Dear Friends of The Franciscan Way,
Fr. David Convertino, OFM Executive Director of Development
The tomb was empty.
The woman came expecting death. They had brought spices, grief, and memories of the terror, agony, and grief that had rocked their world just two days ago.
But instead, they were met with a question that still echoes through our lives today:
“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
How often do we look for life in places that cannot give it because they are more about the dead than the living?
How often do we return to old fears, old wounds, and old ways of thinking that keep us locked in the tomb?
How often do we seek answers to our life’s problems by relying on old ways that have no life?
Or how many times do we relive and rehash old situations or events that offer us no future, no hope or no love or freedom to love?
But Christ is not there. He is not among the things that are dead.
He is risen. He is alive!
And that changes everything. We need to move on, past the empty tomb to the new life and new ways of living given to us by the risen Christ.
Easter is not just a moment in history—it is a challenge to the way we live.
The Resurrection tells us that no darkness is final. No suffering has the last word. No life—no matter how broken—lies beyond the reach of God’s transforming love.
We need to accept this new life, this new hope and this new way of living.
I see the power of the Resurrection alive in the work of the friars every day—
in meals shared with the hungry,
in care given to the elderly,
in hope restored to those who feel forgotten.
These are not just acts of kindness. They are signs that Christ is alive among us.
This Easter, may we have the courage to step out of whatever tomb holds us back—and to live as people who believe that life, not death, has the final word.
Because He is not there.
He is risen… and He offers us a new way of living.
Many Easter Blessings,
Fr. David, OFM