17 April 2022: Easter Sunday: Mass of Easter day A/B/C

Reading 1	Response	Reading 2	Gospel
Acts 10:34a, 37-43	Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23	Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6b-8	Jn 20:1-9
		RCL C: 1 Cor 15: 19-26	RCL C: Jn 20:1-18

Lectionary note

The Lectionary presents two different sets of readings for Easter: the Easter Vigil mass, and the mass of Easter day. This reflection follows the readings for the Easter day mass.

Easter Sunday: the beginnings of faith

Easter Sunday begins the fifty-day Easter season, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection is a reason for joy and hope, because it foreshadows the future resurrections of all who believe. Today’s readings invite us to explore the resurrection’s certainties and our own confused, evolving faith.

First reading (Acts 10:34a, 37-43)

Throughout the Easter season, the first reading is a semi-continuous reading from Luke’s Acts of the Apostles. In today’s pericope, Peter, preaching the good news to the gentile Cornelius and his household, sums up Luke’s gospel story: Jesus’ baptism by John; Jesus’ ministering and healing from Galilee to Jerusalem; Jesus’ overturning the devil’s counter-kingdom; Jesus’ rejection by those in Jerusalem; Jesus’ dying and rising; and Jesus’ appearing to select witnesses, usually at meals, and preaching forgiveness of sins. Peter’s statements about Jesus as “judge of the living and dead” and “everyone believing in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” are especially significant, summarizing the statement that Jesus “is Lord of all.” The Lectionary editors chose this reading because it contains one of the earliest kerygma (basic messages) preached to gentiles.

Second reading (Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6b-8)

The Lectionary offers a choice of second readings:

• An unknown author writing in Paul’s name completed the letter to the Colossae ekklesia around 80 AD. In today’s pericope, the author connects the Colossians’ baptism with their coming glorification. In baptism, believers “died” and “were raised with Christ.” Christ is now enthroned in glory (“seated at God’s right hand”); believers should live ethical lives now as they await their own future glorification (“what is above”), rather than engaging in this world’s passing concerns (“what is below”). For now, believers’ future hopes “are hidden,” but when Christ returns in glory, believers will enter true, glorified lives promised at baptism. The Lectionary editors chose this reading because of its baptismal and personal resurrection themes.
• Paul sent his first letter to the Corinth ekklesia from Ephesus in 56-57 AD. Paul urges the Corinthians toward unity and to correct their wrong behaviors. In today’s pericope Paul uses a well-known proverb (“a little yeast leavens the whole loaf”) to teach that each ekklesia member’s behavior affects the entire community. This is the time for spiritual house-cleaning: “clearing out” old habits and behaviors that do not align with Christian living. Jesus, the “paschal lamb,” himself makes the community holy and calls each member to be holy (“the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”). The Lectionary editors chose this reading because Paul reinterprets the Passover feast with a Christian meaning: this is the earliest Easter homily in Christian scripture.

Gospel (Jn 20:1-9)

John’s Easter story describes the disciples’ confusion and ambiguity when they encounter the resurrection’s facts: the empty tomb and discarded grave clothes.

• What do they see? Mary Magdalene sees only “the stone removed from the tomb.” Peter enters the empty tomb sees “the burial cloths” and the face-cloth “rolled up in a separate place.” The “disciple whom Jesus loved” looks in and sees “the burial cloths.”
• What do they understand? Mary Magdalene assumes someone has taken Jesus’ body. Peter doesn’t know what to think: he sees, but draws no conclusions from the evidence. The beloved disciple “sees and believes” immediately.
• How do they begin to believe? For Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ resurrection becomes real only when she personally encounters the risen Jesus and he speaks her name (Jn 20:16). For Peter, Jesus’ resurrection becomes real only when the risen Jesus appears within the community of disciples (Jn 20:20). For the beloved disciple, Jesus’ resurrection is real as soon as he enters and sees the tomb is empty (Jn 20:8).

John’s story suggests that disciples come to faith in different ways and at different times, and he cautions that they are only at the beginning of their faith journey: they do “not yet understand” what the scriptures mean.

Summary and reflection

Jesus’ resurrection has many meanings and many implications. Throughout the Easter season, the readings invite us to reflect on this cosmos-changing event. Acts recounts Peter’s preaching about the meaning of Jesus’ life, transformative death, and post-resurrection appearances. The Colossians author shows how a disciple’s baptism mirrors Christ’s death and resurrection, and promises future glorification with Christ. Paul imagines Christ as a paschal lamb and Christ’s rising as a Passover for believers. John describes how the Easter event confused and challenged disciples’ understandings, and how their faith evolves and grows slowly.

