Episode Details

Before sunrise, a group of women walks through a city controlled by Roman power, carrying spices and cloth for a burial they expect will be painful and final. They’re not looking for a miracle. They’re looking for a body. That simple, human mission becomes the doorway to one of the most disruptive claims in Christian faith: the tomb is open, the grave is empty, and the world is no longer limited by death.

In this episode, we reflect on how expectation shapes everything we do, how grief follows scripts we think we can trust, and why the first reaction to the empty tomb is confusion and suspicion rather than instant belief. In a Jerusalem tense with politics, fear, and the memory of a crucifixion, even a stolen body seems more “reasonable” than resurrection. But Easter does not arrive as an idea; it arrives as a fact that demands interpretation, and the women are entrusted with a message that reframes the impossible: Jesus is risen, and risen as he promised. 

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Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.