The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for Easter Sunday invite us to contemplate how the New Life promised by Jesus Resurrection resonates with the experiences of our life journey.
Walking in New Life
The reading from the Acts of the Apostles details how Gentiles heard the Good News in Peter’s kerygma.
* [10:39] We are witnesses: the apostolic testimony was not restricted to the resurrection of Jesus but also included his historical ministry. This witness, however, was theological in character; the Twelve, divinely mandated as prophets, were empowered to interpret his sayings and deeds in the light of his redemptive death and resurrection. The meaning of these words and deeds was to be made clear to the developing Christian community as the bearer of the word of salvation (cf. Acts 1:21–26). Hanging him on a tree: see note on 5:30.1
Psalm 118 is a song of victory.
* [Psalm 118] A thanksgiving liturgy accompanying a procession of the king and the people into the Temple precincts. After an invocation in the form of a litany (Ps 118:1–4), the psalmist (very likely speaking in the name of the community) describes how the people confidently implored God’s help (Ps 118:5–9) when hostile peoples threatened its life (Ps 118:10–14); vividly God’s rescue is recounted (Ps 118:15–18). Then follows a possible dialogue at the Temple gates between the priests and the psalmist as the latter enters to offer the thanksgiving sacrifice (Ps 118:19–25). Finally, the priests impart their blessing (Ps 118:26–27), and the psalmist sings in gratitude (Ps 118:28–29).2
The reading from the Letter to the Colossians proclaims the New Life in Christ.
* [3:1–4] By retaining the message of the gospel that the risen, living Christ is the source of their salvation, the Colossians will be free from false religious evaluations of the things of the world (Col 3:1–2). They have died to these; but one day when Christ…appears, they will live with Christ in the presence of God (Col 3:3–4).3
The alternate reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians calls for removal of the old leaven.
* [5:7–8] In the Jewish calendar, Passover was followed immediately by the festival of Unleavened Bread. In preparation for this feast all traces of old bread were removed from the house, and during the festival only unleavened bread was eaten. The sequence of these two feasts provides Paul with an image of Christian existence: Christ’s death (the true Passover celebration) is followed by the life of the Christian community, marked by newness, purity, and integrity (a perpetual feast of unleavened bread). Paul may have been writing around Passover time (cf. 1 Cor 16:5); this is a little Easter homily, the earliest in Christian literature.4
The Gospel of John begins telling of the discovery of the Resurrection of Jesus and how He appears to Mary Magdalene.
* [20:1–31] The risen Jesus reveals his glory and confers the Spirit. This story fulfills the basic need for testimony to the resurrection. What we have here is not a record but a series of single stories. * [20:1–10] The story of the empty tomb is found in both the Matthean and the Lucan traditions; John’s version seems to be a fusion of the two. * [20:1] Still dark: according to Mark the sun had risen, Matthew describes it as “dawning,” and Luke refers to early dawn. Mary sees the stone removed, not the empty tomb.5
Larry Gillick S.J. comments that John, the “disciple whom Jesus loved” and Peter ran to the tomb. John got there first. Peter arrived second, but was the first to come into the tomb. Here’s what they saw. Nothing! Emptiness except for the burial cloths. John "saw and believed." They did not understand, but lived beyond that.
This great Easter event celebrates that God has come very close, close enough to attract us. God has kept a safe distance so to allow belief to be a free response to that closeness. Of course, we want “more please,” more tangibility, more of seeing. We like to be convinced as with the engaged-couples. They want their love, their belief in their being loved, to be a heartfully-free response. Mary Magdala and her two seeking companions did not see what they wanted, what their hearts longed for. Their Easter is so similar to our own these days of light, growth and still seeking all that we desire and hope for. Enjoy the not-seeing, not being convinced and yet believing. In short, enjoy entering into the belief-seeing of Jesus’ early friends as they lived His Resurrection without their seeing.6
Don Schwager quotes “The Womb of the Earth Gives Birth,” by Hesychius of Jerusalem, who died around 450 A.D.
