Category: Uncategorized

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Gospel: John 20: 11-19

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”
which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
‘I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.’”
Mary went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he had told her.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Mary Magdalene loves Jesus so much.

Although she thinks he’s dead, she cannot focus on anyone else. As soon as the Sabbath breaks, she rushes to the garden to anoint his body, her eyes overflowing with tears.

She has cried so much over the last three days, that she doesn’t even realize she’s speaking to angels inside the Lord’s tomb!

“Woman, why are you weeping?” they say to her. “They’ve taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.”

Mary doesn’t even have to say his name. There’s no one else on her mind. Only Jesus.

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Even after the Risen Lord appears to her, Mary mistakes him for a gardener. “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”

As if Mary is strong enough to lift the Lord’s body on her own and carry him away. Her plans are illogical, driven not by reason, but by love.

“I will take him away.”

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After speaking to the “gardener,” Mary turns her back on Jesus and re-focuses her eyes on the tomb. 

Here’s where most people can identify with her.

When we lose a loved one, often our eyes turn back to the grave, to what was, not to what will be. 

But, in the words of Saint Paul, “Brothers and sisters, if then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above… not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God… So you too will appear with him in glory.”

This Easter season, may the reality of the empty tomb take deeper root in our hearts, leading us to everlasting peace.

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Image credits: (1) Mary Magdalene at the Sepulcher, Harold Copping (2) These Mountains We Climb (3) St. Gabriel Catholic Elementary, Burlington, ON

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Acts: 2: 14, 22-33

On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
“You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem.
Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.

“You who are children of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God
with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs,
which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
For David says of him:

I saw the Lord ever before me,
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.

My brothers, one can confidently say to you
about the patriarch David that he died and was buried,
and his tomb is in our midst to this day.
But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him
that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne,
he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld
nor did his flesh see corruption.
God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit
that he received from the Father, as you both see and hear.”

The Word of the LORD.

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One of the earliest proofs of the resurrection is the complete transformation in Peter’s behavior.

Remember what happens on Holy Thursday and Good Friday: Jesus is betrayed, arrested, abandoned, and crucified. Meanwhile, Peter vehemently denies ever knowing Jesus three times.

Only the Apostle John and a few women stay with the LORD until his death.

Yet, in our first reading today, the same Peter who denied ever knowing Jesus, risks his life by preaching to the same crowds who put Jesus to death. 

“This man you killed, using lawless men to crucify him,” he says. “But God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses.”

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“Of this we are all witnesses.”

There’s no other logical reason for the change in Peter’s behavior – from cowardice to courage, fear to freedom – unless he’s actually seen Jesus raised from dead.

Peter’s repeated encounters with the Risen Lord compel him to spend the next three decades of his life proclaiming the Good News until he freely dies like his Master, nailed to a cross, confident that he, too, would be raised to new life.

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Do I have that same confidence of Peter, the faith that all will be well?

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The Church offers us these readings during the Easter season to bolster us, inspiring us to believe what Peter did – there is life after death.

For He is Risen! Alleluia! 

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Image credits: (1) Resurrection of Christ, Tapestry Gallery, Vatican Museums (2) ChurchPOP (3) KBC Faith Talks, WordPress

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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.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Two years ago, twenty-five parishioners and I made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. When we were in Jerusalem, we climbed the hill of Calvary, the place where Jesus was crucified. We even touched the rock that once held his cross!

After a prayerful moment of silence, we journeyed back down the hill to celebrate Mass at his empty tomb. Imagine that: the grave that once held our Lord’s body captive is now an altar where Catholics celebrate Mass.

It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my priesthood. We were at ground-zero, the place where it all happened. 

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In some ways, the darkness of Good Friday still haunts the land Jesus once called home. We’ve all seen horrific images of war and violence in Israel and Gaza, where entire families are starving, crying out in anguish, and dying in despair.

Such a grim reality reminds us that while the empty tomb is just a stone’s throw from Calvary, the inner journey from Good Friday to Easter Sunday – from horror to hope, from disbelief to belief – can span a lifetime.

Faith is a journey, often a series of questions, answers, and still, more questions.

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Consider the journey of Mary Magdalene in today’s Gospel. She’s one of the few women, who along with the Apostle John, remained by our Lord during his final hours.

She witnessed the horror of Calvary. She wept as Nicodemus laid him in the rock hewn tomb. Then she waited three long days for the opportunity to go and anoint his body.

John tells us that Mary, “went while it was still dark,” before sunrise with the bitterness of Christ’s death fresh in her heart. 

She went expecting to face an obstruction – a large stone placed in front of his tomb. But, to her absolute surprise, the stone had been rolled away!

Symbolically, that “stone” represented every obstacle preventing her and the others from believing – their fears, their doubts, their overwhelming sense of helplessness had been rolled away. 

Something happened. The tomb was opened.

Though she does not fully understand yet, Easter begins growing in Mary’s heart.

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What does she do next?

She runs to tell the others.

This is what happens when the joy of Easter starts becoming real. Even when we don’t fully understand who Jesus is, or what he has done for us, we have to share the Good News with others.

“Could it be? Could Jesus be alive again, even now? Has he opened a way to new life after death?”

Imagine standing in front of the empty tomb this Easter morning. What do you see? 

Is there a stone still rolled in front of it, some obstacle blocking your belief? Or has the reality of Easter awakened in your heart?

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Now imagine entering the tomb.

As we look around, Christ’s body is nowhere to be found. His burial cloths lay wrinkled on the ground, as if his body evaporated, passing right through them.

This image was used by early Christians to explain what happens in baptism. Traditionally, when a person was baptized, they were plunged underwater, reminding them that they have been buried with Christ – spiritually, placed in his tomb.

Upon being pulled out of the water, they’d receive the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead.

“For if we have died with Christ,” Paul tells us, “then we shall also live with Christ… for the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.”

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This is what Easter is all about.

It’s a journey from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Christians do not deny the pain or suffering present in our world. But we never despair. 

We do what we can to alleviate the burdens of others, while rejoicing in the truth that Christ has conquered the grave. He has overcome death!

May the power of his Spirit fill our hearts – and those of Christians in the Holy Land – this Easter morning so that, like Mary, we may come to see and proclaim with great joy, “He is Risen! Alleluia!”

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Image credits: (1) The Vine Church (2) JW.org (3) FreePik