EASTER SUNDAY
Readings First: Acts 10:34.37-43; Second: Col 3:1-4; Gospel: Jn 20:1-9
Theme of the readings
Christ arose from the dead! This is the mystery we are celebrating today. The whole liturgy summarizes it in an important way: "Three days afterwards God raised him to life," Peter preaches to Cornelius and to his entire household (first reading). For Paul the resurrection of Jesus Christ – the Christian awareness of this mystery – is the basis of all Christian ethics, and so invites us to think and seek heavenly and not earthly things (second reading). In the Gospel, taken from Chapter 20 of St. John, the whole narrative focuses on the empty tomb, but only in order to make the "beloved disciple’s" faith in the resurrection more prominent, since according to the Scriptures, Jesus must rise from the dead (Gospel).
Doctrinal message
The first point to be noted is that we are facing a mystery. A mystery surprises and surpasses us. It is something that, without being irrational, breaks down the barriers of human reason and goes beyond our system of understanding reality. It is something grasped better by the heart and by faith, and less by reason and the intellect. It is something that brings with it a certain obscurity and does not let us dominate or manipulate it, however much we may desire to do so. Finally, it is something that is "there" in human life, intangible, sovereign and impressive. While we realize that "the mystery," any mystery but most particularly this mystery of Jesus’ resurrection, regards us personally and we cannot pretend not to know about it. It would be something like pretending not to know of the reference point and coherence of our own life or our own happiness. A mystery from which the human person cannot "escape" without seriously jeopardizing himself, without harming his very being.
We add that it is good and very positive for people "to touch" or to be touched by this mystery. One could perhaps think that by being a mystery it humiliates us, damages our dignity, takes away our autonomy and greatness, topples us from the pedestal of reason and leads us down the blind alley of credulity. There is nothing more mistaken! Man’s confrontation with mystery, that is, with what transcends his experience of things and persons, is a sign of his origins in nothing that is purely earthly, and of his vocation to something superior than to a mere world of dust and ashes. Ultimately, the mystery reminds, recalls, and revives in the human being the place he comes from, his task in the world, his destination and his destiny. Is this not the greatness of the human person as compared with any other of the world’s creatures?
Today we are celebrating the mystery of the living Christ, the victory of life over death and the tomb, of the pledge and guarantee of our eternal life, hidden with Christ in God. This mystery was not bequeathed to us by history’s greatest thinkers or by the most intuitive mystics of the religion. Nor does it inform us of the magicians and shamans of every kind and of every epoch. This mystery was revealed to us by the witness of "those who saw and believed." It is not the result of human effort, but the testimony of a startling experience that marked his life forever. As a witness one cannot demonstrate, one simply believes or does not believe. But a testimony, rendered credible in addition by martyrdom, is rational whether or not we accept it. This is why the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a mystery of faith but fully rational and credible and highly important to the life of the human person in this world.
Pastoral suggestions
In catechesis and pastoral work during the Easter season, it can be interesting to give young people and adults a good explanation of the concept and meaning of mystery. We do this, on the one hand to avoid fideism and outright fundamentalism. On the other, we want to prevent mystery from being conceived as something irrational, for primitive or childish people, or for the psychologically weak, as something totally inappropriate for the person of today who is intellectually mature. Re-examining the concept of mystery with the faithful, in clear and unabridged terms, is important if one is to approach the great mysteries of Christian life with faith and with reason.
In this catechesis, I believe two most important dimensions should be emphasized. First, mystery is rational, however far it reaches beyond the bounds of reason. Reason will say: "This is out of my reach, but it is not contradictory nor contrary to the essential laws of thinking, and there are perceptible elements that make it rational." Second, mystery is important for human persons. If they do not grasp that it has much to do with their life, that this mystery can change life’s direction, they will pay no attention to it and put store it away in the closet. Instead, if they see their life is affected, "touched" by mystery, then it will be a constant reference point, something vital that penetrates their whole being and is manifest in all their work. In the every day life of Christians, of parishioners, is the mystery of the resurrection of Jesus Christ important? How can it be made really important for everyone?
Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOA.html
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EASTER Sunday 23rd of April 2000
First: Acts 10:34.37-43; Second: Col 3:1-4 Gospel: Jn 20:1-9
THEME of the READINGS
As Christians, we are called to be "witnesses of hope" in the midst of the world that surrounds us. The Gospel mentions several attitudes before the empty tomb: that of the loved disciple who "saw and believed" is the only attitude which allows for an openness to the hope that Christ has risen. Peter, in the house of Cornelius, the Roman centurion who performed his service in Caesarea, bears open witness to the fact that God made Jesus rise from the dead, thus instilling hope in the pagan world, represented by the centurion (first reading). In the second reading, taken from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians, the apostle invites men to place hope not in the things of this world, but in the things of above, in the risen and glorious Christ.
