WelCom April 2024
Easter Sunday, the Resurrection of the Lord – 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. She saw that the stone had been moved away 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 set out to go to the tomb.
4 They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and reached the tomb first;
5 he bent down and saw the burial cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.
6 When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the linen burial cloths on the ground, 7 and also the cloth that had covered his head; this was not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
8 Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first, also went in; and he saw and believed.
9 Until this moment, they had still not understood the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
Easter Sunday 2024
Acts 10:34-43; Col 3:1-4; John 20:1-18
Br Kevin Dobbyn fms
The readings could not be more appropriate as we continue the journey towards the 2nd Synod in Rome in October this year. From both Acts and John there is a clear message about the kind of Church we are to become; the one St Pope John XXIII launched and, with the energy of renewed urgency, the same one where Pope Francis leads us into the ever-deeper waters of the Spirit who speaks the silent language of God.
It is worth reading chapters 10 and 11 in Acts in one sitting. We read there a process very close to the synodal method we see in the participants seated at round tables. Round tables present us with the Gospel approach which recognises each of us as baptised disciples and equals, whatever our vocation, role or ministry. Noteworthy in the story is that Peter does not speak from a synagogue, nor from Jerusalem, but from the home of Cornelius, a non-Jew living in Caesarea. What might that say about the future synods of a more ecumenically focused Church?
As Peter wrestles with the meaning of his dream | vision, he cannot work it out by himself (10:17). He needs the community, the church – not to be confused with hierarchy – to help in the discernment, even from those sent by the Spirit who come from outside the familiar. What might that say about inclusion or mission, when so much is made of the trappings of Catholicism’s yesteryears, denying the growth of Vatican II’s local churches who continue the struggle to bring the Gospel to this change-of-era’s cultural realities?
John has that wonderful story of Mary of Magdala’s encounter with the Risen Jesus whom she does not first recognise. It is the kind of experience that underpins Peter’s openness to the movement of the Spirit in the depths of his soul. How little our Institutional history recognises the wisdom of women! That Mary loved Jesus and knew that he loved her enabled her to encounter him. Such love simply overflowed in her telling the other disciples that God made flesh in Jesus the Christ is alive! and loves each of us; the One-Who-Is has overcome every blockage to that Love, even those flaws we may not yet be aware of.
In this kind of love we can recognise the Christ-life hidden within us (Col 3:3). The more we become aware of that Truth within, that Reality, our love will find its best expression in the joy, the delight we have in others, and in all creation.