Alleluia!
1. The Victory of Life
2. A Risen People
3. Called to Life with Christ
Introduction
1. The Victory of Life
It is very inspiring to meet people wounded in their love and their life, whom we expect to be disgruntled and discouraged, yet who keep believing in love and the goodness of God and of the people around them. Today we meet in the Eucharist him who keeps our faith and hope alive in God’s goodness and loving concern: it is Jesus, our Lord risen from the dead. He went through suffering and death for us, and when all looked lost, all seemed in vain, he kept trusting in the Father and he rose from the dead. By the power of Jesus, we too can rise to new life, to a feast of joy within us. We believe in the Risen Lord and in the resurrection he has brought us.
2. A Risen People
Jesus our Lord is risen. Alleluia! This Jesus who was condemned to death, scourged and mocked and crowned with thorns, he who was jeered when he died on the cross, is risen and alive! Since that day God guarantees that his love is stronger than death. He also reassures us on this day: look to my risen Son: with him you are already rising from your pain and loneliness and wounds. With my Son and his Church your task is to lift up people from their miseries, to revive hope and joy and happiness until the day when you will fully rise to the happiness that can never be dimmed or taken away from you. Let the joy of the risen Christ light up your faces.
3. Called to Life with Christ
Today we celebrate life: the life of Jesus, as he rose from the dead, our life that is now stronger than death, stronger than all suffering and pain. Life makes sense and is worthwhile. It is very precious, and we have to bring life to one another and to our world: it must be a risen world in which there is joy, not fear, where justice and love triumph. Let us pray to the Risen Lord here among us that we and our world may rise with him.
First Reading: Witnesses to the Resurrection
Peter testifies to the reality of the resurrection: Jesus is truly risen personally and if we believe in the Risen Lord, we will be saved.
Reading 1: Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Peter proceeded to speak and said:
“You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commissioned us to preach to the people
and testify that he is the one appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23.
R. (24) This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or: R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.” R.
“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.” R.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes. R.
Second Reading; Risen with Christ
Christ’s resurrection has already begun in us, says St. Paul. We must continue to rise with him by letting him free us more and more, so as to share one day in his full risen glory.
Reading 2: Colossians 3:1-4
Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Alleluia Cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7b-8a
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed;
let us then feast with joy in the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: He Saw and He Believed
Mary Magdalene and the apostles were upset to find the tomb empty. But first John, then the others, realized that Jesus was risen from the dead. Thus they strengthen our faith in the Risen Lord.
Gospel John 20:1-9
On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.
Commentary
The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the essential Christian proclamation. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins,” wrote St. Paul (1 Cor 15:17). The gospels are unanimous in making Mary Magdalene and the other women the first to proclaim the distinctive Christian Good News. Tradition has called her “apostola apostolorum”: the apostle of the apostles. She was the first Christian witness of the Resurrection and its first preacher. She is a patroness of the Dominican Order, which is called the Order of Preachers, and many Dominican houses are called “St. Magdalene’s.” She could also be seen as the patroness of all the women who have preached the Gospel in countless ways throughout the Christian centuries.
Blessing
Christ has made us all new
by rising from the dead.
May we live like risen people
who have encountered the Lord
in his Word, at his table,
in one another.
May we bring his life and hope
to all those around us.
May almighty God bless you all
with his strength, his compassion,
his self-giving love:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
And share the love and joy of Christ
with one another. Alleluia! Alleluia! R/ Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!
