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Message of the Day
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The joyful news that He is risen does not change the contemporary world. Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice. But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline, and make the sacrifice. ~Henry Knox Sherrill
What difference does belief in
Christ's resurrection make in your life? |
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Readings of the Day
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Acts 2:14, 22-33
Psalm 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11 Matthew 28:8-15 Filled
with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples.
And there, coming to meet them, was Jesus. ‘Greetings’ he said. And the women came up to him and, falling down before him, clasped his feet. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee; they will see me there.’
While they were on their way, some of the guard went off into the city to tell the chief priests all that had
happened. These held a meeting with the elders and, after some discussion, handed a considerable sum of money to the soldiers with these instructions, ‘This is what you must say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” And should the governor come to hear of this, we undertake to put things right with him ourselves and to see that you do not get into trouble.’ The soldiers took the money and carried out their instructions, and to this day that is the story
among the Jews. USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“The soldiers pocketed the money and did as they had been instructed.” —Matthew 28:15 The soldiers assigned to guard Jesus’ tomb had just endured a powerful earthquake (Mt 28:2). Simultaneously, they saw an angel,
who looked like a dazzlingly dressed bolt of lightning, roll the stone back from Jesus’ tomb and sit on the stone (Mt 28:2-3). Have you ever seen lightning up close? Have you ever seen it sit? Have you ever seen it dressed? Under the circumstances, “the guards grew paralyzed with fear of [the angel] and fell down like dead men” (Mt 28:4). When the soldiers came to, some of them “went into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened” (Mt 28:11). Then they took a large bribe
and promised to lie about Jesus’ Resurrection (Mt 28:12ff). How can a person go through the most astounding supernatural experiences and not turn to God? The Lord warned us that if we “do not listen to Moses and the prophets, [we] will not be convinced even if one should rise from the dead” (Lk 16:31). The human person is so narcissistic and absorbed with self that we tend to deny reality. We can think everything is made for us alone and the world is merely a self-projection
of our desires. Even the reality of the risen Christ does not free us from our egotistic flight from reality. However, when the risen Christ interprets for us the Scriptures (Lk 24:27) and opens our minds to understand His Word (Lk 24:45), our hearts begin to burn (Lk 24:32). With the breaking of the bread, our eyes are opened (Lk 24:31). With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we are miraculously freed from the spell of self and enter into reality — life in the risen
Christ. Prayer: Father, raise me from the death of self and sin. Promise: “God freed Him from death’s bitter pangs, however, and raised Him up again, for it was impossible that death should keep its hold on Him.” —Acts 2:24 Presentation Ministries
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Spiritual Reading
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Dilexi Te: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, by Pope Francis (completed by Pope Leo XIII), 2025.
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/20241024-enciclica-dilexit-nos.html
CHAPTER THREE
THIS IS THE HEART THAT HAS LOVED SO GREATLY
48. Devotion to the heart of Christ is not the veneration of a single organ apart from the Person of Jesus. What we contemplate and adore is the whole Jesus Christ, the Son
of God made man, represented by an image that accentuates his heart. That heart of flesh is seen as the privileged sign of the inmost being of the incarnate Son and his love, both divine and human. More than any other part of his body, the heart of Jesus is “the natural sign and symbol of his boundless love”. [28]
A Love That is Tangible
59. On the other hand, love and the human heart do not always go together, since hatred, indifference and
selfishness can also reign in our hearts. Yet we cannot attain our fulfilment as human beings unless we open our hearts to others; only through love do we become fully ourselves. The deepest part of us, created for love, will fulfil God’s plan only if we learn to love. And the heart is the symbol of that love.
60. The eternal Son of God, in his utter transcendence, chose to love each of us with a human heart. His human emotions became the sacrament of that infinite and endless
love. His heart, then, is not merely a symbol for some disembodied spiritual truth. In gazing upon the Lord’s heart, we contemplate a physical reality, his human flesh, which enables him to possess genuine human emotions and feelings, like ourselves, albeit fully transformed by his divine love. Our devotion must ascend to the infinite love of the Person of the Son of God, yet we need to keep in mind that his divine love is inseparable from his human love. The image of his heart of flesh helps us
to do precisely this. |
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