I was reading a pre-teen mystery book, lent to me by a friend, when I was about 12. It was a bit science fiction, a thriller with lots of the gore and suspense appropriate to the age. Some parts of it were scary. My grandmother had stopped by and I sat in the living room engrossed in the book. When I got to a particularly scary spot for the hero I placed my finger in the book to mark the place and turned to the last chapter and skimmed the ending. “Why are you doing that?” Gram asked me. “When I know how it ends,” I replied “the rest isn’t so scary.”
That is the great gift of Easter for all of us. Easter is God’s way of telling us how it ends. Death has no dominion, no lasting sting. Death is swallowed up in life. The scripture assures us in Genesis, “In the beginning, God…” The Gospel reminds us of Emmanuel – God with us – throughout our life. And Revelation tells us that in the end, God…” Nothing can separate us from the love of God except our own decision to be separated.
The love of God hold us in life and receives us in death transforming both life and death. From death God calls us forth from the cocoon of our frail 
humanity as if a butterfly transforming us and clothing us with new life.
“Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!”
Don
