04/05/2026
Easter Message, Fr. Adam Patras, OSB:
So here we are, early in the morning, at the tomb. The stone is still there, the grief is still there, and it seems like the story is over.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary aren’t going to the tomb expecting a miracle. They’re carrying loss, confusion, and the kind of heaviness we all know.
Then everything changes.
The earth shakes, the stone is rolled away, and suddenly what looked final, isn’t.
There is something here we really shouldn’t miss, the first people to witness this, the first ones entrusted with the news that Jesus is risen, are women.
In their time, their voices didn’t carry much weight. And yet God chooses them first. - That tells us something important. This tells us God doesn’t work the way the world works. God sees differently, chooses differently.
This is still true TODAY. This still matters today. We’re still figuring out how to listen to the right voices, how to honor people’s dignity, how to not overlook those on the margins.
The resurrection begins with people who simply show up in love.
The angel says, “Don’t be afraid… He’s not here. He’s been raised.”
The Marys are invited to see, and then they’re sent: go and tell.
So, they run off with what I can imagine was a mix of fear and joy. That feels right, doesn’t it? There’s a lot in our world that brings fear, uncertainty, division.
But there’s also real joy, because God is still at work, because death doesn’t get the last word.
But as the ladies are headed to fulfill the task they have been given, Jesus meets them.
Right in the middle of it all. Not when they’ve figured everything out, but while they’re still processing the whole thing, still running.
Jesus says: “Do not be afraid.”
We too need need to hear that. A lot. Just as the Angels spoke to the Shepherds, just as the Angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, just as God Spoke to Joseph in the Dream, and just as Jesus spoke to the disciples ; Don’t be afraid!
The risen Jesus sends the ladies on their way to TELL the others.
That’s how the Gospel moves forward, someone carries the message. And it starts with the women the world might have overlooked. The women who were just out to do the loving task of visiting the tomb of their beloved teacher and friend.
Today, on this Easter Morning God is asking us to carry the message out into the world.
But God is asking us to see differently. To listen better. We are asked: Who do we over look???
We are asked to recognize hope where we thought there wasn’t any. We are asked to discern the spirits. What voices give life to the world? What things and people give life? What things or people spread discord and violence and hatred? These last ones are not from God, are not part of the GOOD NEWS!
There are still plenty of tombs in our world, things that feel sealed, stuck, beyond fixing. Tombs of hatred, discord, and violence and war. Discrimination of minorities, people of color, the stranger, and of women.
But Easter says God isn’t finished.
Christ is risen. Hope is real. And it’s meant to be shared with all people… he died and arose ONCE…. And FOR ALL!
On this Easter Morning, as we celebrate this act of love, trust that Jesus will meet you along the way, in the in the Word, in the Eucharist and then go and tell the world by your words, but mostly by your lives, the Good News! And above all “do not be afraid”.
Jesus has been raised! Alleluia!
~ Fr. Adam Patras, OSB
