April 6, 2026
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/040626.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…
(In Hebrew, Hades is 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 Jesus’ 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 6, 2026
Within 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 presenceand 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 for ever.
Gospel Reading - 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.
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, until the end of time! (Mt 28: 20). In
the contradictions of life, this truth is questioned and 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: 11-13). This also happens
today: on the one side, the effort of many people 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 in symbolic language, which
reveals the hidden sense of the events. Matthew speaks about the earthquake, of
lightning 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 lightning. 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. 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 to understand. 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 to 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!”
•
How do
I experience the Resurrection in my life today?
•
Does the
Resurrection transform me in any way?
•
Today,
what is the mission of our community as disciples of Jesus? Through what in the
Resurrection can we draw force and strength and courage to fulfill our mission?
Concluding Prayer
I bless Yahweh, who
is my counselor, 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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