“This is the day which the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Ps 118:24)

“This invitation to joy, which the Easter liturgy makes its own, reflects the astonishment which came over the women who, having seen the crucifixion of Christ, found the tomb empty when they went there ‘very early on the first day after the Sabbath’ (Mk 16:2). It is an invitation to relive in some way the experience of the two disciples of Emmaus, who felt their hearts ‘burn within them’ as the risen one walked with them on the road, explaining the scriptures and revealing himself in ‘the breaking of the bread’ (Lk 24: 32, 34). And it echoes the joy – at first uncertain and then overwhelming – which the apostles experienced on the evening of that same day, when they were visited by the risen Jesus and received the gift of his peace and of his Spirit (Jn 20: 19-23).” ~Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini