DAILY MEDITATION: “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed”

Liturgical day: Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Day)

Gospel text (Jn 20,1-9): On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

“Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed”

Mons. Joan Enric VIVES i Sicília Bishop of Urgell
(Lleida, Spain)

Today, “is the day the LORD has made”: this is the expression of Psalm 118, 24 that we shall be singing throughout Easter time and fills out the celebration of our Christian faith. The Father has resurrected Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, in whom He delights, because He has loved to the point of giving his life for all of us.

Let us live this Easter with plenty of joy. Christ has risen: so let us celebrate it full of joy and love. Death, sin and sadness, have today been defeated by Jesus Christ... and He has opened the doors to a new life, the real life, the life we owe to the grace of the Holy Spirit. Nobody should be sad. Christ is our Peace and our Path forever and ever. Today, He “fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes 22).

The great sign the Gospel gives us today is that Jesus' tomb is empty. We have to look no more among the dead for He who is alive has risen. And his disciples also realize his tomb is empty. They will see him risen later on; experiencing him alive in a wonderful meeting in faith. An empty tomb and apparitions will be the great signs for the believer's faith. The Gospel says: “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed” (Jn 20, 8). Through his faith he realizes that the emptiness, the burial cloths, and the cloth that had covered his head rolled up in a separate place, were all signs that God had been there, signs of the new life. Love can see signs where others cannot, and small signs are enough. “The other disciple whom Jesus loved” (Jn 20, 2) was led by the love he had received from Christ.

The disciples “saw and believed”; this must also be our aim. Let us renew our paschal faith; that Christ be our Lord in everything we do. Let his Life revitalize ours and let us renew the grace of the baptism we have received; let us become his apostles and disciples; let us be guided by love and announce to all our happiness to believe in Christ; let us be hopeful witnesses of his Resurrection.

Source: evangeli.net