HE IS RISEN

April 24, 2011

 

D A I L Y G O S P E L

 

As we reflect upon Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the Risen Lord, it is important to realize that each of us is called to experience something similar to this through faith. I think back to my conversion experience (a conversion that shifted my faith from being a nominal part of my life to being an essential and living relationship with God). I remember it in terms of an encounter with the truth of the Gospel that ultimately led me into a personal relationship with a God I used to refer to in more abstract ways. God is real; the resurrection of Jesus is real; faith is not just an excuse that enables people to overcome fear of death, etc. Faith in God, His death and resurrection, are essential to the full expression of our humanity and being. We have been created for a relationship with God; without this relationship we are on the path to … well, nothingness!

 

ALLELUIA

R: Alleluia, alleluia

Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed; let us then feast with joy in the Lord.

R: Alleluia, alleluia

 

John 20:1-9

1 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. 2 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.” 3 So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. 4 They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; 5 he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. 6 When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, 7 and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. 8 Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. 9 For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.