But our Easter joy is not confined the conquest of evil.  “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,” St Paul goes on to say, “we are of all people most to be pitied” (NRSV, 1 Corinthians 15:19).  What indeed could be more cruel, more futile, than for victory to be within our grasp only to be snatched away by the hand of death?  But Christ, by his Resurrection, has conquered not only evil but death itself.

For God the Father, in response to Christ’s sinless perfection, reversed his Son’s condemnation and death at the hands of human beings by raising him from the dead.  So his perfect life with his Father on earth was resumed and continued with him in Heaven.  And it is Easter Day which reveals to us the reality and fullness of that heavenly life.

The Risen Christ was even more his true self than he was during his earthly mission, for then his human body had hindered and restricted his activity.  But now that selfsame Body raised from the dead above this earthly level of existence, was radiant with serenity and glory; and so too was the risen and supernatural life he now enjoyed.

We perhaps think of death as a near-calamity and of the next life as lacking the essentials that make any life worth living.  The disciples probably thought exactly the same on Good Friday, but they viewed the matter very differently on Easter Day when their eyes were opened to the truth.

From that moment onwards they knew, with a confidence born of the evidence of their own eyes and ears, that death was the gate through which they would pass to their own joyful resurrection, and then the risen life of Jesus would be their life too.