"Alleluia. Christ is Risen", we cried out at the beginning of Mass. The Easter Proclamation. The central, eternal, enduring proclamation of the holy catholic church. Nothing that we do, say, sing, pray, hope, believe, teach, or proclaim remotely approaches the sanctity and significance of this Easter shout of triumph: "Christ is Risen. Alleluia."

I am one, and one of many, one of all of you, who has worried and wondered, and felt, and felt certain, that I was going down to the grave, in sin and sorrow and sadness. We have all gone to the grave - long before we reach our final and last one. Fear, desperation, sickness, grief, loss, our pain, the terrible pain of those we love most, the end of marriages, the end of dreams, the end of meaningful work, the end of decent health - there is not one of us, who has not lost something, lived through something, is enduring something, that is more than just like going down to the grave, it is a death, real and genuine and hopeless.

But I was called back, as you have been, and so we are here. Together. Those graves we feared, and imagined, or saw, entered for a time, saw closing in on us, all now stand open and empty, our grave clothes folded on this glorious morning, all of that left behind, as we are called into light - his own marvelous light - the light of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.

We know, and have long believed, that at the end of these mortal lives of ours, when our body lies in death, there is a dwelling place eternal in the heavens prepared for us and waiting, and ready, and assured. Because of the Resurrection, because of this day, because of what happened this morning., so many mornings ago.

But it was not just then, so long ago, so many years and centuries ago. It is now - today - this very morning, The Lord IS risen - now. He IS risen indeed - today.

The Resurrection is always and everywhere and forever so much more than the glorious and surpassing proclamation and assurance of the life to come when all is fulfilled and accomplished. It is historical fact, yes, certainly. But it is more than that. Even better than that. It is a description of what surely will be, but it is more than that. It is a present and continuing reality. The Resurrection of Christ is a continuing and ongoing reality, just so, the resurrection life promised to each of us is already a reality, has already begun. We are already living the risen life, and sharing the Risen Life of him whom God raised from the dead.

What happened, then, when that tomb was discovered empty early in the morning, is happening now, to us. Christ - risen from the dead, now and forever and always. And with him, us, now and forever and always. He is risen, and by his grace we too are risen from the dead. Called out of our tombs. Called to leave the grave clothes behind. Called out of all sorts of present tombs. Tombs of guilt, and remorse, and despair. Tombs fraught with anxiety and reeking with the stench of self-loathing.

The view from the tomb is one of decay and rot, of decomposition and despair. But the view from inside the tombs in which we live and from which we are called forth this day and always, the view from inside the tomb is wrong. It has been destroyed and must be abandoned by us.

From inside the tomb, from that perspective, is matters very much whether or not you are good and upright in your ways. It matters very much whether or not you are who you are and how you behave, who you know, and what you know, and how much you believe and how well you act and look and seem. Inside our tombs it matters very much that you actually are what you appear to be, it matters very much that you have some asset, some gift, it matters very much that you have creative and fulfilling work, that you have talents and abilities in abundance, it matters very much that you have abiding and satisfying relationships, well-managed and well-ordered and healthy and wholesome lives.

From inside tightly sealed tombs, all of that matters very much, and it brings death and despair and desperation to all of us.

The Easter Acclamation is that all of that does not matter. On the Day of his Resurrection, all of the mocking and the scourging, the humiliation and the denials, the betrayals and the suffering, the rejection and the desertion, no longer matters to him or anyone else. And so on the Day of his Resurrection, all that is askew in our own lives, the horror, the shame, the foolishness, the embarrassment, the inadequacy, the loneliness, the frustration, the weakness, the sickness, the stumbling - no longer matters. Only Jesus Christ matters, and him Risen from the dead. And with him, us - Risen. Summoned from dank, dark tombs of our own or other's making, summoned into new and risen and unending life. Now that, it seems to me, matters.