Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Ps. 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Col. 3:1-4; Jn. 20:1-9

The Resurrection of the Lord is the confirmation of our faith in Jesus Christ.  Without the resurrection Jesus of Nazareth would have remained a historical figure that the world would have said grew into a mythological god.  The Resurrection of Jesus and his appearance to the disciples “who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” and then to others is our confirmation to believe in him, believe his teaching, and believe he is the “one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead”.  The power to rise again to life after death with a resurrected body is our hope for the eternal life to come.  “This is the day the Lord has made” to believe in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting “let us rejoice and be glad.” 

“On the first day of the week” after the Sabbath is Sunday, resurrection day and a new beginning for believers in Jesus who are about to discover in the resurrected Jesus a new call commissioning them with the authority to forgive sins, cast out demons, bring healing, feed and tend to the people, and keep holy the resurrection day with prayer and the breaking of the bread.  Sunday is the new beginning of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  The early church in its infant state of development was not left alone to discover the “what’s next” for them.  Jesus appeared and instructed them until the day of his ascension and sent them the Holy Spirit to guide them in the faith and formation of this new evangelization with the promise to be with us until the end of time. 

The end of time is the end of this earthly pilgrimage before the eternal life that has no end but wait this is the first day of the week and Mary of Magdala discovers the empty tomb and in her humanity believes “They have taken the Lord from the tomb”.  Even Peter and the other disciple who ran faster to the tomb arrived and saw the empty tomb and “believed”.  Believed what?  Believed they had taken the Lord from the tomb “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”  Belief came to them in the appearance of the resurrected Christ.  As St. Tomas represents our humanity to doubt unless we can see and touch.  For us this day in the mystery of faith Christ is present in the visible sign of the Eucharist we can taste and see the invisible presence of his body and blood. 

This day marks the end of the Easter Triduum and a new beginning having celebrated Holy Thursday as the institution of the Eucharist, Good Friday as the passion of the Lord, Easter Vigil on Saturday as the coming of the light into the world in exultation and Easter Sunday the resurrection of the Lord and our new beginning in Christ to live, to love, and to serve what brings us into unity, goodness, beauty, and truth in the one resurrected Lord.  This Easter season we sing the praises of the Lord so that Christ may reign in us, and we may live in him in the surety of salvation. 

In the mystery of faith through our baptism we are “raised with Christ (to) seek what is above” in our daily walk with Jesus, in all we do, we do it for the Lord as an offering of ourselves “then you too will appear with him in glory.”  Alleluia!  Alleluia!