DOCTrinal MESSAGE
The risen Christ, our hope. One of the fundamental questions of all human existence is to know what one can hope for or where to place one’s hope in the face of the future. And especially, if it is possible to experience a hope that opens the door of the human heart beyond the threshold of death. This problem has practically been recurring in mankind since the very beginning and corresponds to a natural need of the human being to survive beyond the corporal corruption of the human compound. Is man satisfied to merely survive in the memory of others, of a superior, spiritual and impersonal world? Is man satisfied with the mere immortality of the soul? The truth is that the individual soul lacks something without the body and the body ceases to be such if there is no reference to the soul. The magnificent and original coexistence in which they have lived in a human being with a name and last name, they wish to prolong to future life. This is where Christian faith comes fully into the picture and places before our eyes the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, here is someone in whom psychosomatic coexistence, broken by death, is prolonged to eternity through the resurrection. This one man is Jesus Christ. This is why the risen Christ is the only one that can give a solid, firm and sure foundation to our hope.
Witnesses of resurrection, witnesses of hope. It is true that people, and not objects, are the real witnesses. However, it is not wrong to say that the empty tomb bears witness, albeit imperfectly, to the Resurrection and Christian hope. Its testimony is ambiguous, because the fact of being empty may be explained in other ways; however there is no doubt that one of such explanations, the most plausible for those that have lived with Jesus and have listened to his teachings, is the Resurrection. Many will give a wrong interpretation to the testimony of the tomb, like Mary of Magdala: "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him." Many others, like Peter, will adopt the attitude of the notary who with cold objectivity certifies the fact: "He bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground ..." However, there will also be many who, like John, don’t just certify the event: "...he saw and believed. Until this moment they had still not understood the scripture, that he must rise from the dead." This testimony of the empty tomb is for all a testimony of hope. There will come a day, and only God will know when, in which bodies will rise again and will once again live together in an eternal and joyful embrace with their soul.
Beyond the witness of the tomb, and of much greater value, is Peter’s convinced testimony in Cornelius’ house, or that of Paul in his Letter to the Colossians. Peter will say, "Now we are those witnesses... and he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people and to bear witness that God... It is to him that all prophets bear this witness." Paul, in turn, will urge the Colossians, "Since you have been raised up to be with Christ, you must look for the things that are above." One bears witness to something that one believes in, something for which one is willing to give one’s life, if necessary. Hope, by its own force, springs from the witness itself: hope in the resurrection, hope in life with Christ.
PASTORal SUGGESTIONS
A hope that does not disappoint. In life we have many small hopes. They are legitimate, good hopes but poor and incomplete. We hope to live a long life and see what the world will be like in forty or fifty years. We hope to find a good and well-paid job. If we are young, we hope to have the necessary money to buy our own house or a new car. We hope that our children grow healthy, do well in school and always behave well at home. We hope to win the lottery, or that our favorite soccer or baseball team wins. We hope... Yes, man is a being that was born to hope. What happens with all these small hopes is that either we do not fulfill them and therefore we feel disappointed, or once we do achieve them, they do not satisfy our capacity for hope and lead us to other new and ephemeral hopes, like the ones we have already fulfilled. Only God can fully satisfy our entire capacity for hope, here and in this world in which we live and work, and in life after death in which we will see him as he is and will love him with all of our being. We know that he does not disappoint us, because he is God and his name is the Faithful. But in addition to that, through faith we are sure that he will not disappoint us because Jesus Christ, who has risen, has entered eternity with his human nature and lives the experience of a converted hope in union with and with an ineffable love for God, his Father.
A hope for all. God wants all to be saved and thus has called everyone to enjoy the bliss of heaven. "All" does not mean "all those who are good" according to our human categories. Nor does it mean "all Catholics" or "all Christians". "All" simply means "all". In other words, all of humankind. Hope is a door that is open to all: the good and the bad, Christians and non-Christians, the big and the small, the strong and the weak, the famous and the unknown, believers and non-believers. This is a great and beautiful truth of Christianity: no one is excluded from Christian hope; desperation cannot have the last say. It is said that today many men have lost all hope or simply that their hope is dormant. Isn’t giving reason to our hope perhaps an important aspect of Christian vocation in today’s world? A great hope, with a capital H, which is not reduced to small legitimate hopes, but that in such hopes is developed, invigorated and grows.
Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOB.html
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EASTER Sunday
First: Acts 10: 34a.37-43:12; Second: 1 Cor 5:6-8; Gospel: Jn 20:1-9
THEME of the READINGS
The risen Christ is at the heart of the Easter liturgy. He is so first of all as the object of faith, before the evidence of the empty tomb: "He saw and he believed" (Gospel). He is the object of proclamation and witness before the people: "And they killed him by hanging him on a tree, yet on the third day God raised him to life"(first reading). He is the object of transformation, the new leaven and bread of sincerity and truth: "Throw out the old yeast so that you can be the fresh dough, unleavened as you are. For our Passover has been sacrificed, that is, Christ" (second reading).
