Sunday Meditation: Easter Sunday, The First Day of the Week

For Easter Sunday of any year in the lectionary, there is a choice in Gospel reading: either the empty tomb passage in the Gospel of John or the empty tomb passage in the Gospel of that year’s lectionary.  In Year A, as we are in, it’s the empty tomb passage in the Gospel of Matthew.  However, given that the Gospel of John is the emphasized reading, every year we tend to read Jn 20:1-9.  That is what I will include below.

There are commonalities and differences between the four Gospel Resurrection passages.  Fr. Geoffrey Plant’s homily for today, which I will not embed here but you can find here, provides a nice summary of the similarities and differences.  But I want to point out a very important detail that all four Gospels point out.  The Resurrection occurs on “the first day of the week.”  Check out Mt 28:1, Mk 16:2, Lk 24:1, and Jn 20:1.  Each Gospel goes out of its way to declare the Resurrection occurred on the first day of the week.  Why is this important?  We know from Genesis that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day.  Christ’s Resurrection starts creation anew.  We are newly created in Christ, and so the new creation starts on the Eighth Day, “the first day of the week.”  All four Gospels want to make this emphatically clear.  From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2174-5:

 

2174 Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week."  Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eighth day" following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica) Sunday:

 

We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead. [St. Justin, I Apol. 67]

 

Sunday- fulfillment of the sabbath

 

2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ: [I Cor 10:11]

 

Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the sabbath, but the Lord's Day, in which our life is blessed by him and by his death. [St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Magn. 9]

So do not think that Sunday is the Sabbath.  As Catholics, we don’t really have a Sabbath; we have a day of worship, which is considered the eighth day or the first day of the week.

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

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

Archbishop Edward Weisenburger takes us through the Lenten to season to culminate with the real meaning of Easter.

 

 

Archbishop Weisenburger:

You see, an Easter without a Lent, a resurrection without a crucifixion would be empty, empty of meaning, devoid of grace. In short, the cause of our Easter joy rests in Jesus’ triumph over death, not his escape from it. He was not an ancient Robin Hood who slipped through their wicked hands and lived to preach another day. No, he was crushed. He was crucified. But we're made joyful today. A joy that can't be robbed from us because the very arms stretched out on the cross are now raised to baptize, to confirm, forgive, embrace, to heal, to lift up, and above all to feed us with his body and blood. A body and blood shattered and shed on Golgotha but made whole on Easter Sunday. Brothers and sisters, again, today's celebration, the real Easter, is not about happy go lucky baskets of colored eggs or bunnies or being spoiled at grandma's house, pleasant and good as many of those things may be. But no, in the end, they're not the real Easter. And for the adults  listening, for those, as Jesus would say, who have the ears to hear and the eyes to  see, well, you'll never really get Easter until you first realize again that Jesus  did not make a journey around betrayal, suffering, and death, but rather a journey  that overcame betrayal, suffering, and death, going right through them all the way to  a radically new way of life that we call resurrection.

 

We are certainly joyful today but let us not forget how we came to this.

 

For a pastoral homily on Easter Sunday, I found Fr. Joseph Mary of the Capuchin Friars to be superb.

 

Fr. Joseph Mary:

Why is the Christian hope founded on the resurrection?  Because Jesus Christ has not simply been reanimated. He's destroyed death itself.  He swallowed up the grave in the victory of Jesus Christ. Suffering sin, loss, grief, and death and no longer have the final word.  There's something waiting for us beyond the gray rain curtain of this world.  There's an unapproachable light waiting for us that no pain or loss or terror of death can ever diminish.  But do we live? Do we live out of the power of the resurrection? Do we truly live with the freedom of the children of God?  Or are we like those little birds living like slaves, never realizing that we're free?  If as St. Augustine said the faith of Christians is the resurrection of Christ. Then we should have a joy and a peace nothing in this world can rob from us because every suffering, every sadness, every loss, every injustice and fear, every struggle with weakness and sin, every conflict, it's all temporary. The night will end, and we'll see that the darkness was only a passing thing like a fog blown away by the light of morning.  Even death has no power over the Christian.  And so as you die and your life slips away, as you draw near that brilliant light, who will come to meet you? The grandparents you mourned? Those brothers, sisters, and friends whose loss brought you such grief. Those children you never had the joy to bear, they'll come to meet you on the threshold of heaven. And there will be tears, tears of unrestrained joy. For the old order has passed away,

 

“For the old order has passed away.”  Make sure you listen to all eight minutes and fifty seconds of that brilliant homily.  It is well worth it.

