Saturday within the Octave of Easter, April 11, 2026

Mark 16, 9–15

When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country. They returned and told the others; but they did not believe them either. But later, as the Eleven were at table, Jesus appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised. He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

St. Mark’s Gospel follows Jesus breathlessly through the first events at the beginning of his ministry and the last few months of his life on earth, but his account of the Resurrection disappoints.  In fact, two accounts of the visit of the Resurrection are given.  The first, Mark 16, 1-8, ends as though a fragment with the women thoroughly frightened by the appearance of the angel st the tomb.  The second, Mark 16, 9-20, seems not to be by Mark but by another another.  Its legitimacy in the Gospel, however, is shown by the numerous early Greek texts of the Gospel which include it.  It is also found in all the early pre-Vulgate texts excepting one, and Jerome included it in the Vulgate.  The Catholic Church guarantees that it is divinely inspired through its making the Vulgate its official Bible at the Council of Trent.

“When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.”  The four Gospels, written at different times in different places for diverse audiences all remarkably tell us that the Lord appeared first to Mary Magdalene.  We might expect one or another of them to simply not mention her or the other women but to go right from the angel rolling back the stone to the appearance of the Lord to the Apostles.  But each Evangelist thought it essential to speak of Mary.  John even goes into considerable detail in his description of the Lord’s appearance to her.  

“She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.”. This detail about their “mourning and weeping” only appears in this Gospel.  Otherwise, we get a picture of the Apostles sitting around in the dark, their minds on how to hide from the Jews who might be looking for them.  “When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.”  Grief has a way of reinforcing itself, and perhaps this is happening here: their grief had so overcome them that they could not believe that the Lord was alive.  This verse would seem to contradict what is said in the Gospel of John about Peter and John running to the tomb after Mary Magdalene delivered her message, but the verse may be a general summary of the condition of the Apostles without mentioning that Peter and John had seen the empty tomb and come back without seeing Jesus. “After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country. They returned and told the others; but they did not believe them either.”  This verse greatly condenses the story from Luke of the two disciples who met Jesus on their way to Emmaus.  However, “but they did not believe them either” seems to contradict Luke’s description of the Apostles already convinced of the Lord’s rising.  The problem arises from the fact that only a very condensed version of the encounter is related.  It could be that some of the Apostles believed and others did not with the result that we are told “his companions . . . did not believe.”  Similarly, Jesus appeared “as the Eleven were at table”: we know from the Gospel of John that Thomas was not present for the Lord’s first appearance to the Apostles on Easter Sunday evening.  The author is simply making a generalization, as when we might say, “The eyes of the world are on this”, when we might mean tens of thousands or a million people and not everyone on the earth at the time.

“Jesus appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised. He said to them, ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.’ ”  This verse is the reason the unbelief was emphasized in this ending to the Gospel: these disheartened, disbelieving men must have seen something in order for them to indeed go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel.  These broken-hearted men were not easy to convince.  Mere witnesses who had seen the Lord, and whom they knew and trusted, could not convince them.  Only the Lord himself could have convinced them that he was alive.  And if they were convinced, despite everything, it follows that we must be convinced too.  John makes this same point in his Gospel with his report on the Lord’s appearance to Thomas, who had doubted even when the other Apostles had seen him.

We should mourn and weep not over the loss of Jesus but over our own possible loss of eternal life due to our sins, but let our grief be tempered by the joy of the Resurrection, for the Lord Jesus has opened heaven for us.

Friday in the Octave of Easter, April 10, 2026

John 21, 1–14

Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way. Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We also will come with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?” They answered him, “No.” So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.” So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish. So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards, dragging the net with the fish. When they climbed out on shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.” So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.” And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they realized it was the Lord. Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them, and in like manner the fish. This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after being raised from the dead.

“Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.”  

After Herod Antipas founded the City of Tiberias, named after the Roman Emperor, in 20 A.D., the Sea of Galilee came to be called “the Sea of Tiberias”.  Luke calls the sea “the Lake of Gennesaret” (Luke 5, 1), a much older name which his readers might have been more familiar with.  St. John must have called it “the Sea of Tiberias” for the same reason.  Perhaps that was what the Jewish Christians of Judea, for whom he was writing his Gospel, called it.  It might also have come from an editorial decision by an early copyist who meant his copy of the Gospel for Gentile Christians.  “Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples.”  One of these unnamed disciples may have been Matthew, who hailed from the area, and also Philip, who is associated with Nathanael (Bartholomew).  The fact that John names five disciples but leaves two others unnamed shows the concern for accuracy in his Gospel.  He does not simply say, “Peter and some other disciples” or only name the five he remembers and ignore the ones he does not.  He names the five he remembers and points out that there two others whose names he cannot recall.  “Didymus”.  The name “Thomas” comes from the Hebrew word for “twin”, which in Greek is the word “Didymos”, anglicized to “Didymus”.  This may indicate that he had a twin brother.

