Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020

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Theme: This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad!

John 20:1–9

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.

Music Meditations

Companions for the Journey

From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad. Jesus is risen, never to die again. After the anguish of the last few days, it is the time of unbounded joy. I ask for the grace to enter into the joy of Jesus himself, the seed that fell to the ground and died, and is now bearing abundant fruit, full of new life.

Today’s reading says of the two apostles that ‘as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.’ I too ask for the grace to grow in my understanding of this great reality: St Paul calls the Resurrection the foundation of our faith, but I have no direct experience of it except for the Risen Jesus.

The resurrection! No one saw it happen: it is too big for that. But in the resurrection of Jesus all of creation is risen, and we human beings walk ‘in newness of life’ as St Paul says. The resurrection is, in the words of pope Benedict, a cosmic event of love, shattering death. In the hidden power of the resurrection people of all faiths and none struggle to live good lives in a darkened world—we are all in the birth-pangs of becoming resurrected people. I am one of them. I ask the risen Lord that my life may be an instance of the resurrection. Gerard Manley Hopkins speaks of the comfort of the resurrection. Lord, may it be truly a comfort for me when life is hard or when death draws near to me or those I love. We shall all rise in Christ.

As we listen to the Easter Sunday Gospel, we might well wonder how Mary Magdalen and the others who went to the Tomb had forgotten what Jesus had said about being put to death and rising from the dead.

The great gifts of Easter are hope and faith. Hope: which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake. Faith: the belief that Christ has triumphed over evil despite appearances and that the Resurrection is the definitive act in human history.

So, we celebrate the mystery of the Resurrection, proclaim our faith and hope, and give thanks for these gifts.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today's session:

For they did not yet understand the Scripture that He had to rise from the dead.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today's reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • The crucifixion is an historical event; the resurrection is a faith event. Do I agree?
  • In my religious experience, which is the more important event to me, Good Friday or Easter? Why? What does each convey to me about the nature of God and about Jesus?
  • The resurrection descriptions are an attempt to explain the ineffable (Jesus has risen from the dead) when facts are not enough. The crucifixion was an historical event; the resurrection was a faith event. What is the difference, in my mind?
  • Why should we trust the words (of the gospel story) from a culture which promoted a lot of “truths” which were no truths at all? What “truth” is the gospel story proclaiming?
  • How does literature, especially poetry sometimes convey a truth that cannot be proven factually? Am I uncomfortable with this idea? If so, what “facts” explain love?
  • What does Easter tell me about death?
    What does it tell me about the sustainability of goodness and beauty?
  • Easter, said the preacher, is a celebration of the enduring beauty of Jesus’ life and his love which surmounts all hate. What, specifically, about Jesus’ life will I celebrate this Easter?
  • Renoir said: “Pain passes, but beauty remains.” It applies to us as well; do I have an example from my own life?
  • These gospel stories contain no post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to non-believers. So they were not written to convince non-believers that Jesus rose from the dead, but to reassure those that believed in him. Does this surprise me? Do I believe in an afterlife?
  • Peter hung back—maybe he felt guilty. What holds me back from approaching the risen Jesus? What personal memories inhibit my belief in the love and welcome of Jesus?
  • What does it mean for me that Mary did not recognize Jesus until he spoke? What would it take for me to recognize Jesus in my midst right now?
  • Does faith in Jesus’ resurrection require me to examine the ways in which I do not act as if Jesus is risen?
  • What does the empty tomb call me to be/do?
    Have I ever looked into the empty tomb of my own darkness? Can I find the resurrected Jesus there?
    Are there actions of my church which, in my opinion, belie the truth of the resurrection? What are they?
    What does the empty cross signify for me?
  • What do I choose to believe about death and about life after death? What images of the afterlife, either from religion or from pop culture, do I reject?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

From Living Spaces, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

A call for change
Easter, however, is not only concerned with recalling the resurrection of Jesus or its impact on the first disciples but also with the meaning of this event for our own lives and for our faith. The celebration of Easter (and the days of Holy Week leading up to it) are a call for us to change—and perhaps change radically—as Jesus’ own disciples changed. The sign that we are truly sharing in the risen life of Jesus is that our lives and our behavior undergo a constant development. We not only believe, we not only proclaim but we do what we believe and what we proclaim. What changes should I consider making in my attitude, and my behavior in order to reflect more truly on the fact of the resurrection? List three and promise yourself you will work on one this week.

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Read 1 Corinthians 2:9:
“No eye has seen
Nor ear heard
Nor has it even entered into the human heart
What God has prepared
For those who love Him”
Transpose this verse to the second person, speaking to God directly about your hopes for a life with God after death. How do you imagine it to be? Write your own prayer of thanksgiving for this great love and this great promise of life with the Lord.

Poetic Reflection:

Did you ever stop to wonder what Jesus experienced between his death on Friday and his resurrection on the Sabbath after that? Here is Denise Levertov’s take on it:

“Ikon: The Harrowing of Hell”

Down through the tomb’s inward arch
He has shouldered out into Limbo
to gather them, dazed, from dreamless slumber:
the merciful dead, the prophets,
the innocents just His own age and those
unnumbered others waiting here
unaware, in an endless void He is ending
now, stooping to tug at their hands,
to pull them from their sarcophagi,
dazzled, almost unwilling. Didmas,
neighbor in death, Golgotha dust
still streaked on the dried sweat of his body
no one had washed and anointed, is here,
for sequence is not known in Limbo;
the promise, given from cross to cross
at noon, arches beyond sunset and dawn.
All these He will swiftly lead
to the Paradise road: they are safe.
That done, there must take place that struggle
no human presumes to picture:
living, dying, descending to rescue the just
from shadow, were lesser travails
than this: to break
through earth and stone of the faithless world
back to the cold sepulchre, tearstained
stifling shroud; to break from them
back into breath and heartbeat, and walk
the world again, closed into days and weeks again,
wounds of His anguish open, and Spirit
streaming through every cell of flesh
so that if mortal sight could bear
to perceive it, it would be seen
His mortal flesh was lit from within, now,
and aching for home. He must return,
first, in Divine patience, and know
hunger again, and give
to humble friends the joy
of giving Him food—fish and a honeycomb.

Poetic Reflection:

We all wonder if we will see our departed loved ones again, and wonder what it will be like. Mary Oliver, deeply missing her beloved dog, Percy, imagines her reunion with him:

“The First Time Percy Came Back”

The first time Percy came back
he was not sailing on a cloud.
He was loping along the sand as though
he had come a great way.
“Percy,” I cried out, and reached to him—
those white curls—
but he was unreachable. As music
is present yet you can’t touch it.
“Yes, it’s all different,” he said.
“You’re going to be very surprised.”
But I wasn’t thinking of that. I only
wanted to hold him. “Listen,” he said,
“I miss that too.
And now you’ll be telling stories
of my coming back
and they won’t be false, and they won’t be true,
but they’ll be real.”
And then, as he used to, he said, “Let’s go!”
And we walked down the beach together.