DAILY MEDITATION: "He is not here, for He is risen"

Liturgical day: Easter Sunday (Mass during the Day)

Gospel text (Jn 20,1-9): On the first day after the Sabbath, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark and she saw that the stone blocking the tomb had been moved away. She ran to Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved. And she said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have laid him".

Peter then set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down and saw the linen cloths lying flat, but he did not enter. Then Simon Peter came following him and entered the tomb; he, too, saw the linen cloths lying flat. The handkerchief, which had been around his head was not lying flat like the other linen cloths but lay rolled up in its place. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and believed. Scripture clearly said that he must rise from the dead, but they had not yet understood that.

VIGIL MASS (A) (Mt 28,1-10): "He is not here, for He is risen"

Fr. Josep Mª MASSANA i Mola OFM
(Barcelona, Spain)

Today, in the Easter Vigil Gospel, there throbs a great dynamism: two women run towards the tomb, suddenly a violent earthquake occurs, an angel rolls the stone from the entrance, the guards tremble in fear and become like dead men. And Jesus, alive and resurrect, meets those women on the way...

Those women are the first ones to experience the resurrection of Jesus, and this, just by looking at the empty sepulcher and at the angel that tells them: "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen as He said..." (Mt 28,5-6). They are also the first ones to bear witness of their experience: "Go at once and tell his disciples: He is risen...!" (Mt 28, 7).

And they believe right away. Their faith, though, is a mixture of holy fear and great joy. They feared greatly the angel's words, announcing a message that goes far beyond all the human expectations. And they felt the joy because of the certainty of our Lord's resurrection, because the Scriptures had been fulfilled, because they had been privileged by the immense joy of experiencing that Paschal mystery. Therefore, faith, while producing a great intimate joy, does not exclude fear.

They run to announce their experience of the Resurrected, which they have felt without actually seeing him. And Jesus rewards this faith by meeting them on the way.

The core of all experience of faith, in the first place, is neither a doctrine nor any dogma. It is the person of Jesus. The faith of the two women in today's Gospel is centered in him, in his person, and in nothing more. They have experienced him alive and they run to proclaim him alive!

Another woman, St. Clare of Assisi, wrote to the St. Agnes of Prague, that she should be centered on the resurrected Jesus: "Gaze upon, examine, contemplate Jesus Christ (…). If you suffer with him, with him you will reign, grieving with him, with him you will rejoice, dying with him on the cross of tribulation, with him you will possess mansions in Heaven...".

Source: evangeli.net