“I am going fishing.”  Not for sport but in order to have something to eat.  They did not preaching during the period between the Resurrection of Jesus and the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and so there were no donations for food as formerly.

“Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.”  The time seems to have been around sunrise, so they may not have recognized him because of distance and lingering darkness.  They could have recognized him from his voice, but they might not have since they were not expecting him.  “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.”  This miracle brings to mind that recorded in Luke 5, 4-6, to which Peter responded by saying to the Lord Jesus, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  Peter may have recollected that miracle with this new catch of fish and realized it was Jesus on the shore.  This would help explain his reaction, jumping into the water in his excitement.  John’s cry, It is the Lord!” confirmed what Peter already knew.

Three times after the Lord’s rising he appeared to disciples and they did not recognize him: Mary Magdalene, in the Gospel of John, the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, and here.  We may learn from this to keep the Lord in our thoughts as we move about the day as he works in our lives and calls us to work with him.  We see him directing the Apostles from the shore, and he does this with us from heaven.  “Watch ye therefore (for you know not when the lord of the house comes, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning): lest coming on a sudden, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch” (Mark 13, 35–37).  

Thursday in the Octave of Easter, April 9, 2026

Luke 24, 35–48

The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way, and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread. While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

Both St. John and St. Luke give the time for the Lord’s appearance to the Apostles as towards sunset.  John says, “It was late the same day” (John 20, 19) while Luke tells us that it was dark or nearly dark when the two disciples returned to Jerusalem, an episode that precedes the present Gospel Reading.  Neither Matthew nor Mark record an appearance by Jesus to the Apostles on Easter Sunday.

“Peace be with you.”  The Greek text from which the English is translated may be providing a rough equivalent for the Hebrew shalom, which can have that meaning.  It is not a casual greeting, for the Lord’s appearance naturally startled the Apostles and the others.  Luke, indeed, comments, “They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.”  Once before they had seen him and reacted in this way.  Mark 6, 49: “But they seeing him walking upon the sea, thought it was a ghost, and they cried out.”  “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts?”  They recognize him but they think he is a ghost which has come back to punish them for abandoning him in his Passion.  The Lord first assures them that he is not a ghost: “Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”  He offers the Apostles his wounded hands and feet as his identification.  One day, when he come again, all of us will recognize him through the wounds in his hands and feet.  They are signs of his suffering and signs of mercy.  He will welcome the just into heaven with those hands and he will banish the wicked into hell with them.

“They were . . . incredulous for joy and were amazed.”  Their fright becomes joy as their love for him overcomes their fear of punishment.  If we would sit down and think about what the Lord has done for us in his Passion and Death we would be incredulous for joy as well.  “They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.”  The Lord takes pains to demonstrate that it is not merely his soul taking the form of a man that they see, but that his Body has been brought back to life.  St. John, in his Gospel, also emphasizes that the Lord’s Body was raised up, as if to say, It is really him and not a trick of the light or a figment of the imagination: “That . . . which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1 John 1, 1).

“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms must be fulfilled.”  The Lord is as good as telling them that those who refused to believe in him — above all, the Pharisees and the Jewish leadership — had refused to believe in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.  “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.”  Here he addresses the false idea that the Messiah would restore the kingdom of Israel.  This narrow conception came from the Pharisees and not from the Scriptures. “Repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”  The Lord himself had preached repentance but now the Apostles would preach it and their preaching would be validated by the greatest proof of God’s power, the Resurrection of the Lord.  The preaching would “begin” in Jerusalem, as in fact we see in the early chapters of The Acts of the Apostles, and then it would be carried into the whole world.  

“You are witnesses of these things.”  The Lord makes a solemn declaration here, as though reminding them that they would be called upon to give testimony at the proper time.  He calls them “witnesses” and not “onlookers” or “spectators”.  They have an official position in a juridical process.  A spectator may walk away from what he sees, but a witness is v bound to testify.  You and I are witnesses of the Lord Jesus too, and we testify not only with our words, but especially with our actions.

