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“Resurrection of Christ”
by, Paolo Veronese, c. 1570 |
Readings for the Mass of Easter Day [2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [3]
Readings and Commentary:[4]
Reading 1: Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Peter proceeded to speak and said:
"You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commissioned us to preach to the people
and testify that he is the one appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name."
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Commentary on Acts 10:34a, 37-43
This is part of Peter’s speech to Cornelius and his family (Gentiles). Peter (according to St. Luke) assumes the people know what has happened – namely that Jesus who was thought to be the Messiah, had proven that fact in the resurrection. Now he reminds them, before the creed was written, that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.
He goes further, explaining that his apostles are also called to spread that word through preaching: to take what they have been given, the Good News of Christ and him crucified, into the world. This call, St. Peter explains, is so all peoples might come to know and understand that God has fulfilled the promise he made through the prophets by providing a sacrifice of atonement, his Only Begotten Son Jesus, and that belief in him will lead to reconciliation to the Father through the forgiveness of sins.
CCC: Acts 10:38 438, 453, 486, 1289; Acts 10:39 597; Acts 10:41 659, 995; Acts 10:42 679
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
R. (24) This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
Alleluia.
"The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or: Alleluia.
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Commentary on Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Psalm 118 is in regular use during the Easter season. It is a liturgical song of praise and victory. The messianic imagery is so strong that it has been used for the past three days, reflecting the joy of the Church in the Eastertide. This litany of thanksgiving features the cornerstone image that, in addition to Acts 10:34a, 37-43 (Easter Sunday), was also used in the Gospel of St. Mark (Mark 12:10) and the first epistle of St. Peter (1 Peter 2:7) (there are nine other Scripture references not listed here).
CCC: Ps 118:22 587, 756
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Reading II: Colossians 3:1-4
Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
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Commentary on Col 3:1-4
The theme of seeking the higher gifts continues in this section of St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians; he exhorts those raised to new life in Christ to focus on building spirituality. Paul gives assurance to the Colossians that they too have a home with Christ, who now is seated at the right hand of the Father. In saying this, he points their aspirations to the things of heaven, telling them that if eternal life with Christ is what they desire, they should focus their thoughts on the Lord, not on things of the earth.
“Where Christ is enthroned in heaven and where believers are seated with him through the grace or Baptism (Ephesians 2:6). This must be the focus of our thoughts as we struggle to lift our minds above the concerns of the world. (Romans 8:5-6) (CCC 664,1003)” [5]
CCC: Col 3-4 1971; Col 3:1-3 655; Col 3:1 1002; Col 3:3 665, 1003, 1420, 2796; Col 3:4 1003, 2772
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Or: 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8
Brothers and sisters:
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?
Clear out the old yeast,
so that you may become a fresh batch of dough,
inasmuch as you are unleavened.
For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us celebrate the feast,
not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
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Commentary on 1 Cor 5:6b-8
Paul calls the Corinthians to conversion with a metaphor. He uses the dual meaning or implication of leaven in bread and the feast of Passover to symbolize the new covenant. St. Paul’s reference to “old yeast” adds an important dimension. “6. a little leaven: The bad example of one risks infecting all others; every sin has a social dimension (Rom 14:7; cf. Gal 5:9). 7. Old leaven: The remnants of our sinful past, which should already have been purged (1 Cor 3:17)” [6] The traditional Passover meal or Seder is lamb and unleavened bread. Christ, the Lamb of God and the unleavened bread of the Eucharist, is their meal.
CCC: 1 Cor 5:6-8 129; 1 Cor 5:7 608, 610, 613
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Gospel: John 20:1-9
On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they put him."
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.