 

 

 

Sunday Meditation: “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed."

 

 

This is a great Easter hymn, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia.,” performed by King’s College Choir, Cambridge.

 

 

Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!

Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!

Who did once, upon the cross, Alleluia!

Suffer to redeem our loss, Alleluia!

 

Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!

Unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!

Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!

Sinners to redeem and save, Alleluia!

 

But the pain which He endured, Alleluia!

Our salvation hath procured, Alleluia!

Now above the sky He's king, Alleluia!

Where the angels ever sing, Alleluia!

 

Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!

Praise eternal as His love, Alleluia!

Praise Him, all you heavenly host, Alleluia!

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia

Sunday Meditation: Their Eyes Were Opened

Third Sunday of Easter, and this is not only one of my favorite passages in the Gospels, but perhaps one of the most important.  It’s a bit long, but it’s all narrative, which makes it engaging.

 

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.

        Lk 24:13-35

Luke is such a great writer, perhaps the finest of the four Gospel writers.  Now, Dr. Brant Pitre provides the absolute best exegesis of this passage.  Make sure you watch both videos.  It will be well worth it.

 

 

 Next time you are on a road walking, or perhaps just on a simple street, may Jesus come up to you and start a conversation.

Sunday Meditation: Do You Believe?

One week after the Resurrection, Jesus proves His physical body is alive after being dead.

 

On the evening of that first day of the week,

when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,

for fear of the Jews,

Jesus came and stood in their midst

and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,

“Receive the Holy Spirit.

Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,

and whose sins you retain are retained.”

 

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,

was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he said to them,

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands

and put my finger into the nailmarks

and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

 

Now a week later his disciples were again inside

and Thomas was with them.

Jesus came, although the doors were locked,

and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,

and bring your hand and put it into my side,

and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

 

Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples

that are not written in this book.

But these are written that you may come to believe

that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,

and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

        Jn 20:19-31

Fr. Geoffrey Plant walks you through the Gospel passage and then walks you through a proof of God’s existence.  It’s lengthy but worth it.

 

 

But this is also Divine Mercy Sunday.  Jeff Cavins explains what the Divine Mercy of God means.

Pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet today and be sure to ask for God's mercy every day.

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 Nature of Life After Death

This is a remarkable exegesis by Jesus Himself.  Two keys to remember here.  First that the Sadducees did not believe in life after death, and that they only accepted the Pentateuch, the first five books, as Biblical authority.

 

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,

came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,

"Teacher, Moses wrote for us,

If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child,

his brother must take the wife

and raise up descendants for his brother.

Now there were seven brothers;

the first married a woman but died childless.

Then the second and the third married her,

and likewise all the seven died childless.

Finally the woman also died.

Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?

For all seven had been married to her."

Jesus said to them,

"The children of this age marry and remarry;

but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age

and to the resurrection of the dead

neither marry nor are given in marriage.

They can no longer die,

for they are like angels;

and they are the children of God

because they are the ones who will rise.

That the dead will rise

even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,

when he called out 'Lord, '

the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;

and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,

for to him all are alive."

~Lk 20:27-38

 

My pastor at St. Rita’s Church, Fr. Eugene, has a way to remember who the Sadducees were.  “Remember, the Sadducees are sad because for them there is no afterlife.”  But Jesus has a great way to rebuff the internal logic of their question.  He takes them right back to the Pentateuch to prove they did not even fully understand their own reduced vision of the scriptures.  He repeats that God is “not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."  The dead are alive in God!

 

That is a nice little video.  Now notice what else Jesus says.  There is no marriage in heaven and no procreation, and therefore there will be no conjugal relations.  Do you find this a blessing or a bane?