EASTER SUNDAY – CYCLE C – 2022
v The resurrection is the high point of
Jesus’ earthly life among us.
v The Lord has been faithful to his
mission until the end, he has loved us and continues to love with an
unfathomable love, too great and too selfless for us to understand.
v The Lord lives! He is risen as he
said!
v Karl Rahner said once “God has become
the eternal unrest of the world.”
FIRST READING
Ø The reading is taken from the book of
the Acts of the Apostles, whose author is the same as the author of the Gospel,
Saint Luke.
Ø The book is about the history of the
nascent Church, small, humble, sometimes afraid, sometimes courageous,
sometimes faithful, sometimes unfaithful.
Ø Church persecuted. From the very beginning of the book we read
about the martyrdom of Deacon Stephen, and of James the son of Zebedee. Jesus
called him one of the first and he promised him that he would drink from his
same chalice.
Ø The book has many chapters about
Paul, the great apostle. At the end of the book, Paul is in home arrest in
Rome, he teaches freely, in spite of the chains that keep him in the house.
Ø He is the image of what the church
will be over the centuries. Persecuted but evangelizing.
Acts
10:34.37-43
Peter
speaks at Cornelius home, a pagan soldier, in whose house Peter has come in
response to the petition of Cornelius, who wants to know about Jesus.
He
explains the events that have happened, not only in the last days, but since John’s baptism.
He
tells them that Jesus, anointed by the Spirit, went about doing good.
How good would it be if
they can say that about each one of us! We still have
time.
Afterwards
Peter reminds them, how Jesus was condemned to death, how he was raised on the
third day and how only some chosen witnesses saw him.
Jesus
has been appointed by God, judge of the living and of the dead. Jesus has power
over all, he is the Lord.
Whoever
believes in him, will receive forgiveness of his/her sins.
To
believe it is not only to say “I believe”, it is to live saying with our life,
our choices, our actions… “I believe in you Lord” and I want to be like you,
going about doing good to all without
distinction.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Ps 118
This
is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
Give
thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
This
is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
“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.”
This
is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This
is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
ü Today it is the day of the Lord’s
triumph, the most wonderful day that the Lord has made.
ü We sing his mercy and we repeat some phrases
from Scripture about Jesus, the Lord, the Messiah.
ü Jesus can say “I will not die, I will
continue living to sing what the Lord has done for me.”
ü He is the stone rejected by the
builders. The religious and political
leaders of his people rejected him; they did not consider him useful.
ü How often we make mistakes, sometimes
in good faith, others with ill intentions.
ü This rejected stone is the
cornerstone of the church, the salvation, God’s work.
ü The psalmist exclaims: This is wonderful, a real miracle!
ü So many miracles, wonderful works God
does every day before our eyes, with the little ones, the despised, those
considered a burden or non-useful: sick, older people, poor of all sorts, foreigners, migrants, babies destroyed in
their mother’s womb because they do not fit in our plans, prisoners tortured,
abused women and children. With all of them and in all of them God does
wonderful things, that confronts our self-sufficiency, our power, our
knowledge…
Below I put
the paschal sequence and a reflection on it. I will omit the second reading and
the Gospel.
SEQUENCE
Christians,
to the Paschal Victim Offer
your thankful praises! A lamb the sheep redeems: Christ who only is
sinless Reconcile
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. |
v
They are a masterpiece of poetry and
music.
v
As we read this sequence of Easter we
realize that it tells us the mystery of our redemption.
v
Mary Magdalene is asked about her
experience on the road, what she has seen on the way.
v
She confesses her faith in the
resurrection, I have seen the Risen Lord who invites his own to meet him in
Galilee.
v Galilee
o
Concrete geographical place, but also a
place in the geography of the spirit.
o
Place of the first encounter.
o
They have to go back there to encounter
anew the enthusiasm, the joy, the energy and the strength to proclaim what eye
has not seen and ear has not heard.
o
Encounter that will make them able to proclaim that our God has
saved us, that he is in our midst, that he walks with each one of us and will
be with us until the end of history.
o
Galilee, place where Peter will be able
to confess his love to his friend and Lord, after having experienced the depth
of human misery denying to know the one he loved so much.
v Yes,
let us also go back to our own Galilee, the place where we met the Lord for the
first time. Hope, joy and enthusiasm will come back into our life,
our first experience will be renewed. (Luis Alonso Schökel, comentario en La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo, 2015.)
HAPPY EASTER!!!!
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