Sunday Meditation: Easter Sunday, The Women at the Tomb

The day of Resurrection is here!  Blessed be God, He has risen!

 

I will post on the Gospel reading for the Easter Vigil Mass. The Gospel is always the same for each of the three years, the discovery of the empty tomb from St. John’s Gospel.  Easter Vigil Mass follows the Lectionary cycle, which for Year C is the empty tomb passage of Luke.

 

At daybreak on the first day of the week

the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus

took the spices they had prepared

and went to the tomb.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb;

but when they entered,

they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were puzzling over this, behold,

two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.

They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.

They said to them,

"Why do you seek the living one among the dead?

He is not here, but he has been raised.

Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee,

that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners

and be crucified, and rise on the third day."

And they remembered his words.

Then they returned from the tomb

and announced all these things to the eleven

and to all the others.

The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James;

the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles,

but their story seemed like nonsense

and they did not believe them.

But Peter got up and ran to the tomb,

bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone;

then he went home amazed at what had happened.

~Lk 24:1-12

 

Fr. Sam French offers us a homily in which faith and reason work toward understanding the resurrection.

The changes and persistence in the apostles and disciples after the Resurrection that something as earth shaking as Jesus rising from the dead is what really convinces me. 

Fr. Timothy Dore OFM Cap of the Companions of St. Anthony provides a pastoral homily.

Alleluia, He is risen!

 

 

Sunday Meditation: "Why do you seek the living one among the dead?  He is not here, but he has been raised."

 

 

Let us rejoice with the Victimae paschali laudes, which you should have heard on Easter Sunday.  I really like this simple rendition in English by Corpus Christi Watershed.

 

 

The choir at our Mass performed it in Latin.  I have posted on it in Latin and analyzed its beauty.  I’m going to capture this English translation attributed in the video to a Father Fortescue.

 

Sing to Christ your paschal victim

Christians sing your Easter hymn

The sinless Lord for sinners

Christ God's son for creatures died

The sheep who stray the Lamb of God redeemed

Then death and life their battle

Wonderfully fought and now

The King of life once dead forever lives

Tell us Mary we pray

What you saw on Easter day

Empty was the grave and looking

I saw there the glory of his rising

The angel witnesses I saw and folded linen

Christ my hope is risen truly in Galilee

He goes before you

We know he rose from death indeed

And so to him we pray

Great king and Lord of life

Bless us this day

Amen

Hallelujah

Have a blessed Easter!

Sunday Meditation: Easter Sunday

We have finally come to the most glorious day of the year, the Resurrection of our Lord, in English referred to as Easter Sunday.  The Gospel reading in Year B comes from the John.  Why not from the Gospel of Mark, you may ask, since we are in Year B?  Because the Resurrection passage from the Gospel of Mark is read on the Easter Vigil on Saturday night.  We can meditate on that another time.  For now it’s the Easter Sunday reading.

 

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.

~Jn 20:1-9

What can be said about Christ being raised that has not already been said?  We can delve into the significance of the Resurrection, but let’s just focus on John’s Gospel narrative here.  Bishop Barron provides a solid look at all the tiny details.

 

Let’s meditate on a particular detail that Bishop Barron does not bring up.

Sunday Meditation: “On the first day of the week.”

Sunday Meditation: The Empty Tomb

We are finally here, Resurrection Sunday. Three followers of Jesus come to the tomb and find it empty.

 

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.

        -Jn 20:1-9

 

Bishop Barron provides a wonderful homily.

 

Tom Holland’s book sounds like a must read.  A dramatization of the Gospel passage.

 

Have a blessed Easter.

Sunday Meditation: The Empty Tomb

 

I love the opening line of Resurrection Sunday from the Gospel of John.

 

“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.”

       -John 20:1

 

So simple and so powerful.