Two thousand years ago, the news started to get around among the disciples, the followers and the friends of Jesus.

First there were reports that the tomb was empty. That of course could have been explained in various ways. But then some among them testified that they had seen Jesus alive. For that, no earthly explanation was possible.

The Gospels tell us that Jesus showed Himself a number of times to His friends. Still, much room was left for the Church to have to take the risk of faith in Jesus and in His resurrection.

More than some sort of scientific proof that Jesus has come back from the dead so demanded by our modern age, we have the testimony and witness of those who saw Him, who spoke to Him, who touched Him, who ate with Him. And they were willing to die rather than deny what they had seen.

It is that witness, disciple to disciple, each a link in a chain until the end of the world, that is the means for our own reception of the faith. And we are tasked by Christ to live our faith and pass it on to others.

It is good for us to spiritually imagine Jesus’ resurrection as recounted in the Gospels. We do so because if we personally love Jesus and cherish our friendship with Him, we long to know everything about Him.

At the same time, any hint of the meaning of the resurrection gives us an insight into the well-founded hope for our own glorious life after our death.

So we ponder the fact that Jesus was resurrected in His body. His was not simply a ghostly mirage. The disciples recognized and knew Him. They spoke to Him and touched Him. Jesus even continued one of our own most fundamental bodily activities; He ate with His friends.

But we are mystified also that at other times those who loved Him did not recognize Him.

Taken together, these testimonies and accounts remind us that Easter Sunday means that the resurrection we also long for is one that maintains our identity and our person.

That’s important because one of the defining elements of our identity is whom we have known and loved in this life. Every one of us is the son or daughter of particular parents. We have had siblings and friends as a part of this life.

If we are resurrected as Jesus was, we have the great hope of eternity rejoicing with family members, loved ones and friends in the eternal company of Jesus.

It is instructive also that Jesus’ resurrected body was still marked by the wounds of His crucifixion. Jesus did not hesitate to invite doubting Thomas to place his fingers in those wounds that he might believe.

Even now in His glory, Jesus bears the wounds of our sin. But because the whole of His body is now purified and made new, even those wounds give glory to Him.

In a similar way, our transformation into glory, if we are faithful and live according to Jesus’ commands, will not forget the sufferings and even the failings we experience in this life. How many are made stronger and drawn closer to God through patience and suffering?

And all of us, to a lesser or a greater extent, will come to recognize God’s love precisely because He knew our sins and forgave them. Our sufferings and sins then, glorified and forgiven in our own resurrection, will also give eternal praise to God.

Finally, the Gospels do not speak of it, but the Church’s pious tradition has been that after He rose on Easter Sunday, Jesus first appeared to His mother. We might also spiritually imagine that moment.

Mary’s sinless and motherly love gazing upon her son, seeing clearly that every effort to love Him and follow Him is worth it.

So it is for each of us. A very blessed Easter to all!