Cycle A - Year II

12 April 2020: Easter Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading:        Acts 10:34, 37-43

Second Reading:   Colossians 3:1-4

Gospel Reading:   Please read John 20:1-9  

"The Lord is risen!"

 The entire Universal Church celebrates Easter today with Holy Masses even without the presence of the faithful because of the covid pandemic.  The presiding priest joyfully greets humanity with this great news: "The Lord is risen. Alleluia!"

Indeed today is a great day of celebration as we proclaim the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead!

From the Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday, our joy shines forth when the very first Mass of Easter begins with the joyful singing of the "Gloria" and the triumphant ringing of bells again.

The Evangelist John brings us the Good News on Easter Sunday.  The gist of the Gospel narratives:

When Mary of Magdala came to visit the tomb of Jesus early morning on the third day, she saw the stone cover already removed from the entrance of the tomb, and the tomb empty.  Hurriedly she went back to the other disciples and reported what she saw.  Simon Peter and John went with Mary again to the empty tomb.  They saw the burial clothes there, and the cloth that covered Jesus' head neatly rolled up in a separate place.  They believed that the Lord is risen, even when they did not yet fully understand what is written in the Scriptures that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

The Resurrection of Jesus is the very cornerstone of our Christian faith.  Because if Jesus did not rise to redeem us from sin, then everything we did during the Holy Week, and everything we do now is going to be meaningless.

In the Catholic faith, Easter Sunday is the principal feast of the ecclesiastical year.  That is why it is called the greatest feast (festum festorum).  Our Lord's Resurrection is a concrete and historical event which is the strength and foundation of Christianity.  It is a day of celebration, as it represents the fulfillment of our faith as Christians.

From the time of the first apostles to our generation, we too believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed risen. Alleluia, alleluia!  To this day, in every Eucharistic celebration at Mass we share in Jesus' Paschal Mystery, meaning  to say, in our Lord's Passion, Death and Resurrection.  Because we encounter the risen Christ again in the Holy Eucharist.  Thus, Easter invites us to be witnesses to the whole world that our Lord Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead!

What is the significance of the Easter event to all of us today, when the whole world is under threat of the coronavirus pandemic?

The coronavirus pandemic forces us to re-think what we really value in this life.  We work so hard to accumulate material things and yet in the face of sudden death, nothing of what we value we can take with us in the next life.  That is sad and ironic.

This year, as we are required to pause from our regular schedules to slow the spread of coronavirus, we have an opportunity to allow scriptural passages and Jesus' example to bring us peace in the midst of this crisis.

Remember the Passover in the Old Testament?  The people of Israel were in oppression, darkness, slavery down in Egypt but had passed over to new life and hope in the Promise Land.  So then, the essence of Easter is that transition from darkness to light.  Jesus was in the midst of darkness on Good Friday but passed over to new life, His resurrection on Easter, which He now shares with us today.

So then in some ways, the climate of fear that we are in now, with this dreadful disease, is a way of providing us a bit of ambience to express our faith in the message of what the Passover and Easter is all about.

Now, the Resurrection teaches us that God can overcome anything even death.  Our faith allows us to trust that God can overcome our most serious problems and fear.

Easter means to live with a sense of newness.  Because the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ makes "all things new". ( Rev. 21:5)

Finally, the Easter spirit is a spirit of renewal that enables us to have a hopeful and positive attitude, to renew relationships that have been taken for granted, including our relationship with God, and to express appreciation and affection to those closest to us.  Easter means to see the world through new eyes, God's eyes, when life comes back to normal again. 

Happy Easter Sunday to us all.  And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!