These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. (Lk 24:13-35)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042022.cfm
The Lord still walks with us on the way and reveals himself to us in the words he speaks and in the breaking of the bread.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” (Mt 28:8-15)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041822.cfm
How important are the Myrrh-bearing women! They are the first ones to receive the good news and to have an encounter with the Risen Lord. Pope Francis, in his homily at the Easter Vigil Mass, spoke about the Myrrh-bearing women. He said that we should “allow the women of the Gospel to lead us by the hand” so that, “with them, we may glimpse the first rays of the dawn of God’s life rising in the darkness of our world.” The women, he said, are distinguished by three verbs: They saw, they heard, they proclaimed.
Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he had told her. (Jn 20:11-18)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041922.cfm
Mary Magdalene, unlike the Twelve (now the Eleven) who were hiding for fear, goes to the Tomb. It is there she receives the NEWS . . . and then runs to tell Peter and the Beloved Disciple, which is the gospel story for Easter Sunday. Peter and the Beloved Disciple leave, but Mary Magdalene stays at the Tomb and has the encounter first with the angel, and then with the Risen Lord. And the Lord gives her the apostolic mission to Go and Tell, which she does. And ever since, Mary Magdalene has been known as “the apostle to the apostles.”
Peter proceeded to speak and said: “We are witnesses of all that Jesus 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.” (Acts 10:34a, 37-43)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041722.cfm
Christ is risen, He is risen indeed. Alleluia, Alleluia!!! ¡FELICES PASCUAS!
At daybreak on the first day of the week the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them,“Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” And they remembered his words. (Lk 24:1-12)
https://bible.usccb.org/node/23157
O wonder of your humble care for us! O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son! O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!—Exultet (The Easter Proclamation) ¡FELICES PASCUAS!
