New Life out of Death

 

In nature, death and new life go hand in hand. Winter's death and Spring's new life. That's one way that God has of helping us to understand the Paschal Mystery, the dying and rising of Jesus.
In his Gospel, Luke is especially intent on helping us to focus on the connection between suffering and glory, between death and new life. Along with Mark and Matthew, Luke has Jesus predict the connection between his death and resurrection three times before his Passion. But it is only in Luke that we are reminded of this connection three times after the Resurrection.
The "two men in dazzling clothes" at the tomb of Jesus tell the women, "Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." 24:6
Of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus Jesus asks, "Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" 24:26
When Jesus appears to the disciples gathered together he opens their minds to the "law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms" and says "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day." 24:46
We may not always catch it, but in our experience also, suffering and joy, death and new life go hand in hand.