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Easter Sunday
Today hundreds of millions of Christians across the globe
gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. From small adobe
churches in Peru to grand cathedrals throughout the western world, the
defining event for Christians draws people from every race and language to
praise God for the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection. Each year,
the believer must ask the question: What difference does the resurrection of
Christ make in my life? In the past year, since we last gathered to
celebrate Easter, are there moments that can be truly identified when the
power of Christ's resurrection has transformed my life? Today is the day to
let the joy of Easter ring through our life experiences. As we listen to the
word of God today and share at the table of the Eucharist, let us pray that
Easter will have a deeper impact on the joys and sorrows that the coming
year holds. Being believers means that we reflect on our lives with "Easter
intentionality"-do we bring our joys and sorrows to the Lord Jesus who
suffered and died to save us and make us free, in the hope that we, too,
like Christ, will be freed from the bonds of sin and death? Let us all make
this Easter 2006 one that will make a difference.
The Resurrection of the Lord First Reading A reading from the Acts of the Apostles Acts 10:34a, 37-43 Peter proceeded to speak and said: "You know what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 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.The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Second Reading A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians Colossians 3:1-4 Brothers and sisters: If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Gospel A reading from the holy Gospel According to John John 20:1-9 Glory to you, Lord. 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.
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