April 7, 2026
Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
Lectionary: 262
Reading
1
On the day of
Pentecost, Peter said to the Jewish people,
“Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other Apostles,
“What are we to do, my brothers?”
Peter said to them,
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is made to you and to your children
and to all those far off,
whomever the Lord our God will call.”
He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand persons were added that day.
Responsorial
Psalm
Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20 and 22
R.(5b) The
earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
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
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.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040726.cfm
Commentary on Acts
2:36-41
Today we see the first and immediate results of Peter’s
proclamation of the gospel message.
After Peter’s proclamation his hearers:
…were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other
apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
It reflects both their belief in what they have just heard
about Jesus, and regret over their former rejection.
They are told to “repent”. Repentance was important in the
message of the forerunner, John the Baptist (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3), in the
preaching of Jesus (Mark 1:15; Luke 13:3), and in the directions Jesus left
just before his ascension (Luke 24:47).
‘Repentance’ implies not just regret for the past, but much
more positively, a radical change to one’s way of thinking and behaving. It
translates from the Greek word metanoia, of which the nearest
English translation is something like ‘radical conversion’, a turning around to
a completely new way of seeing life. This they pledge through being baptised
and having their former sins forgiven and left behind, and receiving the gift
of the Spirit. Each of the great apostolic addresses in Acts finishes with a
call to conversion, leading to full reconciliation with God.
This is in fulfilment of the promises made by God in the
past, and extended not only to the Jewish people, but also:
…for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God
calls to him.
We are told that on that very day—the day of Pentecost—3,000
people became followers of Jesus the Lord. Luke always likes to note the
Church’s numerical growth and does so several times in Acts.
A reading like this is a call for all of us to renew our own
commitment and to make the necessary conversion (metanoia) to bring
us closer to Christ and his gospel message. It is also a reminder for us to
share the Easter message with others. We may not have the same response that
Peter got, but if we all brought one person to Christ what a difference it
would make to their lives—and ours!
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Commentary on John
20:11-18
After going off to tell Peter and the other disciples about
the empty tomb, it seems that Mary of Magdala went back there to grieve over
her lost friend and master. She sees two angels sitting inside the tomb and
asks where her Lord has been taken. When asked why she is weeping, she replies:
They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where
they have laid him.
Then, as she turns round, there is Jesus standing before
her, but she does not recognise him. This is a common experience with those who
meet Jesus after the resurrection. He is the same, and yet he is not the same.
In this transitional period they have to learn to recognise Jesus in unexpected
forms and places and situations. He asks the same question as the angels:
Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?
This is a question we need to ask ourselves constantly. Like
Mary, we may say we are looking for Jesus—but which Jesus?
She thinks the person in front of her is the gardener! How
often we jump to conclusions about people, about their character and
personality and true identity. Maybe this man has taken Jesus away and knows
where he is.
It is also another lovely example of Johannine irony. First,
that the one she took to be the gardener should know where Jesus was to be
found. Second, it is John who tells us that the tomb of Jesus was in a garden
(19:41). All the world’s pain and sorrow began with the sin of the Man and the
Woman in a garden (Eden) and now new life also finds its beginnings in a
garden. Mary was unwittingly right—Jesus is the Gardener, the one who produces
life from the earth, and is the Word of his Father, the Gardener of Eden.
Then Jesus speaks: “Mary!” Immediately she recognises his
voice, the voice of her Master. It reminds us of the passage about Jesus the
Shepherd:
He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…and the
sheep follow him because they know his voice…I know my own, and my own know me… (John
10:3-4,15)
Immediately she turns and says to him in Hebrew, Rabbouni! This
is a more formal address than just Rabbi and was often used
when speaking to God. In this case, Mary’s exclamation is not unlike that of
Thomas in the upper room:
My Lord and my God! (John 20:28)
We should also note that earlier she had already turned to
face Jesus, so this turning is different. It is an interior turning from
strangeness to recognition, from sadness to joy, from a sense of loss to a
close bonding, from doubt to faith.
With a mixture of joy and affection and partly out of fear
of losing him again, she clings on to him tightly. But Jesus tells her to let
him go, because:
…I have not yet ascended to the Father.
Perhaps it is possible that this sentence be better read as
a rhetorical question: “Have I not ascended to my Father?”
In John, the glorification of Jesus takes place on the cross
at the moment of death. At that moment of triumph, Jesus is raised straight to
the glory of the Father. In that sense, it is the glorified Jesus who now
speaks with Mary, not the Jesus she knew earlier. This Jesus cannot be clung
to. In fact, there is no need. From now on:
I am with you always… (Matt 28:20)
Next, he says:
I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God
and your God.
This phrase echoes a sentence in the Book of Ruth (1:16):
…your people shall be my people
and your God my God.
The Father of Jesus now becomes the Father of his disciples
as they are filled with the Spirit that is both in the Father and the Son. Thus
they will be re-born (John 3:5) as God’s children and can be called “brothers
and sisters” by Jesus.
Mary, and all the others, have to learn that the Risen Jesus
is different from the Jesus before the crucifixion. They have to let go of the
earlier Jesus and learn to relate to the ‘new’ Jesus in a very different way.
So she is told to do what every Christian is supposed to do:
she goes and tells the other disciples that she has seen the Lord and she
shares with them what he has said to her. And so:
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I
have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.
She is not just passing on a doctrine, but sharing an
experience. That is what we are all called to do.
It is significant that it is a woman who is the first person
in John’s Gospel to see and to be spoken to by the Risen Jesus. Not only that,
if she is the same person mentioned by Luke as one of Jesus’ women followers
(Luke 8:2), she was formerly a deeply wounded woman from whom seven demons had
been driven out.
