"And on the third day He rose from the dead." To believe that Jesus rose from death, is alive and still with us, is not a conclusion of scientific investigation, nor the result of our reasoning. It is the faith of Christians, a gift given us by God, for which we can only be grateful and give Him praise.

But from the beginning, as Matthew's gospel reminds us today, people have tried inventing all sorts of theories and "explanations" for what happened on the first Easter morning. Each year, around this time, magazines, newspapers and now internet blogs come out with new 'sensational' reports to dismiss or play down the reality of Jesus' rising from death. Some sound very 'reasonable' perhaps in contrast with the rather obvious crude piece of corrupt practice that Matthew attributes to the Jerusalem authorities. Serious scholars, too, discuss what exactly may have happened at the resurrection.

Let us, in our prayer today, humbly and joyfully exult in this tremendous mystery of God's love for us in raising Jesus from death, and making us His Easter people. This faith has come to us through Jesus' friends and those to whom He showed Himself alive after His passion and death. They were witnesses for whom the truth of what they believed was more important than their own mortal lives. They were brothers and sisters in the community of love which makes us the body of Christ. So let us sing 'alleluia' in these days praising the Lord our God for the wonders of His great mercy.