April 21, 2025
Monday in the Octave of Easter
Lectionary: 261
Reading 1
On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
“You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem.
Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.
“You who are children of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God
with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs,
which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
For David says of him:
I saw the Lord ever before me,
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.
My brothers, one can confidently say to you
about the patriarch David that he died and was buried,
and his tomb is in our midst to this day.
But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him
that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne,
he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld
nor did his flesh see corruption.
God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit
that he received from the Father, as you both see and hear.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
R. (1) Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.”
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
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 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.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042125.cfm
Commentary on Acts
2:14,22-33
We begin today reading from the Acts of the Apostles. From
now until the end of the Seventh Week of Easter, the weekday First Readings
will be from Acts. The Sunday First Readings will also be from Acts.
Today’s reading follows immediately on the account of the
Pentecost experience. The immediate result of that experience is for Peter,
filled with the Spirit and as leader of the new community, to begin proclaiming
the message about Jesus Christ as Saviour to the people gathered in Jerusalem
for the Jewish festival of Pentecost.
It is the first of six such kerygmas (from
the Greek kerux, meaning a ‘herald’) or proclamations in Acts about
Jesus as Risen Lord and Messiah-King. Five of them are attributed to Peter and
the final one to Paul (to the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia, 13:16-41).
Peter’s address follows a pattern that became common in the
early Church: 1) an explanation of what was happening; 2) the proclamation of
the death, resurrection and glorification of Jesus, the Christ; 3) an
exhortation to repentance, a change of life and baptism.
Peter stood before the crowd, flanked by the Eleven
(including Matthias, newly chosen to replace Judas as a witness who had been
with them “during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us”
(Acts 1:21). Peter spoke, then, not just in his own name but in the name of the
whole apostolic ‘college’. Right from the beginning, his special position in
the group is recognised.
And he has ‘good news’ (i.e. gospel, Old English ‘god-spell’;
Greek, euanggelion) to communicate to them. His words reflect the
content of the earliest apostolic preaching:
- He
gives witness of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and his being
raised to glory.
- He
describes some general details of Christ’s ministry and how it was
proclaimed in advance by John the Baptist, inaugurated by teaching and
miracles, and completed by appearances of the Risen Christ and the giving
of the Spirit to his followers.
- The
story of Jesus is put in the wider context of the Old Testament
prophecies, while at the same time looking forward to a Messianic age.
All—Jews and Gentiles alike—are called to a radical change of life in
order to be ready for the Christ’s glorious return—believed to be in the
near future.
Peter, then, reminds them that Jesus had come to live among
the people—as many of his listeners were well aware—and performed signs and
wonders as the credentials of his real identity. But in the inscrutable plan of
God, he was “handed over” (again we have that term which is a refrain
throughout the New Testament).
Sad to say, those who handed Jesus over were from among his
own people, perhaps including some of those listening to Peter, and they had
even delivered him into the hands of the Romans (“those outside the Law”) for
crucifixion. There must surely have been some uneasy feelings among the crowd
when he said that.
But Jesus was liberated from the pain of death, and death
had no power over him. Peter sees in words spoken by King David, their
fulfilment in Jesus, his descendant:
…you will not abandon my soul to Hades…
(Hades in Hebrew: Sheol, the place of the dead)
These words are seen as applying more appropriately to Jesus
because David died, was buried, and the place of his tomb was known to his
hearers, while Jesus:
…was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience
corruption.
Instead,
This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are
witnesses.
We, too, are called to be witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection
and his living presence among us by the way we live both individually and as a
community.
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Commentary on
Matthew 28:8-15
The women who had come to the tomb early on Sunday morning
to embalm the dead body of Jesus were amazed to find the stone rolled back from
the entrance and the tomb empty. Their reactions are a mixture of anxiety and
joy. They are anxious that the body may have been stolen, but there is also an
expectant joy. Could it be that he is alive? This is in contrast with the
Gospel of Mark (16:8) where he tells us that the women “said nothing to anyone,
for they were afraid.”
And, while still wondering what could have happened, they
run to tell the news to the disciples with “great joy” (obviously they were
having optimistic thoughts) and, at that point they encounter Jesus, who
greeted them with an Easter greeting of “Peace!” (Shalom!).
As they cling to Jesus’ feet (like Mary Magdalene in John’s
Gospel, they do not want to lose him again), they are told not to be afraid, an
admonition that will be heard frequently during these days, but to go to the
disciples and instruct them to go to Galilee where they will see Jesus.
There are various, and to some extent, mutually conflicting
versions of the resurrection story and of how and where the Risen Jesus was
seen and by whom. There are basically two types of experiences. Appearances to
individuals (Mary Magdalene, the Emmaus disciples, Peter and Thomas) help prove
the fact of the resurrection. Appearances to several disciples together are
accompanied by a mandate to continue the work of Jesus.
In today’s reading, the women are to instruct the disciples
that they will see Jesus in Galilee, their own place. Galilee is their home
ground, the place where they were born, grew up and worked. That is where the
Risen Jesus is to be found. And, it is in our ‘own place’ we will expect to see
him, too.
Jesus is saying the same thing to us. We do not have to go
to Jerusalem or Rome or Lourdes or Fatima to find him. If we cannot find him in
the place where we live and work, we won’t find him in those other places
either.
As well as the distinction between individual and collective
post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, there are two other distinct
traditions: 1) those appearances that take place in Galilee (in the north) and
2) those in Judea (at Jerusalem, in the south). Commentators have pointed out
that these seeming inconsistencies provide a better witness than any artificial
uniformity to the antiquity of the evidence and its historical value. The
physical details are not that important; it is the meaning that is
all-important.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the Jews put another twist on what
is happening. They also are reporting that the tomb is empty. All sides agree
that the tomb was empty; the disagreement was over the why. Obviously, they are
wondering what could have happened, but cannot accept the possibility of
resurrection. The guards are bribed and told to say that the disciples stole
the body while they were asleep. Guards who sleep on the job would be punished,
not bribed. And, if they were asleep, how did they know what happened?