Wednesday in the Octave of Easter, April 8, 2026

Luke 24, 13–35

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

St. Luke is the only Evangelist to report on the Lord’s post-Resurrection appearance to the two disciples walking to Emmaus.  He may have gotten the details on this encounter with Jesus from Cleopas, the disciple whom he names in his account.  John 19, 25 tells of a certain Mary of Cleopas who stood under the Cross with the Blessed Mother and St. John, and comparing this verse with similarly placed verses in Matthew and Mark, it would seem that she was “the other Mary” who was the mother of James and Joseph, relatives of the Lord. The early Church historian Hegesippus (d. 180) records the tradition that she was the sister of St. Joseph.  Cleopas would have been her husband.  When the disciples speak of “some women from our group” who had seen the risen Lord, Cleopas would have been speaking of his wife, who went to the tomb with the other women.  Cleopas has a feast day on September 25 while Mary is celebrated on April 24.

“They were conversing about all the things that had occurred.”  Cleopas and his fellow disciple seem to be returning to Emmaus after spending the Passover in Jerusalem.  The walk from that city to Emmaus should only have taken them a few hours.  As they walked they exchanged information about “the things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene” and lamented his Death, which seemed to them to be the end of their hopes for the redemption of Israel — they are thinking in terms of him being a political Messiah.  “Their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.”  Their conviction that he was dead may have kept them from knowing him or he may have taken another form.  John reports the Mary Magdalene also did not know him when she first saw him and thought him to be a gardener.  Even after the Apostles had seen and touched him on Easter Sunday and on the Sunday after that, they did not recognize him as they were fishing a week or two subsequently.  John also reports this.  

“What are you discussing as you walk along?”  We can understand this story in spiritual terms as our life on earth: after baptism we make our way to our true home, the “day” of our lifetimes shortening as we do so.  Our conversation — our words and deeds — revolve around the Lord Jesus.  He is foremost in our hearts and minds and his glory is the motivation for what we do.  We do not walk alone, but with our fellow believers, and we talk, work, and pray together, assisting each other on the way of salvation.  It is the Lord himself who nourishes us on this way, giving us his Body and Blood to eat and drink.  Strengthened by this heavenly food and drink, we are able to finish our journey.  At times, we feel very close to him, especially when we read the Scriptures and hear his words in our hearts, telling us of his torrential love for us which led him to die on the Cross to save us.  Knowing him means being excited to tell others about him so that they might know him too: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” 

“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”  That is, to Peter.  This may be a separate appearance the Lord made either before or after he appeared to all eleven of the Apostles, or this may be shorthand for, “He has appeared to Simon and the other Apostles.”  The literary device of “a part for the whole” is common in the Scriptures.  This would make sense because by the time Cleopas and his companion return to Jerusalem it is Sunday evening and the Lord has already appeared to the Apostles.

May our hearts also burn when we read or hear the words of the Lord.

Tuesday in the Octave of Easter, April 7, 2026

John 20, 11–18

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he had told her.

We should note the appearance of Mary Magdalen in the Gospel of St. John.  Until he describes her coming to the tomb very early in the morning on the first day of the week, John does not mention her.  When he does mention her, he gives her name as though it were already well-known to his readers.  We know from the Gospel of St. Mark that the Lord had previously delivered her from possession by seven demons, but otherwise we know nothing for certain of her life until now.  For John to have mentioned her as he does and then to tell us in some detail of how Jesus met her seems to indicate that she had a prominent place in the Church in Judea during Apostolic times.   

In the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass, Mary Magdalene, who had announced the news of the empty tomb to the Apostles, had followed them back to the tomb.  She may have returned only after Peter and John had gone from it because we are not told that she interacted with them again, and they do not witness the Lord appearing to her.  Not having looked into the tomb, she had not seen what they had seen and so far as she knew, the chief priests had violated the tomb and hauled the Lord’s Body away.  John emphasizes this when he says that, “Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.”  We should note here that she wept while the Apostles did not.  They feared that they would also be seized by the chief priests, especially since the Lord was no longer there to protect them.  Peter and John, at least, show that they overcome their fear.  But Mary Magdalene had no fear to overcome, for since she had first met the Lord and he had freed her from the demons, she was overcome with love for him.  

“And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been.”  Finally, her desire to at least see where her Lord’s Body had been laid brought her to look inside the tomb.  That she had to bend over to see into it tells us that she stayed outside whereas Peter and John had gone in.  Because the Apostles had been able to see when they were inside and Mary expected to be able to see indicates that the opening of the tomb must have been oriented to the East so that the light of the rising sun could illuminate its interior to some extent.  This might have influenced the orientation of altars toward the east in later times.  “She saw two angels.”  St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew correlates the various encounters the women had with the angels that Sunday morning and says that there were two sets of angelic appearances: before and after they go to the Apostles.  Here, Mary Magdalene sees them after her return to the tomb alone.  Their placement inside the tomb and “sitting” where the dead Body of the Lord had been laid has the same significance as the angel who moves the stone covering the tomb and then sitting on it: death has been conquered.  That the sitting is a sign is clear because angels do not need to rest.

