Today’s Gospel begins on the “first day.” The Day of Resurrection. Our Lord is risen. The tomb is empty. But none of his disciples yet realizes this.
The Gospel continues, relating that “Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark.” These details establish the context of the Day of Resurrection. It is early in the morning. The night is over. Nonetheless, it is still dark. These carefully selected details not only contextualize Mary of Magdala’s search for Our Lord, they also capture the dynamics of the Christian life.
Because of Our Lord’s life, death, and resurrection, the night of sin and death is over. Definitively over. Jesus never committed any sin. Any disordered actions were impossible for the Incarnate Son of God. Nonetheless, because of our disorder, he freely underwent the penalties of sin to liberate us from the darkness of evil. Because Jesus loved us infinitely, he voluntarily experienced the results of our failure to love. For this very reason the Eternal Son assumed a human nature. In his humanity, Jesus was like us in all things but sin. And through the Passion that he suffered in his humanity he delivered the world from bondage to sin.
Christ has brought saving light to the world. The night is over. The morning of our salvation has arrived. It is still dark, however. Nonetheless, the present darkness is the darkness of day, not of night.
Through the Sacraments we are configured and conformed to Jesus, Our Savior. We truly meet Jesus in the Seven Sacraments of the Church. They are not merely symbolic. They are not empty signs. Rather, through them, we have real—and saving—contact with Our Lord. We truly meet Jesus in the Sacraments.
The Sacraments lie at the heart of the Christian life. And it is because of Christ’s Passion at the end of his earthly life—then and there—that the Sacraments are powerful instruments of salvation in our lives—here and now. Jesus imparts to us his saving mercy through the Sacraments. Through them, we receive a share in the very light of Christ that vanquishes the night of sin.
Nonetheless, darkness is still a present characteristic of the Christian life. The morning is here, yes. Jesus has truly saved us, definitely. The night of sin and death is over, forever. And yet we still live in a world comprising the limitations of contingency, creatureliness, and finitude. The gift that Jesus gives us is beyond the order of natural reality.
Consequently, we are unable to see fully—here and now—the grand luminosity of Our Lord’s salvation. The limitations of native human perception prohibit us from recognizing the profound reality of our union with Jesus. In other words, not only has Jesus given us a gift that we cannot give to ourselves, we cannot—by ourselves—perceive the real presence of this saving gift. Only in Heaven—under the light of glory—will we be able to see God face to face. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they ‘see him as he is,’ face to face” (no. 1023).
In this earthly existence, the Christian lives in union with Jesus—really and truly—but under the light of faith. Through the light of faith we have access to supernatural reality and truth that we cannot perceive by the light of natural reason. How so? Because Jesus sees and knows that we cannot see and know without him—and he reveals what he sees and knows to us so that we can “see and know” in him.
Jesus tells us what he sees and knows. And in faith we participate in his supernatural knowledge. “Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but ‘the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives’” (CCC no. 157; emphasis original).
In conclusion, the night is over. Day has come—the day of salvation. Our Lord has truly risen. He is alive. And all those who cling to him in charity have eternal life in him. Nonetheless, the dynamics of our salvation are mysteries of faith. Through faith we live not by our own light, but by the light of Christ. Therefore, we need not succumb to sentiments of doubt or discouragement in the presence of any lingering shadows in our perceptions. The darkness of the Christian life is the darkness of morning—not of night.
The Day of Salvation has come. Christ is here. And he has revealed to us a precious truth that we can all live by: Jesus has really and truly banished the night of sin and death.
