The Lord rises before the dawn, and he leaves behind his graveclothes and an empty tomb. There are no physical witnesses to his Rising (though there is much evidence and many who testify that he is risen). In some mysterious way, His Resurrection is not an event enclosed in space and time; it is a transhistorical reality that we can see still today with the eyes of faith and divine grace. “Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ,” we sing. “Let us purify our senses, and we shall see Christ, shining in the light of his Resurrection.” The Resurrection is not something that happened 2,000 years ago; it was revealed 2,000 years ago and transforms all of time, from the beginning to the end of the age. This is what the disciples saw on Tabor: Christ shining with the divine Light that enters the world through his Pascha, even before he had set his face for Jerusalem.
Christ is risen, and the darkness of death is vanished; even the night of death is now filled with his light, to our delight; for by his rising, the darkness is not dark, and the night of this world shines with the daylight of eternity.
Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!