“Woman, why are you weeping?”  They ask although they know why she sorrows: they prepare her for meeting Jesus by indirectly reminding her of his promise to rise again.   “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”  The Lord altered his form on a few occasions in his appearances after his Resurrection, or those who saw him were so convinced of his Death that they did not know him even though he showed himself plainly to them.  If Mary had not been filled with grief she might have remonstrated with anyone who asked this question in these circumstances what else should she be doing at a tomb?  The addition of the question, “Whom are you looking for?” seems to have alerted her to the possibility that this person might have been party to the moving of the Body.  From his proximity to the tomb, she assumed that he worked there — probably a number other tombs existed nearby.  “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”  She could not have carried his Body any distance even if she could have lifted it, but her love made her bold,

“Mary!”  His singular pronunciation of her name with all his love for her caused her to know him.  It was as though he had opened the eyes of the blind.  The effect of his voice sounding her name had an immediate result.  One day, when we come to the end of our lives on earth, the Lord will similarly speak our names with great love.  “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.”  By this odd sounding command we know that she had held onto the Lord’s feet for some time and did not rise.  But there was work to be done before he ascended into heaven.  “But go to my brothers.”  He sends her back to the Apostles, who had not yet seen him in order to prepare them for his appearance to them.  Matthew also tells us that the Lord called his Apostles “brothers” after his rising, and the Lord does this to assure them of his forgiveness for their dereliction and denials.

“I have seen the Lord.”  Mary’s message to the Apostles is simple and direct, though doubtless she also told them the details of the meeting.  But they would have known this even if she come into the house where they were staying and she had not spoken a word.  Her eyes would have told them, even her silence would have told them.  You and I do not need to be great orators in order to bear witness to Jesus.  If we really love him, people will know, and through this they will come to know him.

Monday in the Octave of Easter, April 6, 2026

Matthew 28, 8–15

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened. The chief priests assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’ And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews to the present day.

“And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.”  We might wonder why Jesus appeared to them as the women were hurrying to the Apostles.  They had already received their instructions and were making haste.  It is perhaps a reward for their faithfulness, for they did as the angel told them although they were fearful.  Perhaps also his appearance to them was meant to strengthen them at this time.  When we set forth to bring the Gospel to others, in whatever way, the Lord strengthens us with grace for the task.  “They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.”  They drew near him slowly and uncertainly, then they recognized him, knew him, and cast themselves at his feet out of joy and also showing their belief in him.  “They did him homage”, adoring him who conquered death.

“Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee.”  To this point on Matthew’s Gospel the Lord had not referred to his disciples as his brothers, but he does so now in order to convey to them that he had forgiven their dereliction and denials.  While the Hebrew understanding of “brother” and “sister” had a certain broadness to it, for a non-relative to be called such amounted to a great honor.  

“Some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened.”  That is, not all of the guards went.  Others simply disappeared, which speaks to the shock they had all received in seeing the angel come down from heaven.  The angel himself had not deigned to notice them and yet his very appearance caused them to panic and faint.  The guards who went to the chief priests feared that they would be arrested and punished for failing in their duty to guard the tomb.  This kind of failure usually resulted in the execution of the guard and so heading off trouble before the chief priests learned of what had happened from someone else seemed their best bet.  “The chief priests assembled with the elders and took counsel.”  It is almost as though the chief priests expected something like this and that the main consideration was what to do with the guards.  That they might have expected the Lord’s rising would explain what we read in in John 8, 28: “When you shall have lifted up, the Son of man, then shall you know that I am.”  That is, at the time of the the Lord’s Death on the Cross the chief priests had a sudden realization that Jesus was indeed God’s Son.  This might have come as an interior intuition or from the various signs attending his Death, such as the tearing of the veil in the Temple.  This would make their sin far worse, for they would have known that they were fighting God.  

“His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.”  This line would have fooled no one as opening the tomb would have attracted the attention of those in the city who would have alerted the chief priests.  Such is their desperation.  “And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”  This was a thinly veiled lie.  They would have done no such thing, nor would it have been in their interest to save the guards.  Such is their shamelessness.  “The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews to the present day.”  The soldiers had little alternative.  Matthew notes the persistence of this lie without saying whether the chief priests spread it or the guards.  Certainly, the tomb would have remained open and anyone who knew of the burial could have easily discovered that something unexplained had happened.

