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1 John 1:1-4
Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12
John 20:1A, 2-8
Summary
John's empty tomb account of the resurrection of Jesus is the climactic state-
ment of our faith. "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 went
in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed."
Reflection
The belief in Christ's resurrection from the dead to eternal life is the greatest
mystery we will ever know. In our fondest memories as children, we first learned
about Jesus miraculously coming back from the dead. We knew from this Easter
story that Jesus died for us so that we all could go to Heaven some day and be
with Him. The glory and the promise of Jesus were big concepts that helped us
endure the difficult times we may have experienced growing up. All of these
ideas circle back to believing in God and His wondrous teachings and works –
and of our determined faith and devotion to his memory, for rescuing us from
what otherwise would have been a life of darkness, without any hope of eternal
salvation.
Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, believing that He rose from the dead on
Easter morning, believing that through His death on the cross we have been re-
deemed and promised the Glory of Heaven – we learned during our lives what a
great gift this was from God.
In our youth, we probably spent little time thinking this
was something we needed to understand or worry about.
The fact that we are so blessed by God’s grace is an
idea removed from the Baltimore Catechism of our
youth. We believed because our parents and teachers
told us this was the way a good Catholic thinks about his
or her faith in God.