Science has enabled man to understand the circadian rhythm, the movement of the seasons, the movements and configuration of planets, stars and galaxies. Man, through science, has plumbed into the smallest particle in matter and has learned that matter does not die. At the smallest level, particles of matter just keep on beating, incessantly and eternally. But science stops at affirming man’s destiny for eternal life and the resurrection.
My faith affirms and gives expression to his deep longing in me, telling me that it is the truth and it will come to fruition as it did for Christ on that first Easter morning. My faith gives voice and language to what I feel deeply inside but have difficulty expressing and believing. He is risen and so will I.
The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Luke 24:1-12