Monday April 18, 2022

Octave of Easter Monday

 

We Are Easter witnesses

Peter had refused to say that he knew Jesus. Now, he cannot stop proclaiming that Jesus is risen. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, rush to tell the apostles that Jesus is risen. The readings of today are all about witnessing to the resurrection. Peter proclaims it as the key to his faith: Jesus who had been killed is truly risen and we, his disciples, are witnesses to this fact and this person. Mary Magdalene and her companion are told by the angels at the tomb that Jesus is risen. Then, they themselves encountered him. The Risen Jesus instructed them to convey this news to his other disciples. For now, they too, are witnesses that Christ is alive. We are these witnesses today.

 

First Reading: Acts 2:14-21 

That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:

“In the Last Days,” God says,
“I will pour out my Spirit
    on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
    also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions,
    your old men dream dreams.
When the time comes,
    I’ll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both,
    and they’ll prophesy.
I’ll set wonders in the sky above
    and signs on the earth below,
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
    the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Day of the Lord arrives,
    the Day tremendous and marvelous;
And whoever calls out for help
    to me, God, will be saved.”

 

Gospel: Matthew 28:8-15 

 The women, deep in wonder and full of joy, lost no time in leaving the tomb. They ran to tell the disciples. Then Jesus met them, stopping them in their tracks. “Good morning!” he said. They fell to their knees, embraced his feet, and worshiped him. Jesus said, “You’re holding on to me for dear life! Don’t be frightened like that. Go tell my brothers that they are to go to Galilee, and that I’ll meet them there.”

Meanwhile, the guards had scattered, but a few of them went into the city and told the high priests everything that had happened. They called a meeting of the religious leaders and came up with a plan: They took a large sum of money and gave it to the soldiers, bribing them to say, “His disciples came in the night and stole the body while we were sleeping.” They assured them, “If the governor hears about your sleeping on duty, we will make sure you don’t get blamed.” The soldiers took the bribe and did as they were told. That story, cooked up in the Jewish High Council, is still going around.

 

Prayer

Our living God,
our heart is glad and rejoices
and we feel secure in our faith,
that we have a living person to believe in,
Jesus Christ, who is risen from the dead.
Let him show us the path of life,
let us live in the joy of his presence
and give us the grace to make us witnesses,
so that we can proclaim with our whole life,
that Jesus is our risen, living Lord,
now and for ever. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Inclusive love and forgiveness of Resurrection

We begin the Octave of Easter. Throughout this week, the liturgy focuses on the appearances of Jesus to his disciples in most varied forms.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus appears to women who return scared but happy from the empty tomb. They were the first to notice the episode of the resurrection. Therefore, they ran to break the news to the other disciples when Jesus himself approached them. They are scared, but the first words of Jesus to them is to “Rejoice.” The resurrection is the greatest of all joys. This resurrection experience and the invitation to rejoice is also directed to us today.

His second message to the women: “Do not be afraid; go, tell my brothers to go to Galilee; they will see me there”. The theme of fear is recurrent in the hours following the crucifixion and even in the resurrection scenes.

The Risen Jesus called his former deserters, his brothers. That was the first and only time in the whole Gospel narrative, that Jesus referred to the disciples in that intimate way. Matthew invites his readers into the new nature of the relationship between Jesus and those who would become his followers. With Jesus, they could now share the risen life – as sons and daughters of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus. The risen Jesus has no enemies. His response to the sin of the world was forgiveness. Jesus had learnt the heart of his Father perfectly. His love excluded no one.

While Jesus was on the Cross, dying, the chief priests had taunted him by saying: Let him come down from the Cross now, and we will believe in him [27:42]. Confronted now with the mystery of resurrection, they still refused to belief. What the chief priests asked the guards to declare was not logical. If the guards were asleep while the body of Jesus disappeared, how would they know it was the disciples of the dead man who came and stole the body? If they were asleep, they would not know how the sealed tomb got breached and how did the body disappear! And if they were awake, the forces that breached the tomb were beyond the guards’ control to stop them.

If we believe in everything we celebrate these days, it is time to go out to meet our brothers and sisters and tell them that we too, have met the risen Jesus and that He is alive in our midst. For this, we must go to the “Galilee” of our times, and there we rediscover the suffering faces that need the good news of the resurrection.

 

Video available on Youtube: Inclusive love and forgiveness of Resurrection