Matthew 28:1–7

Since the Lord endured the suffering on the cross for us and gave his own flesh as the exchange for the life of all, and was in the tomb like one “helpless among the dead, free,” (Psalm 88:5) as the psalm sings, the women ran bringing what was needed for the care of the body, full of spices. For they thought he would lie with the others and remain dead in the tomb. And do not marvel if women did not know that, being God and life, he would dissolve corruption’s power and run back to life — when even to the apostles themselves the word about his resurrection seemed mere nonsense and a fabricated thing, because they too did not know the God-breathed Scripture.

So the women came to the tomb; and though they did not find Christ’s body, for love of him they see a holy angel (Luke 2:8–14). He became for them an evangelist and herald of the resurrection: “Do not seek,” (Matthew 28:1–7) he says, “the one who is always living, who is life by nature, among the dead; for he is not here” — that is, in death and the tomb — “but he has been raised,” becoming for us rather than for himself the way of the run back into incorruption. For that is why he let himself down into emptying and underwent likeness toward us: so that “by the grace of God,” as blessed Paul says, “he might taste death for everyone,” (Hebrews 2:9) and this might become death’s death and the dissolution of the curse once brought upon the first-formed. For the Lord prepared us to enter such hope when he said, “Amen, I say to you: the one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.” (John 11:25)

Know that angels evangelized the birth to the shepherds in Bethlehem, and now rational powers proclaim the resurrection. Heaven has therefore ministered to the proclamations about him, and the armies of the spirits above surround the Son as Master and Lord of all — even when he became flesh, that is, a human.