Gospel Reflection for Easter Sunday April 21st – The People in darkness have seen a great light!
The People in darkness have seen a great light!
We began our Lenten journey with Jesus in the desert. We did our best to pray for each and with each other as we travelled with him during those forty days. On Palm Sunday we greeted him joyfully as we waved our palms and cried, ‘Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’
On Holy Thursday at the Passover Meal Jesus offered himself to us as The Bread and Cup of Life. He took the place of the slave, bent low and washed our feet and asked us to do they same to and with each other. We are to love and serve each other as he as shown us. On Good Friday, we stood with the crowd and watched as Jesus was betrayed, denied, beaten condemned and crucified. With Mary his mother, we saw him being buried. But we know that this is not the end of the story; our God is a God of surprises.
Today, this Easter morning Jesus is risen and is alive in a way that is more powerful than ever before! Having travelled with Jesus through Lent and stood by him as he endured his passion, we now stand at the empty tomb and share in the power, glory, joy and new life of his resurrection. We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!
Our ways are not God’s ways and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts! Where we saw failure and evil triumph, God saw the faithfulness of Jesus and the values of the Kingdom reign supreme. Through the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, God has shown and offered us a new way of living and confronting evil. We don’t have to respond to violence with more violence; we don’t have to answer hatred with more anger; there is another way: The Way of the Cross that leads to Resurrection. This is the way of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God.
When look at the television or read the newspapers, we can be forgiven for thinking that it is all bad news and that there is suffering everywhere. But we can change this; that’s what the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus shows and teaches us; there is another way. In a world where there is darkness caused by violence and anger, we are called to be people of Light. Where there is often hopelessness and despair, we challenged to be people of hope and faith. Where there is hatred and discrimination we are asked to be people of love and compassion. Where some people seem to get stuck at Good Friday and the cross, we are called to be people of Easter and the Resurrection. Having shared in the suffering of Jesus, we now share in his New and Everlasting Life. If we bear in our body the death of Jesus, it is with hope that the life of Jesus too will also be seen in our body.(2. Cor. 4.10)
This Easter Season, which lasts until Pentecost Sunday, we are called not only to experience the Good News of the Resurrection, but we are also called to be people of the Good News in our ordinary lives.
WE ARE AN EASTER PEOPLE AND ALLELUIA IS OUR SONG!
– Br Michael Moore OMI
Easter Sunday Gospel
The empty tomb is seen by Mary Magdalene, then by Peter and the Beloved Disciple
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. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
