The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, March 31, 2024, as Easter Sunday – Year B. In the entrance antiphon, we pray: “I have risen: I am with you once more; you placed your hand on me to keep me safe. How great is the depth of your wisdom, alleluia!” “This day was made by the Lord; we rejoice and are glad. Alleluia!”
This refrain gives us the true spirit of Easter. It is a spirit of hope and abiding joy, as the Church continues to give witness to the central fact of the early preaching of the Apostles: “Jesus is risen. He is the Lord.” For our part, we must lift up our minds and our hearts to the Lord in thanksgiving. As Paul says, “You must look for the things that are in heaven where Christ is.”
The first reading of this day is from Acts of the Apostles in which we hear Peter formally opening the mission of the preaching of God’s Word to the nations. The second reading, from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, tells us that our hearts, minds, and souls should be turned towards heaven, where Christ the Saviour is seated at the Father’s right hand. The Gospel of John tells us the story of the empty tomb that leads the Apostles to understand and believe in Christ’s resurrection. “Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of the scripture; that he must rise from the dead.” Let us pray for the grace to rise from the tomb of our sins by keeping our eyes permanently fixed on Christ the Risen Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever. Amen. Alleluia!
First Reading: Acts of the Apostles 10: 34; 37-43.
Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
Comment
The Acts of the Apostles is the fifth Book of the New Testament, written between 70 and 90 AD by the author of the Gospel according to Luke. Acts is an account of the early preaching about Jesus Christ, the growth of the early Christian community, and the spread of the Christian message. It covers the period from the Ascension of Christ and the Pentecost, to the visit of Saint Paul to Rome, where he was placed under house arrest. It portrays how the history of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ was proclaimed first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, and how they received it.
Acts is the second volume of Saint Luke’s understanding of the universal destiny of the Church’s mission. The first volume is the gospel in which he traces the spread of the Christian message in the form of a prolonged journey of Jesus to Judea.
The early chapters of Acts draw a beautiful picture of the Christian community of Jerusalem as they pray together, practice common ownership of property, and preach together. The author attributes the vitality and activity of Christianity to the Holy Spirit. Acts traces the Spirit-driven explosion of the church out of its Jewish roots to achieve its ultimate destiny at the center of the known world of Luke’s day, that is, Rome, (Acts 28:14), and from there to the ends of the world.
Jerusalem is the place where the first Christian community develops and this city remains for a long time a point of reference for Christianity. This reaching out of the Good News is marked by two important factors; namely, the gradual incorporation of the Gentiles into a new people of God as Christ’s message breaks through all ethnic barriers and the refusal of the gospel by the majority of the Jews.
The passage selected for our meditation opens with Peter’s prophetic preaching to non-Jews. He preaches to a much wider audience than before as he opens the mission and message of Christ to the nations of the world. It begins with the central idea that God is impartial: he wants all men and women to be saved through the proclamation of the Gospel. He tells them that God has chosen special men as witnesses of the risen Lord. The Lord lived among them, and this for Peter means that he and his fellow apostles have to go out and proclaim the message of our Lord’s death and resurrection. He demands a complete commitment to Jesus, vindicated now that God has raised him to life.
Let us give thanks to God for this day that he made. We rejoice in it and are glad. Alleluia. Let us pray. “Lord Jesus Christ, by your cross and resurrection, you have destroyed death and brought life to those in the grave. May your blessed passion be the joy of the whole world and may the glory of your rising from the tomb ever be our song, O Saviour of the world, living and reigning with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.”
Second Reading: 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.
Comment
The letter to the Colossians is one of what has been referred to as Saint Paul’s “Captivity Epistles.” Those are the letters he from prison; they include his letters to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, and Philemon. Early Christian tradition considers that Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians during his first imprisonment in Rome around the years 61-63 AD.
In Saint Paul’s time, Colossae was a small city in Asia Minor, about 100 miles inland from the port of Ephesus in what is modern-day Turkey. Most of the inhabitants of this region were Gentiles, although it also had a sizeable Jewish community. The origins of the Church of Colossae lie in Saint Paul’s long stay in Ephesus during his second apostolic journey, when as a result of his preaching “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10).
