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The one who was to come ( Gospel )
Lazarus lay dead in the tomb – as Jesus himself would shortly do. This was a central moment in the mission of Jesus, He clearly showed himself as the one who could open the graves (First Reading) and the one through whom our mortal bodies would receive the life that is stronger than death. We are the people who believe that he is the one who was to come.
The true shepherd is one who knows even the path that passes through the valley of death; one who walks with me even on the path of final solitude…: he himself has walked this path… The realization that there is One who even in death accompanies me…—this was the new “hope” that arose over the life of believers ( BENEDICT XVI, Spe Salvi, 6 ).
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The tombs opened ( Gospel )
The death of Jesus is presented by Saint Matthew as a new beginning – the veil of the temple is torn, the earth quakes the graves open. A new life is breaking free of the grip of death. God his Father raises him high. Before him all beings will acclaim him as Lord ( Second Reading ). Jesus risen from the tomb is the first born of a new people, the family of God,
… the Son of God, by overcoming death through his own death and resurrection, redeemed humanity and changed it into a new creation. For by communicating his Spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as his body his brothers and sisters who are called together from every nation ( VATICAN II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 7 ).
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EASTER SUNDAY
Baptised in Christ Jesus ( First Reading, Vigil )
The Easter Vigil tells the story of God’s people from the creation, the choice of Abraham, the liberation from Egypt, culminating in the Resurrection of Christ. Hope that remained alive through the centuries and was fulfilled beyond all imagining in the awe and great joy with which the women received the news that he had risen.
God now reveals his true face in the figure of the sufferer who shares man's God-forsaken condition by taking it upon himself. This innocent sufferer has attained the certitude of hope: there is a God, and God can create justice in a way that we cannot conceive, yet we can begin to grasp it through faith . ( BENEDICT XVI Spe Salvi 43 ) .
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SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
Divine Mercy Sunday
The promise of an inheritance ( Second Reading )
Thomas demanded to see ( Gospel ) but even without seeing, we can be filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described ( Second Reading ).The Risen Lord gives his peace to the community of his followers. The apostles receive the Holy Spirit through whom they will forgive sins. God’s mercy gathers us into his family. Our inheritance will never fade.
Not only for the Church herself… but also in a certain sense for all humanity, [the mystery of mercy, supremely revealed in Jesus Christ] is the source of a life different from the life which can be built by [human effort] … It is precisely in the name of this mystery that Christ teaches us to forgive always ( JOHN PAUL II, Dives in Misericordia, 14 ).
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THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
They recognised him (Gospel)
The disciples on the road to Emmaus were downcast. They no longer knew what to think. Everything changed when they recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread; they went to meet the apostles and their companions. That was where they belonged – in the family that witnesses to its Father who raised Jesus from the dead ( First, Second Reading )
By its union with Christ, the People of the New Covenant, far from closing in upon itself, becomes a ‘sacrament’ for humanity, a sign and instrument of the salvation achieved by Christ, the light of the world and the salt of the earth, for the redemption of all ( JOHN PAUL II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia 22 ).
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FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Day of Prayer for Vocations
About three thousand were added ( First Reading )
Peter addressed the crowd on Pentecost Sunday. All they wanted was to know how they could respond to his extraordinary message that God’s promises had finally been fulfilled. The Good News transformed their lives. It is the same Good News that we have heard. Does it fill our lives? Are we witnesses to it. Do we long to see people commit themselves to living and preaching and celebrating the mystery of Christ?
Vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life can only flourish in a spiritual soil that is well cultivated. Christian communities that live the missionary dimension of the mystery of the Church in a profound way will never be inward looking. Mission, as a witness of divine love, becomes particularly effective when it is shared in a community, “so that the world may believe” ( BENEDICT XVI, Message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations 2008, par 8 ).
FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
So that you may be living stones ( First Reading )
We are not just isolated individuals; we are “living stones making a spiritual house” ( First Reading ). We are a community that needs to work together so as to provide for all the dimensions of the Lord’s work ( Second Reading ). We are community that seeks to find the right way towards our goal and who need to recognise that the goal is Christ ( Gospel) .
But the individual is a living stone of the ‘spiritual house’ only by remaining bonded to the others and acting with the awareness of this bond, powered by the grace which incorporates him or her into the ‘holy nation’ the ‘priestly community. The church… has for its flesh the network of mutual relationships created between the baptised by the ‘spirit of glory which is the Spirit of God’ (J.-M. Tillard OP).
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SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Always have your answer ready ( Second Reading )
We should have an answer for those who ask why we have hope – not out of a sense that we are better than others, but out of an awareness of the great gift we have received. We are to answer “with courtesy and respect”. They should see in us and in our community, our gratitude that Christ does not leave us orphans ( Gospel ), that our hope is stronger than any evil.
The true shepherd is one who knows even the path that passes through the valley of death; on who walks with me even on the path of final solitude where no one can accompany me,, guiding me through… this was the new hope that arose over the life of believers ( Benedict XVI Spe Salvi 6 ).
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World Communications Day
Make disciples of all the nations ( Gospel )
We are all meant to be communicators of the truth. Today we reflect especially on the huge impact of communication in our world – the media, the possibilities for contact through the internet and so on. It is no accident that the words communication and community are related. Communication is meant to foster the growth of the human family in peace and in truth.
One might even say that seeking and presenting the truth about humanity constitutes the highest vocation of social communication… The truth which makes us free is Christ, because only he can respond fully to the thirst for life and love that is present in the human heart. Those who have encountered him and have enthusiastically welcomed his message experience the irrepressible desire to share and communicate this truth . ( Benedict XVI, Message for World Communications Day 2008 )
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