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:
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!!!!
Let our celebration begin!
Know this. The entire world and God’s entire creation is unified in this celebration and proclamation. It is time to rejoice and to celebrate. Jesus Christ has conquered death and has gathered all of us before our God. We are Children of the Resurrection and are claimed by Christ as Children of God. Nothing can oppose us. Nothing can challenge us and be victorious. God is on our side and who can be against us? The answer is no one! Our Lenten Journey has ended. We have been crucified with Christ and have been resurrected with Him. We all have an opportunity of renewal through this. Baptized in Jesus Christ we are now invited to partake in our birthright and journey for the rest of our lives here and for eternity with Jesus Christ.
This past year has been challenging. We have been separated from the ones whom we love and isolated beyond imagination. We have been prevented from worshipping God as a family and reduced to spending much of our days separated and alone. Even though this has been the case it must be remembered that when we suffer we suffer with Jesus Christ. The suffering actually makes us stronger and causes the Light of Christ to shine ever brighter. No human cause can ever triumph over Jesus Christ so, whatever we face, the challenges that we encounter are always temporary and can never have a permanent effect on us unless we permit it to do so. As Christians, led by Jesus Christ, we will always be victorious in the face of any opposition. These are not just mere words but it is the truth. God will defeat anything that opposes us if we just invoke His name.
We have a spiritual and corporal army behind us. As we celebrate this day know that hundreds of people are constantly praying for us. These are the volunteers that have continuously come behind these walls and have ministered to us for decades. Their lives are intertwined with our lives and the bonds that have been created can never be destroyed because Jesus Christ has solidified these bonds through His presence and love. As we are suffering they are suffering also. At the same time they are joyous because The Love of God keeps them as well as us strong and beyond any real harm. The only harm can only come from our unbelief and doubt which is produced by the presence of Satan. So then, if we doubt we then pray and that doubt will be dispelled.
The Apostle Paul tells us to, “ seek what is above.” This is something that we all should keep in mind. Our lives should not only encompass what is physical but should always include that which is of the spiritual realm. The physical realm is always limited because it only includes that which is seen, heard, felt, smelled, and spoken. The spiritual realm is everything else and is limitless. The spiritual realm is eternal while that of the physical world is limited and everything in it will pass away. Jesus Christ serves as the ultimate example of this. He came into this world and defeated all that opposed Him with His death and resurrection. Those who do not follow Christ fear death thinking it is the end. With Christ’s resurrection He demonstrated that death itself is conquered through an understanding and a belief in Him. Keeping focused on The Resurrected Christ and an understanding that we are indeed eternal beings puts everything in perspective: If we focus only on this world then we will fade away with this world. If we focus on that which is eternal then we will we united to that which will never fade away. Why would we do anything else but that?
I encourage everyone to read the words of The Apostle Peter in the First Reading today. His testimony was passionate and true. He stood up in front of opposing forces, never fearing of negative repercussions, to profess the truth and what he has witnessed himself. A simple fisherman ignorant and uneducated inspired by The Holy Spirit to speak the truth and profess that which was obvious: Jesus Christ was crucified, died, was buried, and rose again in fulfillment of The Sacred Scriptures. If he could do this why cannot we? We are all disciples of Jesus Christ and have the capability to change the world. As Jesus Christ told us, The Kingdom of God is within you.” The New Heaven and The New Earth that Jesus spoke of is recognized through our actions. Our actions, guided by The Resurrected Christ, will always produce good fruit and a good life here on this earth and forever.
Let us all be guided by the words of Peter and The Resurrected Christ. Let us all life out our faith as Children of God. This is the day and the hour where we are challenged to renew our commitment to our faith and a new life through, in, and by Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ. Joyous Easter! Joyous Resurrection! Joyous Life.
HAPPY JOYOUS EASTER!
Deacon Tom
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
We are Children of the Resurrection. Today our lives have been raised up to the highest of the heights through the celebration of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We are partakers in everything that He has given us. It is through His Passion and Resurrection that we as Christians can discover who we truly are. There is no limit to what we can achieve and enjoy as long as we keep Jesus Christ central in our lives. God created us in His own image. His love envelopes us and all of His creation in His soft caress. Jesus welcomes us into an intimate relationship with Him and the Father defined by what was given to us freely and with no preconditions: Eternal Life and Salvation.
We are encouraged to place ourselves in the roll of Peter and John running to the tomb where nothing remains but a burial cloth. What was thought to be the end turns out to be the beginning of a new life and a new understanding of what is to come. Through the Resurrection we are all transformed into a new creation. What was before is gone; destroyed completely and never to be remembered. The past is the past which can never be changed. It does not have to define us or impeded us in our journey forward. Whatever was done or experienced has no power over us. There is no limitation to what we can achieve through Jesus Christ. We walk with Him and relate with Him in such a way that will lead us to greatness if only we allow it to do so.
