Sharing your Time, Talent & Treasure

EMPTYJesus' tomb is empty

Andrew was born with mild Down Syndrome. He loved to go to religion class on Sunday. His classmates mostly ignored him. On the Sunday after Easter the teacher gave out plastic eggs, one to each child, and they went outside to find symbols of new life to put in the eggs. Back indoors the teacher opened the first egg: there was a beautiful flower. In the second was a butterfly and in the third a green leaf. The fourth was empty. The children said, “Somebody did it wrong.” “It’s mine,” Andrew said. “I did do it right! The tomb is empty!” There was sudden silence. From that time on, Andrew became a part of the group, set free from the tomb of his difference. Andrew died last summer. During his funeral Mass, nine eight-year old children, together with their teacher, marched up to the altar, not with flowers to cover over the stark reality of death, but with an empty, old pantyhose egg, and placed it on the altar steps. The tomb is empty!

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