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16 apr 2017
16/04/2017 – Easter: Resurrection of the Lord

16/04/2017 –Easter: Resurrection of the Lord 

 1st Acts 10,34.37-43 * from Psalm 117 * 2nd reading Col 3,1-4 * Gospel John 20,1-9


“God raised him on the third day and wanted him to appear, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen by God, to us who ate and drank with him after his resurrection from the deads." These words of Peter are witness of his certainty in Lord’s resurrection. He himself for long hours did not believe it, even when told by the women. Now he is happy to be able to announce this in the house of a pagan centurion: has really struggled to get into that house, because his Jewish culture prevented him drastically. But now he realizes that in that house, God uses the same power He used to resurrect Jesus: he wants this to be alive in the hearts of men and women who hear His name for the first time. The resurrection of the Lord is in fact only a first start of the new creation, which will continue for centuries. In that house Peter witness the miracle, Jesus is welcomed and loved and praised by people who have never even heard of Moses! A new path to the kingdom of God, which will be spread in all directions until the borders of earth! Peter tells with joy, aware of being one of the few witnesses of an exceptional event: the risen Jesus ate before him and the other disciples. Jesus is truly risen!

We know the word “rise again” and we think we do understand it, even if we never deepen the meaning of it. When Jesus used this word, before he died, the disciples did not know the meaning of the word and did not even have the courage to ask it to their Master. We are not like them. We think that rise again means getting back to life, and we do not think to anyone if it is exactly so. No, it is not so, as the life of the risen it is not getting back to the same life, the life before death, but it is a new life, different. To rise again is mistery: it is the will and the work of divine love. The risen man enters in the same life God lives, an eternal life, made of love and peace. And salvation from all we live in this world.

Jesus has risen to attract us into his new life, which overcomes all hindrances caused by sin. Welcoming him in our faith we receive "the forgiveness of sins through his name." It is for this reason that St. Peter's has announced the risen Jesus to the Gentiles. And it is for this that even St. Paul insists in exhorting us to live the new life of Jesus: "If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is sitting to the right hand of God." He adds: "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." That means we can already experience the benefits of his new life, if and when, once abandoned inherited habits, we join our Lord in order to live with him.

The newness of life is preceded by the disturbance and then opened with joy. We see Mary Magdalene shocked at seeing the stone removed from the tomb, and this emptiness. And we see the strange silence of Peter and the other disciple, who quickly arrived, observed all whilst experiencing its own inability to understand. Mary then meets Jesus, and also the two disciples will see Him when he will appear to them: then he brings them the joy to the new life, the eternal, full, rich of new love without conditions.

Today we relive this mystery. The disturbance of Mary and the disciples is ours, of us, that continually we feel threatened by death. And ours is also their joy, because with the secure faith we entrust our lives to that Jesus who is now out of death, and all the fears that death raises in people's hearts. This is the joy that makes us sing the halleluiah of the angels. The hallelujah is the praise to the Lord, because it is no longer distant or unknown, since we have already entered into the fullness of his life. We have in facts already started to love together with Him. For this reason we praise Him: praising the Lord is precisely the meaning of the word "hallelujah". And praise the Lord is a sign that our life is not only the biological nor coveted by pride and worldly ambitions.

Will we be able to stand still at this beginning of a new life? We will be able to continue even tomorrow? We will ask God self for help, but also to the brothers, could they drag us daily in faithfulness to Jesus who died and rose for us. Alleluia!