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."
Psalms 118(117) 1-2.16ab-17.22-23. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the house of Israel say, "His mercy endures forever."
"The right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD has struck with power." I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes.
Letter to the Colossians 3,1-4.
Brothers and sisters: If 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.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 20,1-9.
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.
The women thought they would find a body to anoint; instead they found an empty tomb. They went to mourn the dead; instead they heard a proclamation of life. For this reason, the Gospel tells us, the women “were seized with trembling and amazement” (Mk 16:8); they were filled with trembling, fear and amazement. Amazement. A fear mingled with joy that took their hearts by surprise when they saw the great stone before the tomb rolled away and inside a young man in a white robe. Wonder at hearing the words: “Do not be afraid! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen” (v. 6). And a message: “He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him” (v. 7). May we too accept this message, the message of Easter. Let us go to Galilee, where the Risen Lord has gone ahead of us. Yet what does it mean “to go to Galilee”?
To go to Galilee means, first, to begin anew. For the disciples it meant going back to the place where the Lord first sought them out and called them to follow him. The place of their first encounter and the place of their first love. From that moment on, leaving their nets behind, they followed Jesus, listening to his preaching and witnessing the miracles he performed. Yet, though they were always with him, they did not fully understand him. Frequently they misunderstood his words and in the face of the cross they abandoned him and fled. Even so, the Risen Lord once more appears as the one who goes ahead of them to Galilee. He precedes them. He stands before them and constantly calls them to follow him. He says to them: “Let us start over from where we began. Let us begin anew. I want you to be with me again, in spite of everything”. In this Galilee, we learn to be amazed by the Lord’s infinite love, which opens new trails along the path of our defeats.This is how the Lord is: he creates new paths on the road of our defeats. This is how he is; and he invites us to Galilee to do this.
This is the first Easter message that I would offer you: it is always possible to begin anew, because there is always a new life that God can awaken in us in spite of all our failures. From the rubble of our hearts – and each one of us knows the rubble of our hearts – God can create a work of art; from the ruined remnants of our humanity, God can prepare a new history. He never ceases to go ahead of us: in the cross of suffering, desolation and death, and in the glory of a life that rises again, a history that changes, a hope that is reborn. In these dark months of the pandemic, let us listen to the Risen Lord as he invites us to begin anew and never lose hope.
Going to Galilee also means setting out on new paths. It means walking away from the tomb. The women were looking for Jesus in the tomb; they went to recall what they had experienced with him, which was now gone forever. They went to indulge in their grief. There is a kind of faith that can become the memory of something once beautiful, now simply to be recalled. Many people – including us – experience such a “faith of memories”, as if Jesus were someone from the past, an old friend from their youth who is now far distant, an event that took place long ago, when they attended catechism as a child. A faith made up of habits, things from the past, lovely childhood memories, but no longer a faith that moves me, or challenges me. Going to Galilee, on the other hand, means realizing that faith, if it is to be alive, must get back on the road. It must daily renew the first steps of the journey, the amazement of the first encounter. And it must continue to trust, not thinking it already knows everything, but embracing the humility of those who let themselves be surprised by God’s ways. We are usually afraid of God’s surprises; we are always worried that God will surprise us. And today the Lord invites us to let ourselves be surprised. Let us go to Galilee, then, to discover that God cannot be filed away among our childhood memories, but is alive and filled with surprises. Risen from the dead, Jesus never ceases to amaze us.
-->This, then, is the second message of Easter: faith is not an album of past memories; Jesus is not outdated. He is alive here and now. He walks beside you each day, in every situation you are experiencing, in every trial you have to endure, in your deepest hopes and dreams. He opens new doors when you least expect it, he urges you not to indulge in nostalgia for the past or cynicism about the present. Even if you feel that all is lost, please, let yourself be open to amazement at the newness Jesus brings: he will surely surprise you. Going to Galilee also means going to the peripheries. Galilee was an outpost: the people living in that diverse and disparate region were those farthest from the ritual purity of Jerusalem. Yet that is where Jesus began his mission. There he brought his message to those struggling to live from day to day, the excluded, the vulnerable and the poor. There he brought the face and presence of God, who tirelessly seeks out those who are discouraged or lost, who goes to the very peripheries of existence, since in his eyes no one is least, no one is excluded. The Risen Lord is asking his disciples to go there even now: he asks us to go to Galilee, to the real “Galilee” of daily life, the streets we travel every day, the corners of our cities. There the Lord goes ahead of us and makes himself present in the lives of those around us, those who share in our day, our home, our work, our difficulties and hopes. In Galilee we learn that we can find the Risen One in the faces of our brothers and sisters, in the enthusiasm of those who dream and the resignation of those who are discouraged, in the smiles of those who rejoice and the tears of those who suffer, and above all in the poor and those on the fringes. We will be amazed how the greatness of God is revealed in littleness, how his beauty shines forth in the poor and simple. And this is the third message of Easter: Jesus, the Risen Lord, loves us without limits and is there at every moment of our lives. Having made himself present in the heart of our world, he invites us to overcome barriers, banish prejudices and draw near to those around us every day in order to rediscover the grace of everyday life. Let us recognize him here in our Galilees, in everyday life. With him, life will change. For beyond all defeats, evil and violence, beyond all suffering and death, the Risen One lives and guides history.