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Commentary on John 20:1-9
In St. John’s account of the discovery of the empty tomb, we hear how the disciple whom Jesus loved understood what had come to pass before Peter did. Found also in Luke (Luke 24:1-12), this story furnishes the testimony that confirms Christ’s resurrection. The story of the discovery of the empty tomb describes St. John (the disciple whom Jesus loved). “From these details concerning the empty tomb one deduces that Jesus' body must have risen in a heavenly manner, that is, in a way which transcended the laws of nature. It was not only a matter of the body being reanimated as happened, for example, in the case of Lazarus, who had to be unbound before he could walk (cf. John 11:44)”[7] It is interesting that St. John arrives first but recognizes St. Peter’s primacy, waiting for him to enter the tomb first. Note also that when St. John entered the tomb, he immediately understood what happened and believed.
CCC: Jn 20:1 2174; Jn 20:2 640; Jn 20:5-7 640; Jn 20:6 640; Jn 20:7 515; Jn 20:8 640
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Or:
From the Vigil Mass Matthew 28:1-10
After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
And behold, there was a great earthquake;
for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven,
approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.
His appearance was like lightning
and his clothing was white as snow.
The guards were shaken with fear of him
and became like dead men.
Then the angel said to the women in reply,
“Do not be afraid!
I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.
He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples,
‘He has been raised from the dead,
and he is going before you to Galilee;
there you will see him.’
Behold, I have told you.”
Then they went away quickly from the tomb,
fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce this to his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.
They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.
Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee,
and there they will see me.”
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Commentary on Mt 28:1-10
St. Matthew’s account of the empty tomb has much in common with Mark and Luke. Unique in this account is the dramatic action which rolls the stone away from the tomb, and the proactive angelic presence announcing the resurrection. In none of the Gospel accounts do we actually see Christ rising from the dead. The empty tomb, and the reminder that Jesus told his disciples that he would rise after three days, is the evidence of the great salvific event.
The two women’s encounter with Christ as they ran to tell the disciples is unique in the synoptic Gospels, but is similar to the account from St. John. They embraced him, a physical form, raised from the dead.
“By means of his narrative details, the evangelist is inviting us to share the patient gazing and loving waiting of the holy women as they sit in rock-like silence and immobility before their Lord’s tomb, the only obvious point of orientation given them. However, in the event, Jesus suddenly stands before them coming from an entirely different direction. Here, too, he is the God of surprises. His rising from the dead has anticipated even their own eager anticipation of the dawn. God is always present and active in wholly hidden ways within the background and underground of our visible lives.” [8]
CCC: Mt 28:1 500, 2174, 2174; Mt 28:6 652; Mt 28:9-10 641; Mt 28:9 645; Mt 28:10 654
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Or:
At an afternoon or evening Mass: Luke 24:13-35
That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus' disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
"What are you discussing as you walk along?"
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
"Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?"
And he replied to them, "What sort of things?"
They said to him,
"The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see."
And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?"
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, "Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
"Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the eleven and those with them who were saying,
"The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!"
Then the two recounted
what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
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Commentary on Lk 24:13-35
This story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is found only in Luke’s Gospel. There is a mention in Mark (Mark 16;12) that is vague but probably refers to this event. The actual location of Emmaus is not known, but it is estimated that it was between seven and eighteen miles from Jerusalem. The focus of the story is the unrecognized Jesus (similar: in John 20:11-18, Mary Magdalene thought he was a gardener). Jesus interprets Scripture and then he is recognized in the breaking of the bread (the Eucharistic reference).
"In the course of their conversation with Jesus, the disciples' mood changes from sadness to joy; they begin to hope again and feel the need to share their joy with others, thus becoming heralds and witnesses of the risen Christ." [9]
CCC: Lk 24:13-49 1094; Lk 24:13-35 1329, 1347; Lk 24:15 645, 659; Lk 24:17 643; Lk 24:21 439; Lk 24:22-23 640; Lk 24:25-27 112, 601; Lk 24:26-27 572, 652; Lk 24:26 555, 710; Lk 24:27 555, 2625; Lk 24:30 645, 1166; Lk 24:31 659; Lk 24:34 552, 641
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Reflection:
What would you do if, a day after you buried your best friend, someone ran up to you and told you they had just gone out to put flowers on the grave and found it empty? In this day and age you might think perhaps the cemetery workers had needed to exhume the casket, perhaps a mistake had been made. You might think that grave robbers had done something heinous. It is highly unlikely, no matter how spirit-filled your best friend may have been, that you would think, “Oh, my friend must have risen from the dead.” Whatever your thoughts might be, we can bet you would have them while rushing to the graveside.
