The true division of humanity is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness, wrote Victor Hugo, in Les Miserables.

Does Hugo not get it so right, an understanding of Easter? The gloom and doom of Holy Week, with its cadences of the laying down of palm branches as hosannas ring out to the King of Kings,and the eventual tragic death of Jesus. The impenetrable somberness of the deed gives way to a burst of brilliant, radiant, translucent light from the gates of the grave.

Easter means to stand in the light of the empty tomb and wonder, along with the utter amazement of the apostles, what to do next.

Let us not misread the gospel account as just an historical translucent event happening in Jerusalem. Truly it is a lifelong commitment, as it was to the followers to the risen Jesus. Easter is a core part of Christianity. We say in the Creed: I believe in Jesus Christ who rose from the dead. Death has been conquered forever. Life, through the Resurrection, goes on and on and lasts for us into eternity.

Every time Jesus rises in our hearts in new previously undiscovered ways—in the poor, in the unloved, in other revelatory moments of life that untie dark experiences—resurrection brings a light to God’s creation. Jesus rises anew.

That is what Easter is really about, referred to in Hugo’s dramatic rendering of the struggle between light and dark. The message is clear. In following the resurrected Jesus, the path may be through darkness, through voiceless women for whom Jesus gave his life. Let us not blow out the dazzling Easter Paschal light, and let us get on with the works that match the effects of Jesus’ wounds to the entire world.

Claire Smith, O.S.U.

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