Why do you seek the living among the dead ?
He is not here,but has risen.
Very early on Sunday morning the holy women who came to finish Anointing the body of Jesus,which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good Friday, were the first to discover the empty tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, so they went in,but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering what to make of this,suddenly two men in bright shining clothes stood by them and said to them "Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive? He is not here, he has risen" (Lk.24,5-6).
The discovery of the empty tomb was the first step toward recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection.
The shock provoked by Jesus's Passion and Death on the Cross was so great that the Disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection. The Gospels present us with Disciples demoralized and frightened.They had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb and regarded their words as an "idle tale".
When Jesus reveals himself to them on Easter evening, the Disciples thought they were seeing a ghost. Thomas was not with them when Jesus came. So the other Disciples told him, "We saw the Lord". But he did not believe them.A week later, when Thomas was with them, Jesus came again.Jesus said to Thomas "Put your finger here, and loock at my hands; then stretch out your hand and put it in my side. Stop your doubting,and believe". Thomas answered him, "my Lord and my God" (John 20;24-28).
By the means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct contact with his Disciples. Jesus guides them in this way to recognize that He is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which He appears to them is the same body that had been crucified, for it still bears the traces of his Passion. Yet at the same time his real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when He wills; for now He belongs to God's divine realm.
Fr. Cipriano Bontacchio