Easter Sunday The
Resurrection of the Lord
The Mass of Easter Day
Lectionary: 42
Reading I
Peter proceeded to speak and said:
“You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
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.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Responsorial Psalm
R (24) This is the day the Lord has made; let
us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his
mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy
endures forever.”
R This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R Alleluia.
“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right
hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare
the works of the LORD.”
R This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become
the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is
wonderful in our eyes.
R This is the day the Lord has made; let us
rejoice and be glad.
or:
R Alleluia.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
OR:
I Cor 5:6b-8
Brothers and sisters:
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?
Clear out the old yeast,
so that you may become a fresh batch of dough,
inasmuch as you are unleavened.
For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
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.
Sequence
Victimae paschali laudes
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
Offer your
thankful praises!
A Lamb the sheep redeems;
Christ, who
only is sinless,
Reconciles
sinners to the Father.
Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous:
The Prince
of life, who died, reigns immortal.
Speak, Mary, declaring
What you
saw, wayfaring.
“The tomb of Christ, who is living,
The glory of
Jesus’ resurrection;
bright angels attesting,
The shroud
and napkin resting.
Yes, Christ my hope is arisen;
to Galilee
he goes before you.”
Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining.
Have mercy,
victor King, ever reigning!
Amen.
Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed;
let us then feast with joy in the Lord.
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Gospel
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.
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
CHRIST IS RISEN. HE HAS TRULY RISEN!!!!!
And here we are, Children of the Resurrection. We journeyed with Jesus through the Season of Lent, carrying our own crosses on our backs, and reflecting on our sins. Our burdens became Jesus’ burden while His became ours. It was a shared experience and brought us closer to Him. We came to understand that we are never alone, and that Jesus suffers with us. He feels what we feel. He knows what we are going through. This journey offered us an opportunity to confront our short-comings and seek forgiveness for our sins. It also brought an understanding that, as Christians, suffering is part of our lives. It is by suffering that we are united with the Crucified Christ and a special grace is experienced. We become united with Jesus and we became closer to Him. On Holy Thursday, we broke bread with Him and received our final commissioning from Him. We received a new commandment from Him that instructed us to love one another as He has loved us. We celebrated the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood, while preparing ourselves for His Passion. We then experienced His death and waited by the tomb, knowing that even though we were mourning, celebration would soon ensue. And now we celebrate, for it is through the Resurrection that we too are resurrected to a new life as Children of the Resurrection.
Celebrating today, united with billions of Christians around the world, we are given an opportunity of a new life with Jesus. This is what the Transformative Experience is all about. We are renewed through Jesus Christ and can be defined by the Resurrection Experience. At the same time, we are challenged in a way with this knowledge. What are we going to do with it? How are we going to approach our lives? We can either keep the Resurrected Christ central in our thoughts and actions or we can celebrate this day then, as the sun sets, go about our normal business. The world as we know it would rather we ignore the fact that we have entered into the Easter Season where we celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection continuously for the next 50 days. Our joy and exultation have only just begun. For 40 days we walked with the Crucified Christ, now we are with the Resurrected Christ. The past is the past, it cannot be changed. The future never comes. It is in the present that we encounter the true joy of Jesus in our lives. The Apostle Paul reminds us today to, “Seek what is above.” When we do this, things will tend to go in the right direction. It is when we take our focus off our faith, that things tend to go wrong. If we immerse ourselves in the physical things of this world, we will remain restless and dissatisfied. Satisfaction is found through, by, and in Jesus Christ.
The Psalm tells us, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.” We are encouraged to be in a state of constant rejoicing, ignoring the hardships of this world while pursuing the spiritual one. We, in our humanness, tend to focus on immediate problems and disappointment, while minimizing the spiritual. The Easter Season provides us an opportunity to reset ourselves on the spiritual once again and encounter the Resurrected Christ. It is through this realignment that we can encounter true joy and get the full benefit from the Easter Season. Then we can proclaim, “Christ is risen! He has truly risen!”
Deacon Tom
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