SOLEMNITY OF EASTER
It is very inspiring to meet people wounded in their love and their life, whom we expect to be disgruntled and discouraged, yet who keep believing in love and the goodness of God and of the people around them. Today we meet in the Eucharist him who keeps our faith and hope alive in God’s goodness and loving concern: it is Jesus, our Lord risen from the dead. He went through suffering and death for us, and when all looked lost, all seemed in vain, he kept trusting in the Father and he rose from the dead. By the power of Jesus we too can rise to new life, to a feast of joy within us. We believe in the Risen Lord and in the resurrection he has brought us.
Reading 1: Acts 10:34a, 37-43
37-38 “You know the story of what happened in Judea. It began in Galilee after John preached a total life-change. Then Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him.
39-43 “And we saw it, saw it all, everything he did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem where they killed him, hung him from a cross. But in three days God had him up, alive, and out where he could be seen. Not everyone saw him—he wasn’t put on public display. Witnesses had been carefully handpicked by God beforehand—us! We were the ones, there to eat and drink with him after he came back from the dead. He commissioned us to announce this in public, to bear solemn witness that he is in fact the One whom God destined as Judge of the living and dead. But we’re not alone in this. Our witness that he is the means to forgiveness of sins is backed up by the witness of all the prophets.”
Reading II : Col 3:1-4
3 1-2 So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
3-4 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
Gospel: Jn 20:1-9
20 1-2 Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, gasping for breath. “They took the Master from the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.”
3-10 Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first, outrunning Peter. Stooping to look in, he saw the pieces of linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in. Simon Peter arrived after him, entered the tomb, observed the linen cloths lying there, and the kerchief used to cover his head not lying with the linen cloths but separate, neatly folded by itself. Then the other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. The disciples then went back home.
Prayer
God of all life,
take away all sadness and doubt from us
and help us to believe in life,
now that your Son Jesus Christ is risen.
Make us see him raised up and alive,
walking with us on the road of life,
that we too may be a living people,
rising up from our drab and indifferent ways.
Fill us with the joy of the Spirit,
that our faith and love may never waver,
for Christ is risen and we are alive in him,
now and for ever.
Reflection:
Easter Sunday
9 April 2023
John 20:1-9
Resurrection: the journey from darkness to light
The Easter event unfolds while it is still dark (Jn 20:1), and we are told Mary of Magdala and other women approached the tomb. However, in Mark’s Gospel, this visit happens “very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen.” John’s Gospel uses the words “dark” and “darkness” several times to speak of spiritual darkness. Mary, Peter and the ‘beloved disciple’ are all in the darkness of their lack of understanding.
But with Mary’s arrival at the empty tomb, the scene shifts dramatically from the gloomy silence of death and darkness to a chain reaction of an explosion of life, with a lot of running and jubilation. The disciples are shaken from their slumber and begin to run! “Mary runs to Simon Peter, and he rushes out with the other disciple … They run together, but the other disciple outruns him …” (Vv. 2-4). Gradually the message gets registered in them: Their Master’s body is missing.
The tomb is empty. But “Who took the Master’s body?” Mary was right – somebody took the corpse from the tomb! Peter saw the empty tomb. But the Beloved disciple did something more: he saw and believed! He believed that it was not an act of someone removing his Master’s body, but he had moved out on his own.
And, who was this “other disciple” or the “disciple whom Jesus loved?” He represents the ideal disciple who loves and believes in Jesus. He was there at the foot of the Cross and at the tomb during the burial of Jesus. Now he is back at the tomb. He was the only one who saw the tomb before and after the resurrection and he knew the difference. It did not take much time for him to believe. He has no name because we are invited to name ourselves in his slot.
The reality of the resurrection is the heart of our faith. The Lord’s Resurrection changed the world. Death, pain, sufferings and even sin can no longer defeat us because Jesus has defeated all of them for us. The Risen Lord returns to his disciples to comfort and encourage them.
Throughout his Gospel, John frequently uses a lack of understanding by those who encountered Jesus as a tool for Jesus to offer a further explanation of his identity. The story of Nicodemus, the woman’s accounts at the well, the man born blind, and even Martha and Mary were all examples of moving from a lack of understanding to a conviction. Mary’s lack of understanding at the tomb also leads to a conviction in Jesus’ resurrection.
Our Easter needs to become a journey from our unbelief to faith, from darkness to light, from ignorance to wisdom and from death to life.