We would all be more comfortable with a story about one of Jesus’ many post-resurrection appearances, rather than today’s story about an empty tomb and dazed disciples. Easter’s empty tomb challenges us to choose and to begin a long journey to true faith. Jesus asks Mary Magdalene to stop searching for what Jesus was and to see the resurrected Jesus. Jesus reveals to Peter that he will find the resurrected Jesus in the community of believers. Jesus invites the beloved disciple to move beyond belief in Jesus’ absence to understand Jesus’ continuing presence in word and sacrament within community. What do we believe about resurrection? Where are we in our journey to belief?

—Terence Sherlock

26 April 2020: Third Sunday of Easter

Reading 1	Response	Reading 2	Gospel
Acts 2:14, 22-33 RCL: Acts 2:14a, 36-41	Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11	1 Pt 1:17-21 RCL: 1 Pt 1:17-23	Lk 24:13-35

Recognizing Jesus’ continuing presence in the community

During the Easter season the readings ask the believing community to examine the meaning of Jesus through his teachings and post-resurrection appearances. This week’s readings focus on how Jesus continues to reveal himself to disciples.

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is part of Peter’s Pentecost speech. Peter explains that Jesus’ resurrection has caused the Pentecost event. He traces Jesus’ life, concluding with Jesus’ execution at the people’s command (“you killed”) and God’s mighty act (“God raised him up.”) As proof of Jesus’ messianic identity, Peter cites Ps 15:8-11. Peter’s interpretation relies on his Jewish hearers knowing that David wrote the psalms; as king, David was “God’s anointed;” God promised David an “eternal dynasty” though David’s descendants; and that what David wrote in the psalms refer either to David himself or his descendant (the messiah). Peter shows this psalm doesn’t refer to David because David died (“his tomb can still be seen”); the psalm must refer to David’s descendant, the messiah. The messiah is the one experiencing resurrection. The Lectionary editors chose this reading because Peter interprets Hebrew scripture to foretell Jesus’ resurrection, as described in the gospel.

The second reading from the first letter of Peter, written in the late first century. The author reminds his hearers that while baptism enables a disciple to call God “Father,” God remains awesome and mysterious. As the sole source of all life and being, God alone can judge humans “according to each one’s works.” Throughout her or his life (“sojourning”), a disciple must live in holiness (“with reverence”), because God redeemed (“ransomed”) everyone from sin (“futile conduct”). By calling Jesus a “spotless, unblemished lamb,” the author connects the Passover images of God liberating Israel from Egypt; God ransoming Israel from slavery; and Jesus, as Passover lamb and God’s servant, redeeming humans from sin and death. God planned Jesus and his work “before the world’s foundation,” but Jesus was revealed to disciples “in the final time,” that is, the time between Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and his return in glory at the parousia. Because God raised Jesus, disciples have a sure basis for hope and faith in God. The Lectionary editors chose this reading because of its baptismal, paschal, and resurrection themes.

Luke’s gospel finds two sad and confused disciples leaving the believing community. Luke uses the “journey,” the “road,” or “the way” as a metaphor for discipleship. In this story, Jesus teaches the lost disciples how to recognize him.

• “Breaking open” the scripture. The risen Jesus teaches the disciples the proper way to interpret the Torah texts. Luke makes it clear that to believe in Jesus requires a proper understanding of the scripture. Luke’s phrase “all that the prophets said” implies that the proper understanding for Jesus’ disciples is that all Hebrew scripture bears a prophetic, messianic significance. Jesus’ interpretation of Hebrew scripture is the model for all apostolic teachers who use proof-texts in their preaching.

• Breaking the bread. The ritual pronouncement “take, bless, break, and give” echo Jesus’ words at the feeding of the five thousand (Lk 9:16) and at the Last Supper (Lk 22:19). When they see and hear this ritual formula, the disciples suddenly recognize Jesus’ presence with them. Luke wants his hearers to recognize how something of the same kind happens in their Eucharistic gatherings, in which the meaning of scripture is also made clear.

Luke’s appearance story shows how telling and reinterpreting builds both a community narrative and the community itself. In his gospel, Luke unites scattered appearance fragments of the women on Sunday morning, Peter, other visitors to the tomb, and the Emmaus disciples into a single, shared narrative: the Lord is risen.

Jesus’ resurrection has many meanings and many implications. The Easter season lasts six weeks, allowing us time to reflect on this cosmos-changing event. Peter’s Pentecost proclamation reveals the risen Jesus foretold in scripture. The author of Peter’s letter uses the Exodus story to explain Jesus’ redemptive act. At Emmaus, Jesus reveals how he remains present to and in the believing community. How does Jesus reveal himself to us? Are we startled and awe-filled by our sudden encounters with Jesus in our travels? Have we learned to find Jesus in words and sacraments? Do we reveal Jesus through our own community’s stories?

—Terence Sherlock