But when people do not want to believe something, reason and
logic can often go out the window. We see such rationalisations frequently in
those who find it inconvenient to continue living a Christian life.
Those who take the Gospel seriously and try to live
according to its vision have all the confirmation they need that it is the
recipe for a happy and fulfilled life.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1012g/
Monday,
April 21, 2025
Monday with the Octave of Easter
Opening Prayer
Our living God,
our heart is glad and rejoices and we
feel secure in our faith that we have a living person to believe in, Jesus
Christ, who is risen from the dead.
Let him show us the path of
life, let us live in the joy of his presence and give us the grace to make us
witnesses, so that we can proclaim with our whole life that Jesus is our risen,
living Lord now and forever.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 28: 8-15
Filled with awe and great
joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples.
And suddenly, coming to meet them, was Jesus. 'Greetings,' he said. And the
women came up to him and, clasping his feet, they did him homage. Then Jesus
said to them, 'Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers that they must leave
for Galilee; there they will see me.' Now while they were on their way, some of
the guards went off into the city to tell the chief priests all that had
happened. These held a meeting with the elders and, after some discussion,
handed a considerable sum of money to the soldiers with these instructions,
'This is what you must say, "His disciples came during the night and stole
him away while we were asleep." And should the governor come to hear of
this, we undertake to put things right with him ourselves and to see that you
do not get into trouble.' So they took the money and carried out their
instructions, and to this day that is the story among the Jews.
Reflection
Easter! Today’s Gospel describes
the experience of the Resurrection which the disciples of Jesus had. At the
beginning of his Gospel, in presenting Jesus, Matthew had said that Jesus is
the Emmanuel, God with us (Mt 1: 23). Now, at the end, he communicates and
increases this certainty of faith, because he proclaims that Jesus is risen (Mt
28: 6) and that he will be with us always, up to the end of time! (Mt 28: 20).
In the contradictions of life, this truth is questioned, contested very much.
Opposition is not lacking. The enemies, the chief priests of the Jews, defended
themselves against the Good News of the Resurrection and sent word to say that
the body had been stolen by the disciples (Mt 28: 1113). This also happens today.
On the one side, the effort of many persons to live and to witness to the
resurrection. On the other side, so many evil people who fight against the
resurrection and against life.
In the Gospel of Matthew,
the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus is told through a symbolical language,
which reveals the hidden sense of the events. Matthew speaks about the
earthquake, of lightening and of the angels who announce the victory of Jesus
over death (Mt 2-4). It is an apocalyptic language, very common at that time,
to announce that finally the world had been transformed by the power of God!
The hope of the poor, who reaffirmed their faith, was fulfilled: “He is alive
in our midst!”
•
Matthew 28: 8 - The joy of the Resurrection
overcomes fear. On Sunday morning, the first day of the week, two women went to
the tomb, Mary of Magdala and Mary of James, also called the other Mary. All of
a sudden the earth trembled and an angel appeared as lightening. The guards who
were guarding the tomb were so shaken up with fear that they were like dead
men. The women were frightened but the angel encouraged them, announcing the
victory of Jesus over death and sending them to go join the disciples of Jesus
in Galilee. And in Galilee they would be able to see him again. Everything began
there; they received the great revelation of the Risen Lord. The joy of the
Resurrection began to overcome fear. Thus the announcement of life and
resurrection begins in this way.
•
Matthew 28: 9-10 - Jesus appears to the women.
The women left quickly. In them there is a mixture of fear and of joy. These
are sentiments typical of those who have a profound experience of the Mystery
of God. Suddenly, Jesus himself went to meet them and said to them: “Rejoice!”
And they fell on their knees and adored him. It is the attitude of the one who
believes and accepts the presence of God, even if it surprises and goes beyond
the human capacity of understanding. Now, Jesus himself orders them to go and
join the brothers in Galilee: “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go
to Galilee and there they will see me.”
•
Matthew 28: 11-15 - The astuteness or guile of
the enemies of the Good News. The opposition itself which Jesus had to face
during his life, springs up again now after his Resurrection. The chief priests
meet and give money to the guards. They should spread the news that the
disciples have robbed the body of Jesus, and this in order to avoid everything
which is said about the resurrection. The chief priests do not accept the Good
News of the Resurrection. They prefer to believe that it is an invention on the
part of the disciples – men and women – of Jesus.
The significance of the testimony of the women. The
presence of the women at the death, at the burial and at the resurrection of
Jesus is significant. They are witnesses of the death of Jesus (Mt 27: 54-56).
At the moment of the burial, they remain sitting before the tomb and,
therefore, they can render witness of the place where Jesus was buried (Mt 27:
61). Now, on Sunday morning, they are there once again. They know that the
empty tomb is truly the tomb of Jesus! The profound experience of death and
resurrection which they had, transformed their lives. They themselves become
qualified witnesses of the Resurrection in the Christian Communities. This is
why they receive the order to announce: “Jesus is alive! He has risen from the
dead!”
Personal Questions
•
Which is the experience of resurrection that I
have in my life? Is there in me some force which tries to oppose the experience
of the resurrection? How do I react?
•
Today, which is the mission of our community, of
us, disciples of Jesus? From where can we draw force and strength and courage
to fulfil our mission?
Concluding Prayer
I bless Yahweh who is my counsellor,
even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep Yahweh before me always, for with him at my right
hand, nothing can shake me. (Ps 16: 7-8)
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