Step by painful step: Easter Sunday

                                                     Step by painful step:

Easter Sunday

April 9, 2023

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Acts 10:34, 37-43; Psalm 118; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-9

 

The inexplicable events around the first Easter morning fill us with wonder and take our breath away, and we are left pondering what happened during the blurry events of the previous days. The hopes and dreams of the whole life of Jesus has been snuffed out and his vision was crushed as he lay dead in a tomb with a large stone to seal it. Death is final and it was won. I invite you into a meditation.

 

What we don’t hear is a moan and a gasp, as inside the tomb the slightest movement occurs. With some deeper breaths and a heaving chest, the man bruised body sits up from the slab upon which he was laid. He places his mangled feet on the dirt floor and winces from the pain. He steadies himself and he pushes himself up from the cold, blood-stained stone. The bloody cloths fall from his body, and he stoops to pick them up, and to place them neatly at the edge of the stone. It is still dark and he searches blindly for the entrance of the tomb. The place of death is not where he is to stay. 

 

Finding the large stone that leads to freedom, he leans on the wall to steady himself. Weakly, he pushes on the stone, but somehow it is moving to help him be bathed in the morning light. He squints, standing naked at the entrance, and puts one foot outside the tomb, and winces as he gingerly takes a painful step forward. As he hobbles to take a few more steps, he finds a discarded tunic to cloth himself, wounds still raw and visible, but with each step he takes, more life courses through his body, but he still bears the pain. 

 

He stands before the rising sun as his eyes adjusts and he pays homage to God, who had been with him all the time. His mind is still putting together everything that he remembered, and he is figuring out what it means to be raised from the dead. God is well pleased and is giving him back his life, but it is a different life. It is a life without fear. It is a life of abundance because of God’s extravagance. Somehow, nothing has changed and everything has been altered.

 

He sits on a nearby rock to steady himself, in this arena of death that is now filled with life. Death has been transformed, and the tombs no longer seem desolate. It is now a liminal place, a place of rest, a place of rejuvenation. He picks a fig from a tree and then a bite from an apple, and the return to the garden has been completed. With renewed vigor, his mind understands the suffering of humanity and he responds out of compassion as he wants to reconcile all that had been entrusted to him. He remembers his closest friends and sets out to meet them to help them understand.

First, there’s someone he wants to see. He knows he will have to return to the garden of tombs to meet up with the faithful women. Painfully, step by step, as he is learning to walk again and is rebuilding the torn muscles of his tired body. As he crosses town, he sees a solitary woman sitting in her dark courtyard and says, “Mom. It’s me. I’m okay.” He embraces his mother in silence.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (Acts 2) Peter stands up on Pentecost to proclaim to Jews in Jerusalem that Jesus of Nazareth who they put to death has been vindicated by God and raised to new life. 

 

Tuesday: (Acts 2) When the Jews realize the significance of their actions, they petition Peter to be baptized in the name of Jesus. 

 

Wednesday: (Acts 3) Peter and John heal the crippled man at "the Beautiful Gate" at the temple. 

 

Thursday: (Acts 3) All who witnessed the healing recognize that the man used to be the crippled beggar. Peter and John preach to the Jews gathered at Solomon's portico and tell them all that the prophets and scripture say about Jesus. 

 

Friday (Acts 4) The priests, temple guards, and the Sadducees confront Peter and John and hold them in custody. The religious authorities question their teaching and healing power. The Sanhedrin dismissed them with instructions not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 

 

Saturday (Acts 4) Peter, John, and the healed man persevere in their boldness. The Sanhedrin wait to see if this is of God or of another source of power.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 28) In Matthew, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary meet Jesus on the way and he exhorts them not to be afraid. The chief priests hire soldiers to say, "the disciples came and stole the body of Jesus." 

 

Tuesday: (John 20) Magdalene weeps outside the tomb and thinks Jesus is the gardener, until he speaks to her familiarly. 

 

Wednesday (Luke 24) Two disciples heading towards Emmaus meet Jesus along the way and he opens the scripture for them. 

 

Thursday (Luke 24) As they recount their story to the Eleven, Jesus appears before them, beckons them not to be afraid, and eats with them. 

 

Friday (John 21) Six disciples are with Peter as they fish at the Sea of Tiberius. After a frustrating night of fishing, Jesus instructs them to cast their nets wide and they catch 153 large fish. The beloved disciple recognized the man on the beach as the Lord and they rush to meet him. 

 

Saturday (Mark 16) Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene who told the Eleven about him. Two other disciples on the road returned to speak of their encounter, and then Jesus appears to them while they were at table.

 

Saints of the Week

 

No saints are remembered during the Easter octave.

 

April 11: Stanislaus, bishop and martyr (1030-1079), was born near Krakow, Poland and studied canon law and theology before he renounced his family fortunes and became a priest. Elected bishop, he oppose the bellicose and immoral King Boleslaus II who often oppressed the peasantry. He excommunicated the king who ordered his murder but the soldiers refused to carry it out. The king murdered him by his own hands, but then had to flee into exile. 

 

April 13: Martin I, pope, (6^th century – 655), an Umbrian was elected pope during the Byzantine papacy. One of his earliest acts was to convene the Lateran Council that dealt with the heretical Monothelitism.  Martin was abducted by Emperor Constans II and died in the Crimean peninsula. 

 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• April 9, 1615. The death of William Weston, minister to persecuted Catholics in England and later an author who wrote about his interior life during that period. 
• April 10, 1585. At Rome, the death of Pope Gregory XIII, founder of the Gregorian University and the German College, whose memory will ever be cherished as that of one of the Society's greatest benefactors. 
• April 11, 1573. Pope Gregory XIII suggested to the Fathers who were assembling for the Third General Congregation that it might be well for them to choose a General of some nationality other than Spanish. Later he expressed his satisfaction that they had elected Everard Mercurian, a Belgian. 
• April 12, 1671. Pope Clement X canonized Francis Borgia, the 3rd general of the Society. 
• April 13, 1541. Ignatius was elected general in a second election, after having declined the results of the first election several days earlier. 
• April 14, 1618. The father of John Berchmans is ordained a priest. John himself was still a Novice. 
• April 15, 1610. The death of Fr. Robert Parsons, the most active and indefatigable of all the leaders of the English Catholics during the reign of Elizabeth I.