EASTER SUNDAY – 2018
Today is the great celebration of Easter. The liturgy overflows with alleluias, readings of life
and resurrection, songs, hymns that invite us to rejoice, to experience the joy
of the Lord. ALLELUIA, JESUS THE LORD IS RISEN!!!!
During the Easter
season all the readings are from the New Testament.
FIRST
READING – Acts 10: 34a- 37-43
« The reading is taken from the speech of Peter at
Cornelius home.
« At the beginning of chapter 10 we are told that
Cornelius was the centurion of the Italic cohort of the Roman troops stationed
at Caesarea.
« Caesarea is a city mentioned several times in the
Acts, it is a different city than Caesarea of Philippi where Peter made his
profession of faith in Christ. The Caesarea mentioned in Acts is located on the
Palestinian coast on the road that leads to Tire and Egypt.
« This was a key moment in the development of the
Christian faith of the little community of disciples that are faced with
diverse situations, which will help them to deepen and discover the true newness
of the faith in Christ, the crucified and risen Teacher. The baptism of Cornelius by Peter is the
beginning of the admission of the non-Jewish peoples into the new born
community of disciples.
« Luis Alonso
Shoēkel makes a very interesting reflection on this
o He calls it the conversion not of Cornelius, but of
Peter.
o Cornelius is open to the good news, to the Gospel and
does not put any resistance; on the contrary he wants to know it.
o Peter, on his part, is struggling and searching for
answers to the ongoing problem: what to do with the gentiles who want to be
part of the new community of Jesus?
o Luke who is the author of Acts presents the two
characters Cornelius and Peter praying.
o Cornelius is a Roman soldier, a pagan, but a man of
prayer, compassionate toward the poor; we can say he was a good man.
o Peter is also praying, but, through his dream we
discover the content of his prayer: what to do in the situation in which they
find themselves.
o Jesus intervenes moving the threads of history. At the
same hour 2 pm. both characters have a dream. Cornelius is told to call Peter
and Peter is told to go to Cornelius home.
« Now let us
examine what Peter preaches
o He begins by remembering all that had happened in Judea
since the baptism of John.
o Everything related to Jesus of Nazareth who was filled
with the Spirit, and who
went about doing good.
o Peter and the rest of the apostles are witnesses of
what he is proclaiming to them; nobody has told this to him. They have seen
Jesus, they have heard him, and they have experienced his presence. Jesus is
not an imagination, or a dream.
o Jesus was hung on a tree, but God raised him and after
his resurrection he appeared to some witnesses chosen by the Father
o These witnesses have the mission to preach and to
testify about who is Jesus.
« What a wonderful synthesis which Peter does of our Christian faith.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps. 118
The Lord has done and
continues to do wonderful things every day, but Easter is a very especial day,
the day of days, the day of the new creation, the “eighth day”, the day of
Jesus triumph over death, the day in which the doors of heaven are reopened,
offering the possibility to enter into the intimacy of our God.
THIS
IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE, LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD.
¡Alelluia!
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.
SECOND READING Col 3,1-4
Ø The scholars do not agree about who is the author of
this letter. There are reasons to say that the author is Paul, but also there
are reasons to say that it was one of Paul’s disciples.
Ø If the author is Paul the letter was written in Ephesus
at the end of the 50’s. If the author is one of Paul’s disciples then the date
would be around the year 80.
Ø But let us
leave aside this discussion and enter into the message which this fragment of
the letter gives to us.
o It is an invitation to live according to one who is raised
with Christ. One who has been submerged in the death of Christ and in his
resurrection.
o Our life is a new life guided by the values of
Christ.
o This invitation to a new life is a logical consequence
of having died with Christ and having been submerged in his new life.
o Christ is with his Father and he has taken us with
him, in another place we are told that we are the body of Christ, thus where
Jesus is we will also be if we remain in him.
o Christ is also in this world, as a consequence of his
incarnation he cannot renounce to be one of us, even being glorified in the
Father. And Jesus has come so that everything may be new.
o Thus those who are in him, we are called to have our
feet firmly on this earth, in this world, in this society in order to transform
it with our commitment and testimony.
PASCHAL SEQUENCE –
The Paschal
sequence is a very ancient and beautiful prayer that sings the resurrection of
the Lord.
We sing it before the Gospel on Easter Sunday
We sing it before the Gospel on Easter Sunday
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. |
Jesus
is that victim, he is the offering made to the Father. The most beautiful
offering which humankind has offered to the Father, the most beautiful fruit of
the human race. And Jesus is also and
above all the most beautiful gift which the Father has given us.
