Monday in the Octave of Easter
WE ARE EASTER WITNESSES
Introduction
Peter had refused to say that he knew Jesus. Now, he cannot stop proclaiming that Jesus is risen. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, rush to tell the apostles that Jesus is risen. The readings of today are all about witnessing to the resurrection. Peter proclaims it as the key to his faith: Jesus who had been killed is truly risen and we, his disciples, are witnesses to this fact and this person. Mary Magdalene and her companion are told by the angels at the tomb that Jesus is risen. Then, they themselves encountered him. The Risen Jesus instructed them to convey this news to his other disciples. For now, they too, are witnesses that Christ is alive. We are these witnesses today.
Reading 1:Acts 2:14, 22-33
14-21 That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight.
22-28 “Fellow Israelites, listen carefully to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man thoroughly accredited by God to you—the miracles and wonders and signs that God did through him are common knowledge—this Jesus, following the deliberate and well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you pinned him to a cross and killed him. But God untied the death ropes and raised him up. Death was no match for him. David said it all:
I saw God before me for all time.
Nothing can shake me; he’s right by my side.
I’m glad from the inside out, ecstatic;
I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope.
I know you’ll never dump me in Hades;
I’ll never even smell the stench of death.
You’ve got my feet on the life-path,
with your face shining sun-joy all around.
29-36 “Dear friends, let me be completely frank with you. Our ancestor David is dead and buried—his tomb is in plain sight today. But being also a prophet and knowing that God had solemnly sworn that a descendant of his would rule his kingdom, seeing far ahead, he talked of the resurrection of the Messiah—‘no trip to Hades, no stench of death.’ This Jesus, God raised up. And every one of us here is a witness to it. Then, raised to the heights at the right hand of God and receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he poured out the Spirit he had just received. That is what you see and hear.
Gospel: Mt 28:8-15
11-15 Meanwhile, the guards had scattered, but a few of them went into the city and told the high priests everything that had happened. They called a meeting of the religious leaders and came up with a plan: They took a large sum of money and gave it to the soldiers, bribing them to say, “His disciples came in the night and stole the body while we were sleeping.” They assured them, “If the governor hears about your sleeping on duty, we will make sure you don’t get blamed.” The soldiers took the bribe and did as they were told. That story, cooked up in the Jewish High Council, is still going around.
Prayer
Our living God,
our heart is glad and rejoices
and we feel secure in our faith,
that we have a living person to believe in,
Jesus Christ, who is risen from the dead.
Let him show us the path of life,
let us live in the joy of his presence
and give us the grace to make us witnesses,
so that we can proclaim with our whole life,
that Jesus is our risen, living Lord,
now and for ever.
Reflection:
Octave of Easter, Monday
10 April 2023
Gospel: Mt 28:8-15
Inclusive love and forgiveness
We begin the Octave of Easter. Throughout this week, the liturgy focuses on the appearances of Jesus to his disciples in varied situations and forms.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus appears to women who return scared but happy from the empty tomb. They were the first to notice the episode of the resurrection. Therefore, they ran to break the news to the other disciples when Jesus himself approached them. They were scared, but the first word of Jesus to them was to “Rejoice.” The resurrection is the greatest of all joys. This resurrection experience and the invitation to rejoice are also directed to us today.
His second message to the women: “Do not be afraid; go, tell my brothers to go to Galilee; they will see me there”. The theme of fear is recurrent in the hours following the crucifixion and even in the resurrection scenes.
The Risen Jesus called his former deserters his brothers. That was the first and only time in the whole of the Gospel narrative that Jesus referred to the disciples in that intimate way. Matthew invites his readers into the new nature of the relationship between Jesus and those who would become his followers. With Jesus, they could now share the risen life – as sons and daughters of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus. The risen Jesus has no enemies. His response to the sin of the world was forgiveness. Jesus had learnt the heart of his Father perfectly. His love excluded no one.
While Jesus was on the Cross, dying, the chief priests taunted him by saying: Let him come down from the Cross now, and we will believe in him [27:42]. Confronted now with the mystery of resurrection, they still refused to believe. What the chief priests asked the guards to declare was not logical. If the guards were asleep while the body of Jesus disappeared, how would they know it was ‘the disciples of the dead man’ who came and stole the body? If they were asleep, they would not know how the sealed tomb got breached and how the body disappeared! And if they were awake, the forces that breached the tomb were beyond the guards’ control to stop them.
If we believe in everything we celebrate these days, it is time to go out to meet our brothers and sisters and tell them that we, too, have met the risen Jesus, and He is alive in our midst. For this, we must go to the “Galilee” of our times, and there we rediscover the suffering faces that need the good news of the resurrection.