Easter Sunday, Year B
Acts 10:34a, 37–43
Ps. 118:1–2, 16–17, 22–23
Colossians 3:1–4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6b–8
John 20:1–9, Mark 16:1-7 or Luke 24:13–35
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.” We now sing out “Alleluia” as we express our joy in the Easter proclamation: Jesus Christ is risen, Alleluia! Alleluia! He is Risen indeed, Alleluia! Alleluia!
We have completed our Lenten journey and now we enter a season of light and joy, the Easter season, which runs until Pentecost. So important is the Good News of the Resurrection that it is the central celebration of our Liturgy.
We celebrate Easter one day: Easter Sunday, welcoming many who are with us to celebrate the Resurrection, just as they were with us at Christmas to celebrate the Incarnation of the Son of God as Man. Our human nature has undergone a transformation that makes all the difference.
We have also celebrated Easter for three days that are four: the Easter Triduum, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. After the ancient counting of days from sundown to sundown, these days that we count as four are three. This celebration is one experience of the whole paschal mystery, the life, suffering, death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, which is now and forever made present among us through the Eucharist, the source and summit of our life in Christ.
Easter is also celebrated, as are many feasts of the Church, for an octave, a week and a day, from Easter Sunday to Divine Mercy Sunday. Each day highlights the great gift of the Resurrection.
Easter is also a full season, 50 days to balance the 40 days of our Lenten journey. Forty days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving now give way to the outpouring of Easter joy, the singing of alleluia, and announcing that the Resurrection of the Lord has opened for us a new relationship with the living God. The season of Easter is the season of the Holy Spirit, whose presence in the disciples of the Lord is evident in the readings of the Easter season.
Easter Sunday readings are diverse, with different possible choices, so rich is the theme of this day. In each of them, we are given a glimpse into the heart of one of those who has journeyed with Jesus from the sorrows of the Passion to the glory of the Resurrection. Mary Magdalene was the first to proclaim it as Apostola Apostolorum, the Apostle to the Apostles. Peter in Acts and Paul in his letters share their wisdom, having been filled with the Spirit and made ready for their journey as proclaimers of the Resurrection to the ends of the earth.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus recognize Him in the breaking of the bread, and their hearts burn within them as they come to understand the Scriptures. The tomb is found empty, but the message is not yet fully understood.
“We are witnesses of all that he did ... They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. This man God raised on the third day … He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”
So, Easter is celebrated one day, three days that are four, eight days, and 50 days, a whole season of white and gold and Easter flowers. Each Sunday is also a “little Easter” for the Christian community – 52 days across a year. All are invited to celebrate Easter joy today of all days, and throughout their lives.
May all who come to be with us to rejoice on this Easter Sunday know that you are welcome every Sunday and every day to recognize His presence among us in the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread. “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.”
