"He is risen!"

Of course it took a few days for the news to arrive in Rome, and to trickle down to those of us who were trying to live so called normal lives.

The words, though, spoken in a whisper, were filled with awe-"He is risen!"

"It is said his followers have seen and spoken with him, that they have broken bread!" And later, as the months passed, the word came that it was a woman who'd seen him first, the sister of Lazarus, that she'd gone to the tomb to finish properly the preparations for entombment so hastily done two days before, only to find the guards, and the remains, gone.

(Here I should inform you that this was the duty first of wife if there was one, mother if she yet breathed, sisters, and any other female blood relative, to prepare the remains-you may take that as you like, I merely tell you what I know. I also now give witness that in his sect, to have remained unmarried would have been a noted scandal-remarked on. As it was not, thou may infer that he indeed was married. I never heard different until nearly one hundred years had begun to cover the truth.)

The testimony of the centurion also became known. The last hours of the man we'd begun to call the Christ were described by a horrified (and apparently grief stricken) soldier who then disappeared. Certes, we knew his recountment may have been embellished, however, the basic story remained intact no matter how far it was spread.

"He is risen!"

Hope, even in the most hopeless of times, as those of us who were not Jewish yet had always known The One True God-The Almighty Light, struggled to protect our families from the ruthless desperation of the idolators, the covetous, the frightened.

The time of Christ were a frightening time, filled with acts of bestiality and overwhelming filth. Then as now, those responsible did all and more to cover their evil and protect their status quo. Oh yes, he filled them with fear.

"He is risen!"

Alleluia, alleluia, he is risen!

Hosanna, hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna, Lord, hosanna, send us now success.