Often no one is closer to God than someone who has been
converted from a sinful past. We think of people like St Augustine or St
Ignatius Loyola. We remember the example of the sinful woman in the house of
Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50). Of her Jesus said:
Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven;
hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven loves
little. (Luke 7:47)
So Mary, (who with Mary, Jesus’ Mother, stood by the cross
of Jesus to the very end—unlike the men disciples), is now rewarded by being
the first to meet him risen and glorified. She is truly a beloved disciple.
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Tuesday, April 7, 2026
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
O God of life,
we profess our faith in Jesus
and recognize Him as our Lord and Savior. Make
us listen to Him when He speaks His good news to us for it is a message of life.
May we also hear His voice
when He cries out to us in people in need or simply
when He speaks to us in people who express to us their
joys and hopes,
their love and their faith. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gospel Reading - 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.
Reflection
Today’s Gospel
describes the apparition of Jesus to Mary Magdalene. The death of her great friend
prompts Mary to lose her sense of life. But she does not give up
her search. She goes to the tomb
in order to meet again
the one whom
death
has taken away.
There are moments
in our life in which everything crumbles. It seems that everything is finished. Death,
disasters, pain and suffering,
disillusionments, betrayals: so many things
which may cause us to feel lost, as if standing on firm ground, and which can
lead us to fall into a deep crisis.
But other things also happen. For example, suddenly we meet a friend again, and
that can give us hope anew and can make us discover
that love is stronger than death and defeat. The Lord allows
desolation, but He also provides
consolation as we need it.
Chapter 20 in John’s Gospel, besides the apparitions of Jesus to Mary
Magdalene, also speaks about diverse episodes which indicate the richness of the experience of the Resurrection: (a) to the beloved disciple
and to Peter (Jn 20: 1-10); (b) to Mary Magdalene (Jn 20:
11-18); (c) to the community
of disciples (Jn 20: 19-23) and (d) to the Apostle
Thomas (Jn 20: 24-29). The purpose of the writing of the Gospel
is to lead people to believe in Jesus, and believing in Him,
to
have life (Jn 20: 30-31).
In the way of describing the apparition of Jesus to Mary Magdalene one is aware of
the different stages
of the road that she had to follow, of the sorrowful
search until the time of the encounter at Easter. These are also the
stages through which we all have to pass, throughout our life, in seeking
God and living the Gospel.
•
John 20: 11-13: Mary Magdalene weeps,
but she seeks. There was a very strong love
between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. She was one of the few persons who had the courage
to remain with Jesus up to the moment of His death on
the Cross. After the obligatory rest on Saturday, she goes back
to the tomb
to be in the place where she had seen her beloved for the last time.
But, surprisingly, the tomb is empty! The angels ask her, “Woman, why are you
weeping?” and her response is, “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know
where they have
put Him!” Mary
Magdalene looked for
Jesus, that Jesus whom she had known for three
years.
•
John 20: 14-15: Mary Magdalene speaks with Jesus without knowing Him. The disciples at Emmaus saw Jesus but they did not recognize Him.
She thinks that Jesus is the
gardener. And just as the angels had done, Jesus also asks, “Why are you weeping?” and He adds,
“Whom are you looking for?” The response: “If you have taken Him away, tell me where you have put Him and I will go and get Him”. She was still looking for the Jesus of the past, the same
one of three days before.
And it is precisely the image of the Jesus
of the past which prevents her from recognizing the living Jesus, who
is present before her.
•
John 20: 16: Mary Magdalene
recognizes Jesus. Jesus pronounces her name:
“Mary!” This was the signal to recognize Him: the same voice, the same way of pronouncing her name. She answers, “Master!” Jesus had returned
the same as the one who had died on the cross. The first impression
was that death was only a painful incident
on the journey, but now everything has again become as before. Mary embraces
Jesus strongly. He was
the same Jesus whom she had known and loved. And thus is fulfilled what the Parable
of the Good
Shepherd said: “He calls them by name and they recognize His voice”. “I know
My sheep and My sheep know Me” (Jn 10: 3, 4, 14).
•
John 20: 17-18: Mary Magdalene receives the mission to
announce the resurrection to the
apostles. In fact,
it is the same Jesus,
but the way
of being together with her is not the same as before. Jesus tells her, “Do
not cling to me,
because I have not as yet ascended to the Father!”
He goes toward the Father.
Mary Magdalene has to let Jesus go and assume her mission: to announce to the
brothers that He, Jesus, has ascended to the Father. Jesus has opened
up the way for us and thus,
once more, God is close to us.
Personal Questions
•
Have you ever had an experience which gave you the
feeling of loss and death? What was it like? What gave you new life and gave you back the hope
and joy of living?
•
What is the change that took place
in Mary Magdalene throughout the dialogue? Mary Magdalene was looking for Jesus in a certain way and found Him in a different way. How does this take place in our life?
•
Do we also
look for Jesus
in the past,
as a historical figure, when
He is present right before us in the poor and outcasts we meet every
day? What can we do to be more aware of Him in those that
we meet today?
•
Has Jesus ever called to me as I faced someone who was
poor and outcasts? Did I recognize my name as He called me through that person
and that opportunity to see Him?
Concluding Prayer
We are waiting for Yahweh; He is our help and our shield,
for in Him our heart rejoices, in His holy name we trust.
Yahweh, let Your faithful love rest on us, as our hope has rested in You. (Ps 33:
20-22)
