First Sunday of Easter: Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord
John 20:1-9
Sunday Gospel Reflections by Sister Mary Ann Barnhorn

“He lives, he lives, who once was dead…” This line from an Easter hymn holds the key to a deepened understanding of the Resurrection of Jesus which we celebrate today. Jesus lives, today, tomorrow, forever. Alleluia!

To begin to understand the depth and power of today’s feast, we must grapple with the mystery of death. The loss we experience when someone we love dies sears in the bottom of our heart. It is so final, irreversible. It is over. We realize that we will never see this person again, hear her/his voice, have a Conversation. We will never again experience the life of this person whom we have learned to love. We have only memories.

So it seemed also with the death of Jesus. He truly died and it felt to His followers that all was over. And yet, we hear in the Easter Liturgy: “He is risen. He goes before you…”

The challenge for us is to believe with all our heart. Jesus lives and this is what we celebrate today and every Sunday, every day of the year.

It is easy to miss the boat. We think about Jesus as a wonderful person who walked our earth, who taught us to know and love God as a loving Father, who touched and healed and laughed and cried, who showed us the human face of God. And so to remember all of this, is that enough?

Today we celebrate Jesus, alive, eager to live out His promise and to be friend. We celebrate the living God whose new life enables Him to be close, to speak to our hearts, to listen to every word we speak to Him and especially to gift us with His caring presence. The life changing Easter gift is the invitation to move beyond remembering to relating, hour by hour, day by day, with the living God. Alleluia!

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.

            This is the Gospel of the Lord.

 

Sister Mary Ann

Sister Mary Ann Barnhorn, SNDdeN is currently Director of Development for the Ohio Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She has been in province leadership for 15 years, served on a variety of province, inter-province and congregational committees. She has also done work for the Church on a national level and served as chairperson of a high school religion department.