Then came Sunday

People flock to the beach and there's nothing wrong with that. Who wouldn't want that with those huge bright cumulus clouds against the deep blue summer skies on a 34-degree sweltering Sunday. In many parts of the world, people go Easter egg-hunting, supposedly as part of the Easter Sunday tradition, which also include Easter bunnies as well as other kinds of merry-making. In the U.S., they have Easter parades.

Nothing wrong with all of that. I guess people are people and tradition will continue to persist especially that which repeat itself as the earth revolves around the sun, giving us the never-ending seasons. Nothing wrong if we don't forget what it is that we should be commemorating today. Most of the world calls it Easter Sunday, presumably a Christian holiday, though others think these are pagan practices, with Easter's etymology more generally connected to the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess, "?ostre," an Indo-European dawn goddess, the Semitic Aramean goddess, Astarte, or the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess, Ishtar. Let the theologians argue over that. To me, it's resurrection Sunday.

But those of us like me who are not trained in biblical exegesis have to rely on our personal reading of the Scriptures and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to understand what today means. It's the last day of the "Holy Week," the succession of events leading to the crucifixion of the historical Jesus of Nazareth, around 2,000 years ago. The resurrection of the Jesus from the dead is the foundation of the Christian faith. This is what we are celebrating today, though oftentimes we fail to recognize the profound immensity of that fact. Jesus is alive today!

By some divine intention, a man was born on what we now call Christmas day, so poor that he has to share the first instance of his human life with animals at the stable. Yet, when he died, he was buried in a borrowed rich man's tomb. What prompted Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, or supreme council, to boldly claim the body of Jesus and allowed him to be buried in his new tomb can only be considered as faith, trusting the consequences to God. What he didn't know it would be empty the following morning.

An empty tomb. The very foundation of the faith that Christians believe in. If that tomb was not empty, then the remains of Jesus would have stayed there. After two thousand years, what would have become of it? Remain dead I presume, like all the rest of the gods that others believe in - immovable, inanimate and very much un-alive. But the fact that the tomb was empty declared to the world that Jesus is alive. He has endured the punishment of hell, of being away from the very presence of God, to give us the opportunity to live as he has.

As far as I have read the Scriptures, Jesus didn't transform into something ethereal, as what we usually perceived God to be. He was quickened from the dead into a glorified body that his disciples can touch and feel, even to the nail marks on his hand. He lived with them, for 40 days after that eventful Sunday. That's more than a month if you didn't notice - he lived on earth for 40 days before he ascended to heaven. He was alive, still is, and continues to live! That alone would give anybody hope, that life isn't just the problems and worries we have each day; that there is life beyond this one, and which we will be eternally happy.

No other set of beliefs exist today that lays its trust on a living God - one we can touch and feel, and talk to and who talks to us, and who knows our innermost beings, other than that founded on an empty tomb. Yet, many of us, this writer included, often miserably fail to cling on to this truth. We go on our daily lives as if God doesn't exist, remembering him only in times of great distress, calamity, or sorrow. We're humans and we fail, but God does not.

And so whatever you're doing today, just remember that empty tomb. Jesus rose from the dead around 2000 years ago. He lives and is alive forevermore. Talk to him, will you, and worship him, wherever you are. This is the least we can do to the risen Lord.

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My best wishes to my son, Samuel Ken Villarete, who is turning 5 today, resurrection day. The Lord bless you and keep you … and give you peace. May you continue to serve as a living testimony that in this present day and age, of smartphones, e- and i- gadgets, and technological sophistication, God still hears us, and will continue to hear us, because he lives! Happy birthday, Samuel.