That is essentially the picture painted by St. John in his Gospel story today. Further, thoughts about officials having moved the body, or grave robbers having stolen the body, were most likely the thoughts Peter and John were thinking as they ran toward the tomb after Mary Magdala told them she found it open.
And when they arrived and saw the tomb empty, we can only imagine the heart-stopping shock they felt. It was as Mary had said, and things were even stranger than that. They feared that the temple guards had hired vandals to steal the body (no Jew would have defiled themselves during the Passover by touching a dead body), or perhaps the Romans had wanted to somehow discredit Jesus by taking his body away. But if they had done that, why leave the burial cloths in the tomb? And even stranger, why roll up the covering of the head and place it in a different place? It would be like us arriving at the disappearance of our best friend and finding they had taken the body but left the clothing. (If you are interested in seeing beautiful speculation on the aftermath of Jesus’ resurrection, try to see the movie “Risen.”)
To understand how confounding this event must have been, we need to understand what these disciples of Jesus believed about him and about death. First, and we must be clear about this, they absolutely knew Jesus was dead. They saw him die and they saw the guard shove a lance into his chest to make sure. The Romans were experts at killing, there was no question Jesus was dead.
Jews of Jesus’ day were divided about what happened after death. The Sadducees and most conservative Jews believed that when you died – that was it – you ended completely. We find this expressed in the psalms where we hear the psalmist pleading with God to continue his physical life because once he has returned to dust, he can no longer praise God. Others believed in some murky existence in a place called Sheol, a place of the dead, not quite hell as we know it, but an unhappy place. Still others at the time of Christ, notably some of the Pharisees, believed in the resurrection of the just (those who had been faithful to God during their lives) at the end of the age – the end times.
The disciples of Jesus were likely believers in this final view, that at the end of time, Jesus would be raised up with the rest of the just. In their wildest dreams they did not suspect that what they found at the tomb pointed to Jesus’ resurrection. The Gospel even says so. We hear at the end of St. John’s Gospel “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”
In this Easter therefore, the disciples would have been facing a huge mystery. It would not be until later that they understood, when Jesus actually appeared to them and invited them to inspect his wounds to let them know he was not a ghost. It was only then that the magnitude of what had taken place would strike them. This revelation would send them scattering across the known world proclaiming the Good News. That is the Easter Proclamation: Jesus has risen from the dead and that was done for us.
The question we must ask ourselves as we rejoice once more in this knowledge is what does this event mean for us? In what way does it affect us and the way we live our lives? To answer those questions we must answer this one: Why did Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, come to earth as man and endure suffering and death at the hands of a people he came to save? It is a question that we each must answer for ourselves because it is only then that the answer will affect the way we live and our ultimate disposition at the end of time. If we believe that he did this so that each of us might enjoy the rewards of the peace and love of God in this life and in the next, then it should be the most important thing in our life. If we have not yet come to the conclusion that Jesus’ sacrifice is supremely important in our lives, that decision will show as well, and the benefits of faith will also be less evident.
Today we cry out rejoicing – He is Risen! From this hour forward his gift is once more in our hands; it is up to us what we do with it.
Pax
[1] Catechism links are taken from the
Homiletic Directory, Published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 29 June 2014.
[2] The picture used today is “Resurrection of Christ” by, Paolo Veronese, c. 1570.
[3] S.S. Commemoratio[4] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[5] Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Old and New Testament (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, © 2024), 2106
[6] New Jerome Biblical Commentary (Prentice-Hall, Inc. © 1990), 49:29, p. 803
[7] The Navarre Bible, Gospels and Acts (Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2002), 699.
[8] Leiva-Merikakis, Erasmo. Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word: Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew, Volume IV. (Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition, © 2021), 742-43).
[9] The Navarre Bible, Gospels and Acts (Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2002), 513.
