April 11, 2026
Saturday in the Octave of Easter
Lectionary: 266
Reading
1
Observing the
boldness of Peter and John
and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men,
the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed,
and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.
Then when they saw the man who had been cured standing there with them,
they could say nothing in reply.
So they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin,
and conferred with one another, saying,
“What are we to do with these men?
Everyone living in Jerusalem knows that a remarkable sign
was done through them, and we cannot deny it.
But so that it may not be spread any further among the people,
let us give them a stern warning
never again to speak to anyone in this name.”
So they called
them back
and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
Peter and John, however, said to them in reply,
“Whether it is right in the sight of God
for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges.
It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”
After threatening them further,
they released them,
finding no way to punish them,
on account of the people who were all praising God
for what had happened.
Responsorial
Psalm
Psalm 118:1 and 14-15ab,
16-18, 19-21
R.
(21a) I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just.
R. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
“The right hand of the LORD is exalted;
the right hand of the LORD has struck with power.”
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.
Though the LORD has indeed chastised me,
yet he has not delivered me to death.
R. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Open to me the gates of justice;
I will enter them and give thanks to the LORD.
This is the gate of the LORD;
the just shall enter it.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
R. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sequence
-- optional
Victimae
paschali laudes
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.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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, he 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.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041126.cfm
Commentary on Acts
4:13-21
Today’s passage from Acts continues from yesterday’s First
Reading and describes the second half of the ‘trial’ of Peter and John before
the members of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin are astonished at the
self-confidence of the two Apostles, considering that they are uneducated
fishermen. They had no training in rabbinic schools, nor did they have any
standing in recognised religious circles. They were, in the eyes of their
judges, ‘only’ lay people.
It is important to remember that faith and convictions do
not depend on learning. It is also clearly implied that the source of their
strength and confidence is Jesus. The rulers, elders and scribes:
…when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized
that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized
them as companions of Jesus.
Our Church consists of the highest intellectuals as well as
people who are completely illiterate; all have equal access to knowing and
loving God, and all have equal access to the highest levels of contemplation,
mysticism and sanctity.
The Apostles’ judges in this case are obviously intellectual
snobs, a kind not unknown in Christian circles. Because they could not deny the
extraordinary cure that had taken place in the full view of a large number of
people, the Jewish leaders could only tell the Apostles not to speak any more
about Jesus. In matters of this kind it seems that the accused, unless they
were rabbis, could not be jailed except for a second offence.
We can never be stopped from preaching the gospel. Nor can
we ever obey such an order. As Peter told his judges:
Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you
rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what
we have seen and heard.
It reminds one of St Thomas More’s words to his accusers:
“The King’s good servant, but God’s first.” The judges felt obliged to
implement the law, but there are situations where the law cannot be followed.
Of course, we have to be careful that it is not our own
interpretation of the truth that we proclaim. At the same time, we are bound to
follow our conscience and follow the truth as we know it. If we are wrong, it
will be exposed. Eventually, real Truth will always come to the surface.
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Commentary on Mark
16:9-15
This passage, known as the ‘Longer Ending’ of Mark’s Gospel,
is a kind of summary of all that we have been reading during the past week. The
end of Mark’s Gospel has verses many commentators believe are not part of the
original text. Most commentators believe the original text ends with verse
16:8. However, this ending is so abrupt that many feel the original ending was
somehow lost and this ending was put in its place.
Although the style shows it was not written by Mark, it has
long been accepted as a canonical part of the Gospel, and was defined as such
by the Council of Trent. It was known to Tatian and to Irenaeus in the 2nd
century, and is found in the vast majority of Greek manuscripts.
The text consists of brief summaries of longer stories which
appear in the other Gospels (Luke 24 and John 20), e.g. the appearance to Mary
Magdalene, the disciples going to Emmaus, and Jesus’ appearance in the upper
room.
The common theme is the incredulity of the disciples, who
could not accept that Jesus was truly risen. Right to the very end of his
Gospel, Mark continues to be harsh on the disciples’ lack of understanding. It
is, of course, not about them he is writing, but about us.
The passage seems directed at many of the early Christians’
contemporaries who would not accept the message of Christ risen. But as we can
see from the First Reading today, the disciples very soon not only found faith,
but were more than ready to suffer and die for it.
