President Thomas S. Monson: 'The empty tomb' on Easter morning
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With the reminder that in the following week the Christian world would celebrate the "most significant event in recorded history," President Thomas S. Monson referred to the simple pronouncement by "two men in shining garments" on the morning of the first resurrection, "He is not here, but is risen."
"The empty tomb that first Easter morning brought comforting assurance, an affirmative answer to Job's question, 'If a man die, shall he live again?'
"To all who have lost loved ones, we would turn Job's question to an answer: If a man die, he shall live again. We know, for we have the light of revealed truth. 'I am the resurrection, and the life,' spoke the Master. 'He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."'
Speaking Saturday morning, President Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, spoke of having recently looked through family photo albums; cherished memories flooded his mind. Some family members in those photographs have passed on, he said. "I miss each one who has left our family circle."
Though difficult and painful, he continued, death is an essential part of mortal experience. "Life moves on. Youth follows childhood, and maturity comes ever so imperceptibly. As we search and ponder the purpose and the problems of life, all of us sooner or later face the question of the length of life, and of a personal, everlasting life. These questions most insistently assert themselves when loved ones leave us, or when we face leaving those we love."
Speaking of skeptics, whose voices challenge the word of God, President Monson offered the account of Robert Blatchford, who, as related in his book God and My Neighbor, attacked with vigor Christian beliefs until he was "left exposed and undefended" and slowly made his way back to the faith he had scorned.
What had caused this profound change? "His wife died," President Monson related. "With a broken heart, he went into the room where lay all that was mortal of her. He looked again at the face he loved so well. Coming out, he said to a friend, 'It is she, and yet it is not she. Everything is changed. Something that was there before is taken away. She is not the same. What can be gone if it be not the soul?"'
Against the doubting in today's world of Christ's divinity is an "unimpeachable source," President Monson said, "even the testimony of eye witnesses. Stephen, from biblical times, doomed to the cruel death of a martyr, looked up to heaven and cried, 'I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56).
President Monson also recounted the testimony of Paul, "Last of all he was seen of me." He quoted also the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!" (1 Corinthians 15:3-8; Doctrine and Covenants 76:22).
"This is the knowledge that sustains," President Monson added. "This is the truth that comforts. This is the assurance that guides those who are bowed down with grief — out of the shadows and into the light."
Continuing, he spoke of a remarkable family he met on Christmas Eve in 1997. Each of the four children in the family, three sons and a daughter, had been born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy. During the visit, the 5-year-old girl, Shanna, sang for President Monson in a clear voice: "On a beautiful day that I dream about, In a world I would love to see, Is a beautiful place where the sun comes out, And it shines in the sky for me. On this beautiful winter's morning, If my wish could come true, somehow, Then the beautiful day that I dream about would be here and now."
Over the years, President Monson kept in touch with the parents and children. The three boys served Church service missions. One boy, Christopher, later succumbed to muscular distrophy. Then, last September, Shanna passed away at 14 years of age. At the funeral, President Monson recounted the visit nine years earlier when Shanna sang for him.
"I concluded with the thought, 'Because our Savior died at Calvary, death has no hold upon any one of us. Shanna lives, whole and well, and for her that beautiful day she sang about on a special Christmas Eve in 1997, the day she dreamed about, is here and now."'
President Monson explained that death "is our universal heritage. All must pass its portals. Death claims the aged, the weary and worn. It visits the youth in the bloom of hope and the glory of expectation. Nor are little children kept beyond its grasp. In the words of the Apostle Paul, 'It is appointed unto men once to die."'
And dead all would remain but for Jesus of Nazareth. The King of kings and Lord of lords was "ridiculed, reviled, mocked, jeered, and nailed to a cross." His body was laid in a sepulcher hewn of stone. Then, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and others came to the sepulcher, where they were asked by the two men in shining garments, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?"
"Through tears and trials, through fears and sorrows, through the heartache and loneliness of losing loved ones, there is assurance that life is everlasting," President Monson declared. "Our Lord and Savior is the living witness that such is so."