Dear sister, dear brother: if on this night you are experiencing an hour of darkness, a day that has not yet dawned, a light dimmed or a dream shattered, go, open your heart with amazement to the message of Easter: “Do not be afraid, he has risen! He awaits you in Galilee”. Your expectations will not remain unfulfilled, your tears will be dried, your fears will be replaced by hope. For the Lord always goes ahead of you, he always walks before you. And, with him, life always begins anew.
FAUSTI - The Evangelist, recalling together the first and last day, alludes to the fact that we entered the day of the Lord, the fulfilment of everything in God and of God in everything. God, creating the world, had in sight the Resurrection of His Son, in which the whole universe is redeemed from death. Before the burial there was talk of the preparation of "that Sabbath, which was a solemn day", that is Easter This first day after Saturday is the eighth day: it is "Sunday". on the day of the Lord, when Saturday, Easter and Pentecost are celebrated together. In it lives the new creation, redeemed from evil and full of the Spirit. The other Gospels also remember the other women. John only mentions Mary Magdalene, making her the typical disciple. In fact, she was at the foot of the cross, under the tree where the Bridegroom woke her up. Now, after seeing him elevated, he looks for him where they have placed him. Mary expects to find the Body of Jesus there. The tomb, the fundamental memory of man, is built by the affection of those who live, for those who have died. Mary cannot understand. She runs to announce the disappearance of Jesus. Think that they have stolen Him. She has not yet understood that love overcomes death. "She comes to Simon Peter and the other disciple. Peter, who has denied, is appointed first. He is placed as the first of the disciples because he has experienced what does us disciples.. The Lord's faithfulness to our infidelity. The "other disciple" is not simply the other between two, but the other, the different. In fact, he placed his head in the womb and on the chest of Jesus, who then saw pierced. Normally he is called "the disciple whom Jesus loved". Now that he has seen Him on the cross, he is called a friend. Peter and the other run together. But this is faster... He first arrives at the tomb, as he first comes to believe and see the Risen One. In fact, the heart puts wings at the feet and at the mind. The friend, who loves as he is loved, precedes the one who is first of the disciples: the primacy is always of love The friendly disciple does not enter; he waits for Peter, as a sign of esteem for him. But he looks inside and sees the linens lying down. The linens, which enveloped the Body of Jesus, are spread out: the tomb has become the wedding bed, prepared by the Bridegroom for anyone who enters it. And all of us, sooner or later we enter. There, however, we do not encounter the dominion of death, but full Communion with the Lord of life. Death is no longer death: our absolute limit is Communion with Him who is absolute Love for us. Peter comes to the tomb following the other disciple, who had already preceded him in the house of Caiaphas. Following those who love, we are introduced into the mystery of Jesus, into His passion for us. Peter enters and sees what the other has also seen, standing outside. They also see the linen lying down and the shroud apart, wrapped in a place. The shroud is the veil of death, the blanket that covers all peoples. (Is 25:7). It was on His head, like the hem of a mantle of one who is sleeping Now that he has woken up, he has taken it off. It is not, however, with the linen lying down, but put apart, wrapped in a specific place. God is no longer there. The Glory dwells in the Body of Jesus, the new sanctuary, where God removes every veil from His and our Face. In him we see "I am" face to face. One obvious thing is not said in the text. The reader certainly feels it, as do the two disciples: from those linens emanates the scent of the hundred pounds of myrrh and aloe, mentioned shortly before in the story.
-->Seeing this, the beloved disciple believes in Jesus, Lord of life, even without having seen him. He is the prototype of those who, after him, will believe in Jesus without seeing him. through the signs told by the evangelist himself. This "other" disciple sees with the heart. Love is the principle of faith, which gives life. The connection between seeing and believing means that faith, far from being blind, is a good eye for reality.
Easter Sunday: The Resurrection of the Lord
RispondiEliminaActs of the Apostles
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."