Among those who listened to Saint Paul and is thought to have probably founded the Colossian Church was a man called Epaphrasus who himself was, at least for a little while, a prisoner with Paul in Rome. He had apparently traveled to Rome to inform Paul of the state of the church in Colossae, especially in light of the heresy that was developing within that church.
Paul’s letter to the Colossians was therefore aimed at addressing some of these concerns raised by Epaphrasus. In the short passage the church has selected for our meditation this day, Saint Paul urges his converts to look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is. The theme of this letter is Christ, head of his body the Church. Because of the victory Christ has won for us, Paul says that we, his Church, can never be tied to human powers, standards, and regulations. Our hearts and minds should therefore be turned towards heaven rather than towards earthly things.
Let us pray: “Almighty and ever-living God, you sealed a covenant of reconciliation with us in the mystery of Christ’s passing from death to life. May we come to everlasting joy by a holy keeping of these Easter festivities. We ask this through Christ our risen Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. Alleluia!”
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Christ, our pascal lamb, has been sacrificed; let us then feast with joy in the Lord. Alleluia.”
Gospel: John 20: 1-9.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
Comment
The glorious resurrection of the Lord is the key to interpreting his whole life, and the ground of our faith. Furthermore, the guarantee of our future resurrection is secured upon the resurrection of Christ, because although we were dead through sin, God, full of mercy, moved by the infinite compassion with which he loved, gave us Christ and he raised us with him (Eph 2: 4-6). Easter is the celebration of our redemption, and therefore the celebration of thanksgiving and joy.
Our Lord’s glorious resurrection is, of course, the central reality of our Christian faith and the Church has preached this reality from the dawn of Christianity. We believe that Christ died; he rose from the dead and is alive. Without this victory over death, says Saint Paul (1 Cor. 15: 14-17), all our preaching would be useless and our faith in vain.
Christ’s resurrection is the great light for the world. As Christ himself said: I am the light; the light for all ages, for every society, for each one of us. During the night of Holy Saturday, as we participate in the liturgy of the Easter vigil, the Church at the outset is in total darkness, the darkness in which we plunge ourselves without Christ, without the revelation of God. Then, in an instant, the chief celebrant proclaims the exhilarating wonderful news: “May the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.” And from the light of the Easter candle, symbolizing Christ, all the faithful receive the light and the darkened church is now illuminated with the beautiful light of the Easter candle and the candles of all the faithful assembled. It is that light the Church floods the entire earth with this day and always, illuminating the world that lies in the darkness of sin.
The resurrection of Christ is a powerful call to all of us to be the light and to carry the light to others. So at Easter, we celebrate much more than the resurrection of Christ. Cameroonian priest, Father Stephen Forbi, of the Society of Jesus, tells us, in his beautiful book, Harden Not Your Hearts, that Easter is not only the celebration of life over death, it is also an invitation to us all to open the closed doors of our hearts so Christ can walk into our lives and free us from the prison of greed and anger, in much the same way as God freed Christ himself from the imprisonment of the tomb. Easter invites us, continues Father Stephen Forbi, to open our hearts and trust in Jesus as our helper, Saviour, and comforter. Easter invites us to open our hearts and love once more because when our hearts were closed like the tomb, we rejected Jesus and hated and gossiped about our neighbour.
Let us open our hearts and let others too walk into our lives. Easter is the time for us to pick up the broken pieces of our lives and start all over again with the firm conviction that Christ will not abandon us. Easter is good news for us Christians that nothing can destroy us – no pain, no sorrow, no sin, no rejection should make us lose heart anymore. Easter is the birthday of Christians into life. So, concludes Father Stephen Forbi, let us open wide the doors of our hearts to love, trust, and hope. Christ is risen and he is alive! Alleluia!
Let us pray: “We give you heartfelt thanks, most merciful Father, for receiving us as your own children and for incorporating us into your holy Church: and we humbly ask that, as partakers of the death of your Son, we may also be partakers of his resurrection, be inheritors of your everlasting kingdom; through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. Alleluia!”
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