The Resurrection
Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Lk 24:1-12 “The Resurrection of Jesus“
April 20, 2019 | Saturday
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.
Then they returned from the tomb
and announced all these things to the eleven
and to all the others.
The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James;
the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles,
but their story seemed like nonsense
and they did not believe them.
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb,
bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone;
then he went home amazed at what had happened.
Today’s Reflection
Saint Augustine was baptized on that fateful Easter vigil night by Saint Ambrose at the Cathedral of Milan in Italy. No wonder why Augustine produced volumes of beautifully written Easter vigil homilies as well as mystagogical ones for the whole Easter octave. The saintly Bishop of Hippo rightly called the Easter vigil as the “mother of all vigils”. In it, the whole Christian community gathers to wait for the Lord, to keep vigil for the Resurrection of the Lord and indeed for our own new life as well bestowed upon us all by the efficacious waters of Baptism. May our participation at this year’s Easter vigil be fruitful for our earthly pilgrimage until we meet the Risen One on that eternal eight day in Paradise!