Psalms 118(117)
1-2.16ab-17.22-23.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
"The right hand of the LORD is exalted;
the right hand of the LORD has struck with power."
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
Letter to the Colossians 3,1-4.
Brothers and sisters: If 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.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint John 20,1-9.
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.
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaSt Peter's Basilica
Holy Saturday, 3 April 2021
The women thought they would find a body to anoint; instead they found an empty tomb. They went to mourn the dead; instead they heard a proclamation of life. For this reason, the Gospel tells us, the women “were seized with trembling and amazement” (Mk 16:8); they were filled with trembling, fear and amazement. Amazement. A fear mingled with joy that took their hearts by surprise when they saw the great stone before the tomb rolled away and inside a young man in a white robe. Wonder at hearing the words: “Do not be afraid! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen” (v. 6). And a message: “He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him” (v. 7). May we too accept this message, the message of Easter. Let us go to Galilee, where the Risen Lord has gone ahead of us. Yet what does it mean “to go to Galilee”?
To go to Galilee means, first, to begin anew. For the disciples it meant going back to the place where the Lord first sought them out and called them to follow him. The place of their first encounter and the place of their first love. From that moment on, leaving their nets behind, they followed Jesus, listening to his preaching and witnessing the miracles he performed. Yet, though they were always with him, they did not fully understand him. Frequently they misunderstood his words and in the face of the cross they abandoned him and fled. Even so, the Risen Lord once more appears as the one who goes ahead of them to Galilee. He precedes them. He stands before them and constantly calls them to follow him. He says to them: “Let us start over from where we began. Let us begin anew. I want you to be with me again, in spite of everything”. In this Galilee, we learn to be amazed by the Lord’s infinite love, which opens new trails along the path of our defeats.This is how the Lord is: he creates new paths on the road of our defeats. This is how he is; and he invites us to Galilee to do this.
This is the first Easter message that I would offer you: it is always possible to begin anew, because there is always a new life that God can awaken in us in spite of all our failures. From the rubble of our hearts – and each one of us knows the rubble of our hearts – God can create a work of art; from the ruined remnants of our humanity, God can prepare a new history. He never ceases to go ahead of us: in the cross of suffering, desolation and death, and in the glory of a life that rises again, a history that changes, a hope that is reborn. In these dark months of the pandemic, let us listen to the Risen Lord as he invites us to begin anew and never lose hope.
EliminaGoing to Galilee also means setting out on new paths. It means walking away from the tomb. The women were looking for Jesus in the tomb; they went to recall what they had experienced with him, which was now gone forever. They went to indulge in their grief. There is a kind of faith that can become the memory of something once beautiful, now simply to be recalled. Many people – including us – experience such a “faith of memories”, as if Jesus were someone from the past, an old friend from their youth who is now far distant, an event that took place long ago, when they attended catechism as a child. A faith made up of habits, things from the past, lovely childhood memories, but no longer a faith that moves me, or challenges me. Going to Galilee, on the other hand, means realizing that faith, if it is to be alive, must get back on the road. It must daily renew the first steps of the journey, the amazement of the first encounter. And it must continue to trust, not thinking it already knows everything, but embracing the humility of those who let themselves be surprised by God’s ways. We are usually afraid of God’s surprises; we are always worried that God will surprise us. And today the Lord invites us to let ourselves be surprised. Let us go to Galilee, then, to discover that God cannot be filed away among our childhood memories, but is alive and filled with surprises. Risen from the dead, Jesus never ceases to amaze us.
-->This, then, is the second message of Easter: faith is not an album of past memories; Jesus is not outdated. He is alive here and now. He walks beside you each day, in every situation you are experiencing, in every trial you have to endure, in your deepest hopes and dreams. He opens new doors when you least expect it, he urges you not to indulge in nostalgia for the past or cynicism about the present. Even if you feel that all is lost, please, let yourself be open to amazement at the newness Jesus brings: he will surely surprise you.
EliminaGoing to Galilee also means going to the peripheries. Galilee was an outpost: the people living in that diverse and disparate region were those farthest from the ritual purity of Jerusalem. Yet that is where Jesus began his mission. There he brought his message to those struggling to live from day to day, the excluded, the vulnerable and the poor. There he brought the face and presence of God, who tirelessly seeks out those who are discouraged or lost, who goes to the very peripheries of existence, since in his eyes no one is least, no one is excluded. The Risen Lord is asking his disciples to go there even now: he asks us to go to Galilee, to the real “Galilee” of daily life, the streets we travel every day, the corners of our cities. There the Lord goes ahead of us and makes himself present in the lives of those around us, those who share in our day, our home, our work, our difficulties and hopes. In Galilee we learn that we can find the Risen One in the faces of our brothers and sisters, in the enthusiasm of those who dream and the resignation of those who are discouraged, in the smiles of those who rejoice and the tears of those who suffer, and above all in the poor and those on the fringes. We will be amazed how the greatness of God is revealed in littleness, how his beauty shines forth in the poor and simple.
