Holy Week Reflections - Easter Sunday

Today’s first reading from Acts 10:34 forecasts what Paul and Barnabas announce in Antioch: “We bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus” (Acts 13:32-33). Peter had already given an eyewitness account of the Resurrection to the Gentiles, assuring them that “God shows no partiality.” His own and other reports of the same proclaim what the Church teaches: “The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal Mystery along with the cross…” (Paragraph 638 of The Catechism of the Catholic Church).

Acceptable to Peter are those from every nation who live in awe of this mystery and do what they know in their heart to be right. He says with the conviction of an experienced disciple that “Jesus Christ…is Lord of all,” anointed by the Holy Spirit to heal those sick in soul and body because of sin and “healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” Peter testified to who Jesus was, to what he had done, and to what he had to endure. Put to death, yes. Hanging from a tree, yes. But his story did not end there. God raised him on the third day. He appeared to witnesses like he himself, eating and drinking with them and commanding them to preach the Good News. He foresaw that the risen Lord would come to judge the living and the dead and that of his kingdom there would be no end. The culminating declaration Peter makes takes us to the epicenter of Holy Week: “All the  prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

In a letter written to her sister Celine, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux conveys with a wisdom beyond her age, “…this is the difficult moment. We are tempted to leave all behind, but in one act of love, even unfelt love, all is repaired and Jesus smiles…[He] does not look so much at the grandeur of actions or even their difficulty, as the love which goes to make up these actions…” It seems safe to say that Thérèse must have prayed many times over these words from the opening of Psalm 118: “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!” She reminded her sisters on her death bed that she was not dying but entering eternal life. With the psalmist, she might have said: “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.” Rejected though he may have been, especially at the time of his crucifixion, Jesus returns to us in a marvelous way, proving the validity of this great paradox: the stone rejected by the builder has become the cornerstone!

In a few short verses from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we receive instruction pertaining to how the event of Christ’s Resurrection ought to affect us personally. These two directives, fully obeyed, will be life-changing. First, we are to seek our happiness not in what is here below but in what is above, developing a life of intimacy with the Trinity and letting that relationship transform our lives. According to The Catechism of the Catholic Church (Paragraphs 654/655), “…This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God’s grace…Justification…brings about filial adoption…[which] gains us a real share in the life of the only Son…so that we may ‘live no longer for [ourselves] but for him who for [our] sake died and was raised’ (2 Cor 5:15).”

Secondly, rather than seek worldly notoriety, we ought to live our days on earth “hidden with Christ in God.” We attend to the duty of the moment while awaiting the life to be revealed to us in glory. In the words of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, “A moment is a treasure…one act of love will make us know Jesus better…it will bring us close to Him during the whole of eternity.” Perhaps in reading The Living Flame of Love (1.15), she learned from Saint John of the Cross that “…the Father of Lights (Jas 1:17)…diffuses himself abundantly as the sun does its rays…always showing himself gladly along the highways and byways…to find his delights with the children of the earth at a common table in the world…”

Turning our attention to the Gospel of John, we see what happened on that Easter morning. It was early and still dark, for the sun had not yet risen. Mary Magdalene, with the fervor of a true disciple, went to the tomb to reverence Jesus and saw to her sheer amazement that the stone covering it had been removed. Her only concern, according to John of the Cross (DN 2.13.6) “was to reach him for whom her soul was already wounded and on fire with love, without any delay and without waiting for another more appropriate time…and such is the inebriation and courage of love.” What she saw was so beyond her comprehension that she had to find Simon Peter and John to instruct her. They did not hesitate to run with her towards the tomb. John arrived there first, but when he saw the linen wrappings lying there, he waited for Peter to precede him. Though they, too, had witnessed the empty tomb, they did not yet fully “understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” Soon enough, their eyes would be opened, and when that happened, nothing about the life they once knew would ever be the same again.

Questions for Reflection

1.     “Christ has risen from the dead, risen as he truly said.” What does this refrain from a familiar hymn mean to you today?

2.     How have you grown through contemplative prayer in your life of intimacy with the Trinity?

3.     Is it possible to live your life, as Saint Thérèse advises, as if it were “one act of love”?