The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is a place to which thousands of pilgrims flock every day to see what isn’t there.

It is quite amusing, in fact, to wait in line for hours in order to see a place that you know to be empty.

Life is filled with a great many paradoxes. It is a paradox that the cross, which was an instrument of torture, became an instrument of divine reconciliation and the most enduring symbol of Christian faith. It is a paradox that the empty tomb became the sign of the fullness of Christian hope – that we “will not all die, but we will all be changed” and that “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

What looks like the greatest loss and defeat becomes the greatest gain and triumph.

How does seeing these truthful paradoxes lead us to respond to the seeming disasters and disappointments of life?

Here are some incredible current photos all taken by Bhingkay Bhinx Magno Rudenas-Pladot.

These photos are a stirring reminder that, on the first Holy Saturday, no one could have known or imagined what the site of that tomb would become.