When Jesus died, we died with Him. When He was resurrected, we were resurrected with Him. His presence is within all of us. He has claimed us as His own. This may have occurred immediately when we were conceived in our mother’s womb but it is only realized through our understanding of the Resurrection. That is why we lifted up our crosses to journey with Him to Calvary. That is why we shared His pain and torment as He shared ours. It is then that, after three days in the tomb, all of that pain and suffering is washed away and His glory is revealed. This indeed happened at a particular time and particular place but is also occurring perpetually through all of time and space. Christ is resurrected and with Him we are also. We die with Him and are resurrected with Him. This celebration is a reminder of all of that.
So here we are. As a Christian Community we suffer together. We take each others’ crosses and carry them as our own. We also take each others’ successes and link them to the Resurrection. Everything that we say and do within the perspective of the Resurrection will always bring forth satisfaction and inexplicable joy. When we act out our faith and come to this understanding we will encounter a complacency in our lives which in grounded in the fact that we are with Jesus. In the end, this is all that matters. As long as we are walking with Jesus, we will be safe and secure wherever we find ourselves.
We all have goals and aspirations. There are things that we all have to work on in our lives. Daily, as we continue to grow our relationship with Jesus Christ, we can examine our conscious and welcome Jesus into the confusion of our life; offering an invitation to Him to help us make sense of everything. Being receptive to what He has to say and to His actions will help us understand the Resurrected Christ more fully. Understanding leads to revelations which then lead to the right path and right choices. There will still be mistakes but these then become more easily acknowledged and corrected. Being with Jesus means that He is in control and not us. Yes, the statement “Let go and let God,” does indeed apply. Our participation in the Resurrection gives us the opportunity to reduce our pride and ego to a point where we can readily dismiss it when confronted with our God. Who are we compared to Him who made and loved all things? Shouldn’t it be comforting to know that we can rely on Our Creator to guide us and protect us? Just give Him a chance.
Jesus Christ is asking us to go to Him. There is no demand but an invitation that begs us to take. Think about this: Our God is asking us to love Him. Our God is asking us to let Him heal us. Our God is asking that we accept salvation. What a wonderful opportunity and experience we are offered.
CHRIST IS RISEN!
WE ARE RISEN!
Deacon Tom
Can we imagine the inner thoughts of one Jesus’ disciples when told that Jesus had risen? It is difficult! We have grown up with this teaching about Jesus and accept that He rose from the dead. Christ is risen! This phrase is surely one of the most important proclamations in the life of any Christian. We are invited today, on Easter Sunday, to make this proclamation alive again in our personal lives.
The first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us a short history of Jesus: a man who did good. A person who went about preaching and healing. But those opposed to him hanged him on a tree—that is, they crucified him. And then he rose from the dead in such a way that proved that he was still alive, especially by his eating and drinking with others.
Then, in this reading, comes the most important line of all: everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins through His name.
Easter is about Jesus Christ, true man and true God, who chooses to die for us and then forgives our sins. In our modern cultures, we don’t really believe in sin. Because of that, we often don’t find any need for salvation or for the presence of Christ. Sin has disappeared into psychological explanations of human actions or into discussions of the problems of a person’s childhood or perhaps even into a lack of education.
Often, at a practical level, we all know that we are broken human beings and do not always choose that which is good or that which is best. We recognize that we have conflicting emotions and desires within us—but we do not choose to call that sinfulness. What probably everyone recognizes as sin is a choice against another person or against ourselves that has really bad consequences.
Why spend so much time on sin on Easter Sunday morning? Only because salvation is the forgiveness of our sins! Only because Jesus died to free us from our sins.
We proclaim this morning: Christ is risen! Does it mean anything to us? Perhaps we want to believe in a life after this present one, so we are content that Jesus believes in that life. We need to know, however, that Jesus brings us a possibility of living that new life of the world to come here and now in this life.
It is just there that Christianity is so difficult to live. When I proclaim that Christ is risen from the dead, I also proclaim that I believe that I can live in a new way in this world. What we celebrate today is that Christ died for us! Christ gives us the possibility of living in a new way! Christ invites us to live at a divine level with Him!
All of this only makes sense if we really believe that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is God, that Jesus chooses to die for us and that Jesus’ death frees us from death and sin. That is why I am here this morning and I hope that it is why you are here. My life has been changed and I want it changed even more. I want to know Christ and His love and forgiveness at work in my daily life. I want to be like Mary Magdalene in the Gospel and speak personally with the risen Lord! I want to be able to proclaim every day of my life: Christ is risen! May my life become one with His! Alleluia!
CHRIST IN THE DESERT MONASTERY
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