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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Day)
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Gospel text (Jn 20:1-9): On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning (…) and saw the stone removed from the tomb (…). Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb (…). Simon Peter (…) 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 (...); he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

Jesus has entered upon a new and different life

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, Jesus has not returned to a normal human life in this world, like Lazarus and the others whom Jesus raised from the dead. He has entered upon a different life, a new life; He has entered the vast breadth of God Himself and it is from there, that He reveals Himself to his followers.

For the disciples too this was something totally unexpected, to which they were only slowly able to adjust. Jewish faith did indeed know of a resurrection of the dead at the end of time. But a resurrection into a definitive and different condition - in the midst of the continuous "old world" - was not foreseen and, therefore, at first made no sense. So the promise of resurrection remained initially unintelligible to the disciples.

—The process by which one becomes a believer is analogous to what we saw in the case of the Cross: nobody had thought of a crucified Messiah; now the "fact" was there, and it was necessary, on the basis of that fact, to take a fresh look at the Scripture.

The Resurrection of Christ

Fr. Josep Mª MASSANA i Mola OFM (Barcelona, Spain)

Today, on this Easter morning, we see a lot of movement: a woman leaves home to the tomb and from the tomb to where the apostles are. Peter and John run to the tomb, verify and see. And above all, after a few moments of doubt and hope, clearly see through the eyes of their spirit, and believe in the resurrection of Jesus.

Between so much movement, the most important, the most decisive, was that of Jesus. After the passion of Good Friday and the death on the cross, and Saturday's "rest" and silence, Jesus had risen, alive out of the tomb, leaving behind his shrouds well-ordered and intact, and giving us his resurrection as the clearest proof of his divinity.

—Lord Jesus, we believe that your resurrection is the guarantee of our own, because you have said that you are the Resurrection and Life, and they who believe in you, even though they die will live. And you will raise them on the latter day.