April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday
The Resurrection of the Lord
The Mass of Easter Day
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. Acts 10: 40-42
And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning (within us) while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?" Luke 24:30-32
Piety
Dear Lord, I am so grateful for all you have given me this past week. Stay with me in the days to come.
Bless all who suffer in this world and bring peace to your people, whom you loved so much that you gave your life for them. Amen.
(By Henri J. M. Nouwen in A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee, p.70-71)
Study
He is Risen! Indeed!
So much is happening in today’s readings – no matter which ones were read at the Mass where and when you celebrated Easter. Angels are rolling away stones. Women are going to the tomb with spices. They hurry back to tell Peter. Peter and others run to the tomb and go inside. Meanwhile, on another road from town, some disciples are heading to Emmaus with a stranger.
With the flurry of activity, most did not know what to make of the situation. Most. But not the disciple John. He was a little faster than Peter and got there first but out of reverence for the holy ground he stopped. Or maybe out of respect for the leadership of Peter, he did not enter first. “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.”
Action
Now that our savior has returned to us, don’t we echo the emotions of those disciples at dinner in Emmaus? Stay with us, Lord. Never leave us again even for a minute or a day or three days. He hears our plea and stays with us and in us as long as he can work through us.
“Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
