EASTER SUNDAY – CYCLE C – 2019

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  In the great solemnities, the Church has a sequence, which is recited or sung before de Reading the Gospel. 

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.)

CLARETIAN CORNER

When my spiritual director commanded me to write the outline that our Lord had indicated me for the formation of the new order, I had so much pain, that I confessed that if it were not for the grace of the Blessed Mother who comforted me and assured me of her aid in everything, I would have died of pain. I would have preferred to publish my big sins by the streets and plazas of the city rather even the stone would know the slightest benefits the Lord has showered on me. While I wrote these note (it took me along time because of the great repugnance I had to do it, for I had in mind more the great and many offences I committed against my sovereign creature, that the graces which I was receiving from His generous mercy). There were many nights that our Lord kept me company while I stayed up praying and writing on my knees.  Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress  of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 20

For my greater embarrassment I should like to quote the words of the author of the Book of Wisdom (8:19): "I was a boy of happy disposition. I had received a good soul as my lot." That is, I received a good nature or disposition from God, out of his sheer goodness .I remember that during the war of independence, which lasted from 1808 to 1814, the people of Sallent were so frightened of the French--and with good reason, since the French had burned the city of Manresa and the town of Calders, near Sallent -that everyone fled when they heard the news that the French army was on its way. During the first evacuation I recollect being carried on someone's shoulders; but during the last evacuation, when I was four or five, I went on foot and gave grandfather Clara, my mother's father, a helping hand . It was at night, and his eyesight was failing, and I guided him through the obstacles with such patience and kindness that the poor old man was very glad to see that I hadn't run off to join my brothers and cousins who had abandoned the two of us. I always showed him a great deal of affection until he died, and not only him but also all those who were elderly and disabled. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography, 18-19.