Easter Monday

Acts 2:14,22-33
Matthew 28:8-15

BE A LIVING PROOF OF THE EASTER MESSAGE

We all know that throughout the Church’s liturgical calendar year most of our first reading at Mass comes from the Old Testament, except during the Easter Season. At this very special time of the year, our first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles.

The Church does this for a very good reason. Acts really begins with Pentecost, that special day when the Church, promised and formed by Jesus, is born. The story of Acts is the story of the Church, the story of the Apostles who begin the task of going out throughout the world to fulfill the great commission given them by the Risen Jesus(Matthew 28:10-20).

During this season of Easter, we equally encounter the early Gospel preached by Peter and Paul. Listen again as Peter begins to spread the Good News among the Jewish pilgrims on that first Pentecost:”God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses.

Exalted at the right hand of God, he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit that he received from the Father, as you both see and hear” [Acts 2:32-33]. Thus, Peter maintained the same pattern of our Lord in his great commission. Thus, the blessed trinity is the core and foundation of our faith; having in mind the incarnation and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the account of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew, He tells us that the women left the tomb “fearful yet overjoyed” [Mt 28:8]. Fear and joy — a rare combination of emotions that I suspect exist only in the presence of God. Oh, yes, they were fearful, for they had just witnessed God’s awesome power, and for the first time truly understood Who Jesus is.

He is the Messiah. He is the Redeemer. He is the Chosen One. He is the Son of God. It’s this same understanding, and all it brings with it, that made them so joyful.

He is risen! And so too have all of His promises, that suddenly made such perfect sense.
Indeed, they were overjoyed. Overjoyed that their trust in Jesus had not been misplaced. Overjoyed that they, like all of us, are the object of God’s overwhelming love.

Overjoyed because pessimism had turned to optimism, despair had turned to hope, and that tiny kernel of faith, almost lost during the dark hours after the crucifixion, had blossomed into a sure knowledge of redemption.

Perhaps Mary Magdalene understood this best. Mary — she who had been dead in the slavery of her sin; she who had been sealed in a tomb of her own making — had been given new life through the healing power of God’s love and forgiveness. And Jesus knew that she, who had experienced this power in her own resurrection from the deadness of sin, would believe.

Mary of Magdala was the sinner who became the saint. She was living proof of the power of God’s redeeming love. She was the “witness” that Peter described as he preached in the streets of Jerusalem. She was the fruit of Christ’s Resurrection.

The twist and turns of life should not make us act like the Roman soldiers, who saw all that happened and yet decided to bury the truth because of money. Remember, that the thirty pieces of silver that Judas Iscariot collected to betray Jesus could not bury the truth that Jesus rose from the grave, so too the Roman soldiers could not bury the truth for now we have a Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church built upon Peter by Christ the living Stone and the Cornerstone rejected by the elders and leaders of the people.

Let us celebrate Christ’s victory over death and sin, a victory that resounded throughout the universe, and continues to do so today. Let us go to Galilee. Let us go back to the source…and there will shall see him.

PRAYER
May the joy of the Risen Lord Jesus continue to touch our lives with a renewed spirit. May he bless us in this new month and may we experience bountiful blessings and favours. Amen.

Happy New Month
Happy Easter Monday and do have a graceful week ahead.

Fr Joseph Osho