Daily Liturgy
Saturday April 10
your Son Jesus, lived among us,
flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood.
He died for our sake
and you raised him back to life.
May we experience his love and his presence
to such an extent,
that we can never stop proclaiming
what we have seen and heard,
and that people may give glory to you, our God.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Lord.
Reading 1: ACTS 4:13-21
Observing the boldness of Peter and John
and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men,
the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed,
and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.
Then when they saw the man who had been cured standing there with them,
they could say nothing in reply.
So they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin,
and conferred with one another, saying,
“What are we to do with these men?
Everyone living in Jerusalem knows that a remarkable sign
was done through them, and we cannot deny it.
But so that it may not be spread any further among the people,
let us give them a stern warning
never again to speak to anyone in this name.”
So they called them back
and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
Peter and John, however, said to them in reply,
“Whether it is right in the sight of God
for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges.
It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”
After threatening them further,
they released them,
finding no way to punish them,
on account of the people who were all praising God
for what had happened.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 118:1 AND 14-15AB, 16-18, 19-21
R. (21a) I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just.
R. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
“The right hand of the LORD is exalted;
the right hand of the LORD has struck with power.”
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.
Though the LORD has indeed chastised me,
yet he has not delivered me to death.
R. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Open to me the gates of justice;
I will enter them and give thanks to the LORD.
This is the gate of the LORD;
the just shall enter it.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
R. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia: Ps 118:24
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: MK 16:9-15
When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week,
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom he had driven seven demons.
She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.
When they heard that he was alive
and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
After this he appeared in another form
to two of them walking along on their way to the country.
They returned and told the others;
but they did not believe them either.
But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them
and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart
because they had not believed those
who saw him after he had been raised.
He said to them, “Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”
Intercessions
– That the Church may never hesitate to proclaim to the world truths and lifestyles that are not pleasant for the world to hear, we pray:
– That missionaries and all Christians by their lifestyle keep proclaiming that Christ is alive and relevant, we pray:
– That we may never get tired of living the risen life of the Lord and keep the enthusiasm of a deep faith and attachment to Jesus, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord, our God,
accept this bread and this wine
and let your Son be alive among us
in these signs.
May he give us a bit of his own strength
to keep us on our feet in the storms of life,
to live in the joy of people who are redeemed,
for the Lord is alive
and we are alive on account of him,
now and for ever.
Prayer after Communion
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
your Son has chosen us
to be his companions.
May people recognize him in us
and may they accept him
when what we do convinces them
that he is with us and that you are our God
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
now and for ever.
Blessing
This whole week after Easter has steeped us in faith in the Risen Lord. May this faith, indeed, be the core of our belief and of our life. The Lord is risen. We rise with him even now, little by little, to a new and more beautiful life in Christ. Stay in that certainty and joy, with the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary
People did not recognize Jesus very easily when he appeared after his resurrection. Some thought they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:37); he showed himself “in another form” to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Mark 16:12), and even Mary Magdalene thought at first that he was the gardener (John 20:15).
We give supreme authority to bodily sight: “seeing is believing.” Seeing is accepted as “our principal source of knowledge,” according to Aristotle. But this kind of sight is not adequate to recognize the risen Christ. It requires ” seeing with the heart and the spirit “, not with the eyes. People who claim today to have seen apparitions give the impression that they have exceptional faith, but what they are doing is just going back to eyesight and suggesting that this is superior to faith.
God is not captured by the eye, nor by the mind. “We cannot grasp what God is,” said St Thomas Aquinas. We cannot ‘grasp’ God – neither with our eyesight nor with our minds. It is the other way around: we are possessed by God; we are grasped by God.
Our faith has no boundaries. How could it be otherwise? St Paul prays that let the Ephesians, “knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge… be filled with the utter fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:19).
Today’s Gospel has three paragraphs: the first speaks of Mary Magdalene who reported that Jesus is risen and is alive. But “They would not believe her.” The second is about the testimony of the disciples to Emmaus. But, “They did not believe them.” But in the third, Jesus entrusts his epic project of preaching the Gospel to this still unbelieving or still doubting group of disciples. “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News.”
Apparently, you don’t need perfect faith to join the Mission of Jesus. It is given to you as you go. It is for use on the road. it is not a certificate to be kept in the files. If we are called to work for the Lord, just do it and grace will be given to you as you go. Grace is not given for tomorrow; it is always for now.
Pope Francis writes in Joy of the Gospel: “every Christian, in any place and situation in which he is…there is no reason for anyone to think that this invitation is not for him, because “no one is excluded from the joy reported by the Lord.” Those who take risks, the Lord does not disappoint, and when someone takes a small step towards Jesus, they discover that He already awaits their arrival with open arms ”(EG 3).