We see the women bearing true witness to the Lord’s Resurrection and the guards bearing false witness.  The women who listened to the angel, the guards who fainted at the sight of him.  The women who met the Risen Christ, and the guards who went on to live a lie.  Let us persevere in our faith so that one day we shall see the Lord Jesus from our place among the angels.

Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023

John 20, 1–9

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. 

“On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark.”  St. Matthew says that she (and other women) came to the tomb at dawn, as the sun began to rise.  We can understand from this that she and her helpers made the preparations for the proper care of the Lord’s Body — obtaining oils and cloths and perhaps a donkey to convey these things, for the oil might be heavy (John had already said that Nicodemus brought a hundred pound jar of oil to the tomb).  By the time all was ready, the dawn began to break.  Or, we can understand that they started their journey at dark and arrived at the dawn.  It would not have made a long journey, but they would have to send their way through the streets of Jerusalem.  “And [she] saw the stone removed from the tomb.”  John does not mention the guards, for they were extraneous, and he does not mention the angel(s) that the other Evangelists do.  This could be because John wanted to highlight the announcement to the Apostles and their subsequent actions.  Matthew, in a similar way, tells us that the angel who spoke to the women told them to look inside the womb and they almost certainly did, but he does not say so.  

The fact that the stone was moved, in John’s account, moved Mary Magdalene to run to the Apostles.  She does not run home in despair.  She knows something unprecedented has happened.  The sort of tomb in which the Lord’s Body was laid belonged to a rich family — everyone else was buried in the ground.  It was a vault carved out of the rock in the hills near the city.  It would have been large enough to hold several bodies, though this tomb has never been used before.  The opening would have been wide enough for bearers to carry in a body, and a rock of a size sufficient would have covered the opening.  The rock was fitted to the opening so that air did not go in or out.  Some tombs were hermetically sealed by a round slab of a rock, and that may have been true here.  It could have been opened only by a number of men equipped with ropes and wedges.  Opening a tomb in ancient times was a significant undertaking and it would have been well-known.  When Mary Magdalene saw that that rock was moved, she wondered.  The thing was impossible.  Even if someone had hired men and provided the tools to do this work, they would have had to perform this arduous work in the dark, lit only by torches, and on the Sabbath, for the Sabbath began at sunset on Friday, when work was not allowed.  When the Sanhedrin had gotten wind of this, there would be severe repercussions.  And there was no reason to think that the Sanhedrin would have moved the Lord’s dead Body., but if anyone had moved it, they were most likely involved.

“They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”  Mary Magdalene seems to assume that the Sanhedrin or the Pharisees had taken his Body.  Her “we don’t know” confirms that other women were with her at the tomb.  Her concern is “where they put him”.  It is not that a law has been broken or the horror of a grave robbery, but the place of his Body that concerns her.  She wants to be with her Lord, even in Death, wherever his Body was.

“So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.”. John also recalls that “they both ran”.  John ran because of his love for his Master, and Peter ran, racked with guilt over his denials.  “They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb.”  John is careful to note the sequence of events here.  In physical terms, John may have run faster because he was younger than the married Peter.  Spiritually, John teaches us that love precedes faith, for John, “the beloved disciple”, signifies love of Jesus, and Peter, who confessed before all the others that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, signifies faith.  We become Christians because we fall in love with the Lord, and this love leads us to belief in him and his teachings.  Thus, John arrived at the tomb first, but then Peter arrived.  Peter went in that he might believe more.

“[He] saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.”  Clearly, this was not the scene of a hurried grave robbery in which the invaders grab the corpse, burial cloths and all, and make their getaway.  The tomb had the orderly appearance of a bedroom attended to by a maid in the morning.  

“Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.”  The more knowledge of the loved one the lover gains, the more the lover loves and believes.  “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”  The Greek text translated here as “they did not know” actually means “had not known” — the verb is in the pluperfect.  This is an important detail because it tells us that they did not previously know the Scriptures about the Resurrection of the Lord until some later time, possibly when he told them about it after the Transfiguration or at the Last Supper (in John’s Gospel).  And so John is saying that at the time of the crucifixion and burial they did not remember or if they did remember, they did not understand the teaching about his rising, but when they saw the empty tomb, they did.

“This is the day the Lord has made: let us be glad and rejoice in it!” (Psalm 118, 24).  Our love for the Lord Jesus causes us to rejoice in his rising from the dead, and our belief in him gives us extra reason to be glad, for his Resurrection is ours, and we, who are members of his Body, shall rise in his to glory.

May God bless you all on this Easter Sunday and fill you with faith and love! And thank you for your prayers for my eye problems!