Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining. – Easter Sequence
Alleluia! Jesus is risen! Happy Easter! This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the victory of Jesus over the powers of death. Death seems so frightening and final, like nothing can stop its grip on us. On the surface, seeing only with worldly eyes, it seems like death has the final word. But Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the true victory. Because of the authority of Christ crucified and risen on Easter morning, we can scoff with St. Paul over death itself: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sins is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (1 Corinthians 15:55-56).
Indeed, God’s love is stronger than death. Love nailed Him to the cross. Love raised him from the tomb. Jesus’s love for God the Father and for each and every one of us broke the power of death. Truly, nothing–not even death–can keep us from the love of God (Romans 8:38). Because of His victory, we need no longer be afraid: Jesus shared our humanity and “death [so] he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15).
“Love endures everything, love is stronger than death, love fears nothing.”
-St. Faustina
His love, His very life within us, is what will raise us from our tombs: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him” (Romans 6:5-9). We are united to Christ’s death through baptism, so death no longer has any grip on us. Our lives are now “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).
Jesus, I ask you to place your seal of love upon my heart: “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death…” (Song of Solomon 8:6). Help me to make faithful, grateful response to Your love and life by accepting it wholeheartedly and proclaiming the Good News of Your victories in my own life to others: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17).