In our times of doubt, let us remember their experience and
their example and the fruits of their work. It is a work that still urgently
needs to be done.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1017g/
Saturday, April 11, 2026
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
Our God and Father,
Your Son Jesus lived
among us, flesh
of our flesh,
blood of our blood.
He died for our sake and You raised Him back to life.
May we experience His love and His presence to such an extent that we can
never stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard,
and that people may give glory to You, our God. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
Amen.
Gospel Reading - 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, he 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.”
Reflection
Today’s Gospel is part of a broader
literary unit (Mk 16: 9-20) which presents a list or
summary of diverse apparitions of Jesus:
(a) Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, but the disciples do not accept
her testimony (Mk 16: 9-11);
(b) Jesus appears to the disciples, but the others
do not accept their testimony (Mk 16: 12-13);
(c) Jesus appears to the eleven; He criticizes their
lack of faith
and orders them to announce
the Good News to all (Mk 16: 14-18);
(d) Jesus ascends to heaven
and continues to cooperate with the disciples (Mk 16: 19-20).
Besides this list of apparitions in the Gospel
of Mark, there
are other lists
of apparitions which do not always
coincide among themselves. For example, the list kept by Paul in the Letter to the Corinthians is very different (1 Cor 15: 3-8).
This variety shows that at the beginning the Christians were not concerned with proving the
Resurrection by means of the apparitions. For them faith in the Resurrection was so evident
and alive that there was no need to prove it. A person sunbathing on the shore is not concerned
with showing that the sun exists, because she herself, sun burnt, is the evidence
of the existence of the sun.
The communities, existing
amid the immense
Empire, were a living proof
of the Resurrection. The list of the apparitions began to appear later, in the
second generation, to refute the criticism of opponents.
•
Mark 16: 9-11: Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, but the other disciples
do not believe her. Jesus first appears to Mary Magdalene. She goes to announce this to the others. To come into the world, God wanted to depend
on the womb of a young girl 15 or 16 years old, called Mary of Nazareth (Lk 1: 38). To be recognized alive in our midst,
He wants to depend on the announcement of a woman who had been liberated from
seven devils, also called Mary, of Magdala!
(This is why she was called Mary
Magdalene). But the others did not
believe her. Mark says that Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene. In the list of
apparitions, recorded in the letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15: 3-8), the apparitions of Jesus to the women
are not mentioned. The first Christians had difficulty believing in the testimony of women. It is shameful!
•
Mark 16: 12-13: Jesus appears
to the disciples, but the others do not believe them. Without too many details, Mark refers to an apparition of Jesus to two
disciples, “while they were on their way into the country.” This is perhaps a
reference to the apparition of Jesus to the disciples
at Emmaus, narrated
by Luke (Lk 24: 13-35). Mark insists on
saying that “the others did not believe them either”.
•
Mark 16: 14-15: Jesus criticizes the unbelief and orders them to announce the Good News to all creatures. For this reason,
Jesus appears to the eleven
and reproaches them because
they did not believe the people who had seen Him
in His resurrected body. Once again, Mark refers to the resistance of the
disciples in refusing to believe
the testimony of those who have experienced the Resurrection of Jesus.
Why? Probably to teach three things: in the first place, that faith in Jesus
passes through the faith in the people who give witness; in the second
place, that nobody
should be discouraged when doubt or unbelief
arises in the heart; in the third place, to refute the claim of those
who said that the Christian is naïve and accepts any news uncritically, because
the eleven had great difficulty accepting the truth of the Resurrection!
•
Today’s Gospel ends with the sending forth: “Go out to
the whole world; proclaim the Gospel
to all creation!” Jesus
confers upon them the mission
to announce the Good News to all creatures.
Personal Questions
•
Which of these:
Mary Magdalene, the two disciples of Emmaus, or the eleven disciples, had the greatest
difficulty believing in the Resurrection? Why? With whom do I
identify?
•
What can convince
people of the presence of Jesus in our midst?
Concluding Prayer
May God show kindness
and bless us, and make His face shine on us.
Then the earth will acknowledge Your ways, and all nations
Your power to save.
(Ps
67: 1-2)