"Hidden first in a womb of flesh, he sanctified human birth by his own birth. Hidden afterward in the womb of the earth, he gave life to the dead by his resurrection. Suffering, pain and sighs have now fled away. For who has known the mind of God, or who has been his counselor if not the Word made flesh who was nailed to the cross, who rose from the dead and who was taken up into heaven? This day brings a message of joy: it is the day of the Lord's resurrection when, with himself, he raised up the race of Adam. Born for the sake of human beings, he rose from the dead with them. On this day paradise is opened by the risen one, Adam is restored to life and Eve is consoled. On this day the divine call is heard, the kingdom is prepared, we are saved and Christ is adored. On this day, when he had trampled death under foot, made the tyrant a prisoner and despoiled the underworld, Christ ascended into heaven as a king in victory, as a ruler in glory, as an invincible charioteer. He said to the Father, 'Here am I, O God, with the children you have given me.' And he heard the Father's reply, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool' (Psalm 110:1)." To him be glory, now and for ever, through endless ages. Amen. [excerpt from EASTER HOMILY 5-6]7
The Word Among Us Meditation on Colossians 3:1-4 asks Where’s the joy? Where are the Alleluias? St. Paul gives us a clue in the second reading. “Seek what is above,” he tells us (Colossians 3:1).
Christ is risen. He has defeated sin and conquered death. He has done everything that you could never do in order to rescue you. Now he asks you to do the one thing that he cannot do for you: seek him. He promises that if you do, you will find him. And finding him, you will join the angels and saints in their unending “Alleluia!” “Jesus, fill me with your joy today!”8
Friar Jude Winkler notes that Peter is anointed with Spirit and power as he proclaims the kerygma. The message to the Colossians is to throw out the leaven of selfish ego and live with sincerity and truth. Mary Magdalene searching for Jesus is an allusion to the lover in the Song of Songs. Friar Jude notes that Love bows to Authority as he suggests we are called to become the “beloved disciple” in our love of God.
Joseph Simmons SJ. writes that no matter where we are in life, we are always somewhere on the Easter path.
If Holy Week teaches us anything it is that pleasure is sweet, but joy has pain at its centre. This paschal season, perhaps we can take stock of where we are on the Easter path. We need not force a smile, or gorge ourselves on chocolate bunnies (let alone Sour Patch Kids). Perhaps there is grace, and joy, to be found in savouring the blessings we find, bittersweet though they may be. Knowing where we are on the path to Easter – and where those around us are – constitutes spiritual maturity and solidarity with those in greatest need. The Lord is the goal of our journey in this world, Pope Francis reminded us. The direction must lead to him. As we tread the journey of life, let us trust that the Risen Lord will camber the path ahead, and walk with us each step of the way.9
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shared the good news of the resurrection in a homily offered on Easter Sunday 2019. The Brazilian writer and journalist Fernando Sabino (1923–2004) wrote, “In the end, everything will be [all right]. If it’s not [all right], it’s not the end.” [1] That’s what today is all about, “Everything will be okay in the end.”
But there’s a great secret, at least for Western Christians, hidden in the other half of the universal church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church—in places like Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Egypt—Easter is not usually painted with a solitary Jesus rising from the dead. He’s always surrounded by crowds of people—both haloed and unhaloed. In fact, in traditional icons, he’s pulling people out of Hades. Hades is not the same as hell, although we put the two words together, and so we grew up reciting in the creed that “Jesus descended into hell.”...Today is the feast of hope, direction, purpose, meaning, and community. We’re all in this together. The cynicism and negativity that our country and many other countries have descended into show a clear example of what happens when people do not have hope. If it’s all hopeless, we individually lose hope too. Easter is an announcement of a common hope. When we sing in the Easter hymn that Christ destroyed death, that means the death of all of us. It’s not just about Jesus; it’s to humanity that God promises, “Life is not ended, it merely changes,” as we say in the funeral liturgy. That’s what happened in Jesus, and that’s what will happen in us. In the end, everything will be alright. History is set on an inherently positive and hopeful tangent.10
The liturgies of Holy Week make alive for us the nature of the path we follow as disciples of Christ through difficulties to renewal as the Spirit continues to call us to trust, hope and love.
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