And this is the third message of Easter: Jesus, the Risen Lord, loves us without limits and is there at every moment of our lives. Having made himself present in the heart of our world, he invites us to overcome barriers, banish prejudices and draw near to those around us every day in order to rediscover the grace of everyday life. Let us recognize him here in our Galilees, in everyday life. With him, life will change. For beyond all defeats, evil and violence, beyond all suffering and death, the Risen One lives and guides history.
Dear sister, dear brother: if on this night you are experiencing an hour of darkness, a day that has not yet dawned, a light dimmed or a dream shattered, go, open your heart with amazement to the message of Easter: “Do not be afraid, he has risen! He awaits you in Galilee”. Your expectations will not remain unfulfilled, your tears will be dried, your fears will be replaced by hope. For the Lord always goes ahead of you, he always walks before you. And, with him, life always begins anew.
FAUSTI - The Evangelist, recalling together the first and last day, alludes to the fact that we entered the day of the Lord, the fulfilment of everything in God and of God in everything. God, creating the world,
RispondiEliminahad in sight the Resurrection of His Son, in which the whole universe is redeemed from death.
Before the burial there was talk of the preparation of "that Sabbath, which was a solemn day", that is Easter
This first day after Saturday is the eighth day: it is "Sunday". on the day of the Lord, when Saturday, Easter and Pentecost are celebrated together.
In it lives the new creation, redeemed from evil and full of the Spirit.
The other Gospels also remember the other women. John only mentions Mary Magdalene, making her the typical disciple. In fact, she was at the foot of the cross, under the tree where the Bridegroom woke her up. Now, after seeing him elevated, he looks for him where they have placed him.
Mary expects to find the Body of Jesus there. The tomb, the fundamental memory of man, is built by the affection of those who live, for those who have died.
Mary cannot understand.
She runs to announce the disappearance of Jesus.
Think that they have stolen Him.
She has not yet understood that love overcomes death.
"She comes to Simon Peter and the other disciple.
Peter, who has denied, is appointed first. He is placed as the first of the disciples because he has experienced what does us disciples.. The Lord's faithfulness to our infidelity.
The "other disciple" is not simply the other between two, but the other, the different.
In fact, he placed his head in the womb and on the chest of Jesus, who then saw pierced.
Normally he is called "the disciple whom Jesus loved". Now that he has seen Him on the cross, he is called a friend.
Peter and the other run together. But this is faster... He first arrives at the tomb, as he first comes to believe and see the Risen One. In fact, the heart puts wings at the feet and at the mind. The friend, who loves as he is loved, precedes the one who is first of the disciples: the primacy is always of love
The friendly disciple does not enter; he waits for Peter, as a sign of esteem for him.
But he looks inside and sees the linens lying down. The linens, which enveloped the Body of Jesus, are spread out: the tomb has become the wedding bed, prepared by the Bridegroom for anyone who enters it.
And all of us, sooner or later we enter. There, however, we do not encounter the dominion of death, but full Communion with the Lord of life.
Death is no longer death: our absolute limit is Communion with Him who is absolute Love for us.
Peter comes to the tomb following the other disciple, who had already preceded him in the house of Caiaphas.
Following those who love, we are introduced into the mystery of Jesus, into His passion for us.
Peter enters and sees what the other has also seen, standing outside.
They also see the linen lying down and the shroud apart, wrapped in a place.
The shroud is the veil of death, the blanket that covers all peoples. (Is 25:7).
It was on His head, like the hem of a mantle of one who is sleeping
Now that he has woken up, he has taken it off.
It is not, however, with the linen lying down, but put apart, wrapped in a specific place.
God is no longer there.
The Glory dwells in the Body of Jesus, the new sanctuary, where God removes every veil from His and our Face.
In him we see "I am" face to face.
One obvious thing is not said in the text. The reader certainly feels it, as do the two disciples:
from those linens emanates the scent of the hundred pounds of myrrh and aloe, mentioned shortly before in the story.
-->Seeing this, the beloved disciple believes in Jesus, Lord of life, even without having seen him. He is the prototype of those who, after him, will believe in Jesus without seeing him. through the signs told by the evangelist himself.
EliminaThis "other" disciple sees with the heart.
Love is the principle of faith, which gives life.
The connection between seeing and believing means that faith, far from being blind,
is a good eye for reality.