Archbishop Nolan reflects on the empty tomb:
In many paintings depicting the resurrection we see Jesus bursting out of the tomb, the stone rolled away, and Jesus standing there triumphant. Having risen and conquered death.
But that is not the scene that the gospel describes. That is not what the disciples of Jesus witnessed.
Instead we hear of two disciples, Peter, and the beloved disciple who is traditionally seen as John, run to the tomb. What they find is an empty tomb.
And we are told that when the disciple steps inside the tomb he sees and he believes. What does he see? What he sees is an empty tomb.
And he believes. Because suddenly it all falls into place, of course the tomb is empty, of course Jesus is not there. Did he not foretell that he would rise from the dead?
Later the disciples are going to have the experience of encountering the Risen Jesus. But that first moment of faith comes not from having a vision of Jesus risen from the dead but from stepping inside the tomb and seeing that it was empty.
Just as the empty tomb was the spur for the disciples to believe so also the emptiness of our lives is often the spur moving us to faith.
At moments of loss - of our job, of our health, of a relationship, of someone precious to us - our life seems suddenly empty and has lost all meaning and purpose.
At that point, in that emptiness, when all that is precious has been taken from us, we encounter God. In tragedy we come to realise that we have lost our focus, we have to refocus our lives.
Sometimes we don’t see God because our life is too full, too busy, too active. ...If we step out during the day and look up we cannot see the stars, we only see them in the darkness. Yet the stars are always there. God is always there, but it may be only in the dark and empty moments of our life that we are able to look and see, and believe.