Jesus
is the bridge between God and the human race; he is the only one who could do
this union, this reconciliation, because he is human and divine at the same
time. In his body he unites us to the Father and
seals with his blood the new and eternal covenant.
Yes,
death and life contended especially on the cross. What a paradox, what an irony, we want to
live no matter what. We invent all sorts of medicines and procedures to appear
always young even in old age. We always feel that it is too soon for the Lord
to call us, even being in our 90’s. However when the true life, the life with
capital “L” appears among us we eliminate it, because it is too dangerous, we
do not trust. But life cannot be destroyed; it comes back again and again. Just
look at nature.
Mary
tell us who have you seen in the morning? Who has appear to you, has called you by name,
because you could not recognize him now that he is risen unless he pronounced
you name.
I
have seen the Lord; I have seen the one who is my joy, my all. I have seen
Jesus alive again, but I could not recognize him until he called me by name. The
name he pronounced when he called you to live. Lord call us by name anew as you did when you created us, as you did
when you called us to follow you. Call us
a new so that we may recognize your voice in the midst of our worries, our
failures, our joys and our successes. Let
us also abandon the tomb of our discouragements and pessimisms and let us see
your presence in the present time, in the same way that you could discover the
presence of the Father on that cross.
Yes
the Lord is risen, he is alive, he is among us because since the moment of his
incarnation when he took our human nature he has become one of us and he cannot
stop being so. Thank you Lord.
Go
to Galilee where everything started, where we met for the first time, where we
became exited with Jesus’ project, the Kingdom, the Project to transform this
world into the Kingdom of God, where God can be King and Lord of all. Let us go, let
us go back to our own Galilee, where we feel at home with him, let us live again our first call, when we fell in
love, when as, all those who fall in love, we saw nothing else than Jesus. We
did not think about the difficulties, the oppositions, our only thoughts were
his kingdom and Jesus himself. Through the years he has given us more than
enough proofs of his love, his care his listening to us.
Jesus
has conquered death for him and for us. We will rise on the last day, which
last day? The Lord knows, we are sure of it because he is always faithful to
his promises.
Thank
you Jesus, thank you for having been able to suffer all that you suffered for our love, for my love. Grant us to be more
aware every day of you unconditional love. Alleluia!!!
GOSPEL MARK
16,1-7
The first day of the week, these words remind us of the first day of
creation; with Jesus resurrection, the new creation has begun.
Three women, Mark mentions the name of two of them. They were looking
from afar to see where they had put him.
(15,47)
They go to anoint Him, because on Friday they could not do it since the
day of rest was about to begin.
They worry because the stone was very large. But on arriving they find
it rolled back, and an angel who gave them a message from Jesus.
Go to Galilee. Shoēkel says: they should abandon their dreams
about Judaism and go to Galilee to begin from there the universal mission.
In Galilee is where Jesus began his mission, in Galilee Jesus encountered
them and invited them to join Him.
Galilee is the place of the first encounter, full of memories of them
with the Teacher. They have to go back to this first experience, to this first
call, to this first love, before beginning
the great mission of proclaiming to the whole world, to the whole Roman
Empire that JESUS IS LORD, that JESUS HAS DIED FOR OUR SALVATION and
that WE ARE ALL HIS BROTHERS AND SISTERS and also among us.
ALLELUIA LET US SING WITH JOY THAT JESUS IS LORD.
CLARETIAN CORNER
Blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ forever!
He is pleased to send consolation in times of the
greatest need of them!
The love to your most holy will makes me surrender
to any sacrifice.
O, who could cry out to the whole world proclaiming how
faithful you are to your friends!
Venerable
María Antonia París, Foundress of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian
Missionary Sisters
|
Jesus, I love you with all my heart, with all my
soul, with all my strength.
I would like to love you more and that
all love you too.
I would like to love You for me and for all your
creatures.
Lord, as the water is mixed with the wine in the
Eucharist, I want to be united with You and offer myself with you to the Most
Holy Trinity.
St.
Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian
Missionary Sisters.
|
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María. Oraciones que se encuentran en sus
escritos.
PAGOLA, José Antonio. El Camino abierto por JESUS, Juan 4.
PARIS, María Antonia. Oraciones que se
encuentran en sus escritos.
SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. Comentarios
en la BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO.
Ediciones Mensajero. China 2010.