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E
ASTER
S
UNDAY
Acts of the Apostles 10:34A, 37-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Colossians 3:1-4 or Corinthians 5:6B-8
John 20:1-9 or Luke 24:1-12
S
UMMARY
Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb where Jesus was laid
only to find it empty. She summons Peter and the Be-
loved Disciple, who find only a pile of cloths. They do
not yet realize that Jesus has been resurrected from the
dead.
R
EFLECTION
All that the disciples saw was the empty tomb and a pile of cloths. They were
puzzled and confused. They ran around trying to find out what had happened.
They couldn’t fathom that Jesus had fulfilled the scriptures and been resur-
rected. Despite spending months and years with him, listening to his teachings,
watching his miracles of healing, experiencing the love that he emanated, they
could not grasp that Jesus’ death was not a ghastly failure. They couldn’t yet
understand that Jesus’ death was not a death, but a transformational event that
defied everything that came before, that turned the whole world upside down
for all eternity. Death, darkness, evil had been overcome! Love, forgiveness, jus-
tice, peace and compassion rule triumphed over their sinful counterparts of ha-
tred, pride, injustice, war, and envy.
We have the benefit of 2000 years of the development of Christian doctrine and
faith to make sense of what is essentially unintelligible, but are we able to em-
brace the truth of the Resurrection anymore than the disciples in those first mo-
ments? Does the Resurrection really make a difference in how we live our lives?
Do we invest as much in the joy and celebration of Easter as we do in the pen-
siveness and repentance of Lent? Catholics typically take the 40 days of Lent
quite seriously, but for many of us the Easter celebration is all about Easter Sun-
day! In fact, the Easter season is 50 days in length!!!
I am going to suggest that each of us makes a conscious effort to express our
joy and gratitude to God for the next fifty days to Pentecost—an Easter obser-