DOCTrinal MESSAGE
The risen Christ, the object of faith. Although the tomb is empty, it does not prove that Christ has risen. Mary of Magdala went to the tomb and came to the following conclusion: "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him." Peter went into the tomb and "saw the linen cloths lying on the ground and also the cloth that had been over his head." In seeing the empty tomb, neither Mary nor Peter believed that Jesus Christ had been raised. Only John "saw and believed," because the empty tomb led him to understand the Scripture, according to which Jesus was to rise again from the dead (Gospel). In number 640, the Catechism teaches us the following: "This suggests that he realized from the empty tomb’s condition that the absence of Jesus’ body could not have been of human doing." Up to that time, John had known the Scripture only in terms of notions, and so it only affected his ideas. But now, in going into the empty tomb, in seeing the cloths and shroud, his knowledge of the Scripture becomes experiential and vital knowledge. The risen Christ has not appeared to him yet, but he has already "seen" him, because the Word of God is true; Christ’s apparitions to his disciples will merely confirm their faith in his Resurrection.
The risen Christ, the object of proclamation. When people have a profound experience, they cannot keep silent about it, aware as they may be that their words will never be able to express the intensity, vividness and fullness of the experience. The experience of the risen Christ left such a deep impression in the soul of the apostles and of the disciples, that they necessarily had to talk about it to those who had not enjoyed it. Not only did they feel that they had to talk about it: they also had to bear witness to it, proclaim its truth, even with their suffering and death, if need be. To keep silent about such an experience would have been an act of unforgivable selfishness. This is why Christians were monothematic in the first years, and when they first proclaimed him. The only thing that they said was, "Christ was killed by the Jews, but God raised him from the dead." Everything else revolves around this great message. They did not proclaim mere ideas, as beautiful as they may have been, but events which they experienced first hand. This experience of the risen Christ was not fleeting. It became part of their existence in this world, and it is for this reason that they never ceased to proclaim Jesus Christ’s Resurrection with their words and lives.
The risen Christ, the object of transformation. There is a very close relationship between Jesus Christ’s Resurrection and man’s transformation. Christ, the perfect man, is the first to be transformed when God raises him from the dead, thus becoming a man completely penetrated by the Spirit. Saint Paul talks to us about the ethical experience that knowing the risen Christ entails, a transformation that affects us at our very roots: sincerity and truth. In turn, the person who has been transformed by the risen Christ is capable of transforming others, like leaven is capable of making all of the dough ferment. This ethical and missionary transformation is based on inner transformation, which is brought about by the Spirit of Christ, that makes all who have experienced the risen Christ wholly spiritual people, imbued in the Spirit.
PASTORal SUGGESTIONS
Experiencing the risen Christ. An experience is something that one goes through or doesn’t: one can have it or not have it. One cannot order a representative to live an experience in one’s place. Christianity is a faith, but it is penetrated by a life experience, so that faith does not fade. Any Christian can have a life experience of the risen Christ. What better day than Easter Sunday to ask the Lord for the grace of this experience! The Christian may put himself in the position to receive the gift of this experience by developing a growing spiritual sensitivity. In coming into contact with God, we begin to enjoy God and the things of God, we acquire a greater ability to listen and to be obedient to the Spirit, we are more in tune with the faith of the Church. This is the cultivated land where the experience of the risen Christ may spring and flourish. We are all called to this experience, without exception. We must not think that it is only for a few mystics who have a certain propensity for such states of the soul. It is important for all Christians to have this experience. Those who have gone through it cannot continue to live in the same way, even if they already led a good Christian life. This intense life experience touches and changes one’s mentality, habits, lifestyle, the way of relating to others, motives for acting and even personality. If you have already lived this experience of the risen Christ, then I think you will agree that with it comes every good thing. If you still have not lived it, ask the Lord to grant you such an experience as soon as possible. May this be the gift that the Lord wants to bestow upon you this Easter!
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christian ethics. Is there a Christian ethics? Well, there is at least a Christian way to live ethics. There is a basis of Christian ethics which is the person of Jesus Christ, the mystery of his Resurrection. An ethics that is not based on the person and message of Jesus Christ cannot be defined as Christian. And when I speak about Christian ethics, I am not just referring to the professors of ethics at universities, but Christian behavior in their work, before the mass media, in the family setting, vis-à-vis taxes, in the face of religious pluralism, etc. The risen Christ has made us share in his divine life by means of baptism and sanctifying grace, and he wishes to continue his presence in history. Let us live the experience of the risen Christ, and let us make sure that our behavior is always ethical and worthy of us as human beings. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, then, will really be at the center of our life and faith.
Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOC.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)
[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭
교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이:
소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로
마련되었습니다].