About 1,970 years ago, a band of believers plunged into depths of matchless sorrow. Can anyone imagine the gloom felt on the eve of the first Easter or measure the tears of a grieving mother, the anguish of faithful apostles, the despair of adoring disciples?

President David O. McKay spoke in the April 1950 general conference of how "the gloomy apostles" who mourned Jesus' death soon bore joyous testimony of the Resurrected Savior. He quoted the following by an unidentified author:

"When Christ was crucified the apostles' hopes had all but died. That His death was a reality to the disciples was shown in their intense grief in the statement of Thomas, in the moral perplexity of Peter and in the evident preparations for a permanent burial of their Master. Notwithstanding the often repeated assurance of Christ that He would return to them after death, the apostles seemed not to have accepted, or at least not comprehended Christ's statement as a literal fact. At the crucifixion they were frightened and discouraged. They were left alone and they seemed confused, helpless, panic-stricken. Only John stood by the cross.

"Not with timidity, not with feelings of doubt and gloom and discouragement is a skeptical world made to believe. Such wavering despairing minds as the apostles possessed on the day of the crucifixion could never have stirred people to accept an unpopular belief, and to die martyrs to the cause.

"What was it that suddenly changed these disciples to confident, fearless, heroic preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ? It was the revelation that Christ had risen from the grave. His promises had been kept, His Messianic mission fulfilled. The final and absolute scene of genuineness had been put to all His claims, and the indelible stamp of a divine authority upon all His teachings. The gloom of death had been banished by the glorious light of the presence of their risen, glorified Lord and Savior."

That first Easter morning dawned to reveal the empty tomb. Ever since then Christians have celebrated with gladdened hearts the glorious event of the Resurrection. No longer did they doubt the Savior's words: It must needs be that the Son of man should suffer and be put to death and rise again. (see Luke 24:7.) Christians today follow the faith of their predecessors in believing Christ's proclamation: "Because I live, ye shall also live." (John 14:19.)

Did His followers truly understand that great promise? Evidence of its verity came in the message of the angels in the otherwise empty tomb, one of whom said to the weeping Mary at its portal: "I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said." (Matthew 28:5-6.)

From that time until now, this divine message has brought solace to grieving hearts and comfort to aching souls. That simple yet profound declaration testified that Jesus Christ — Savior and Redeemer — had broken the bands of death and overcome the tomb and grave. It assured all that as He had risen from the grave so shall all come forth into immortality.

The Resurrection fulfilled words of prophets who, from the very beginning, proclaimed that Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God; that He would die and rise again. Because He took upon Himself the sins of all the world as He suffered in Gethsemane, died on the cross of Calvary in atoning sacrifice and rose from the Garden Tomb, the Savior gave us the universal gift of immortality and made possible the ultimate gift of eternal life.

In contrast to the depths of sorrow felt by His followers that gloomy night nearly two millennia ago, we bask in the light of His gospel. May we worship Him and, as did Mary upon seeing the Resurrected Lord, share the good news of that glorious event.