Easter Sunday Year A 2023

Title

Reorient Your Lives

Outline

It seems a bit superfluous to talk about Easter to believers

Some, perhaps, were poorly catechized, but that is not the case with you, who indeed could teach others.

But we are constantly bombarded with messages from the world around us telling us what to fear, what to seek, how we should be oriented. And given that you have an apostolate, this is particularly true.

For instance, the Christian witness to life should be in its method, means, attitude, and orientation different from secular and, yes, Protestant advocates - but is it?

So let us remind ourselves

We are conditioned by the great hinge of history

The great hinge of history was not the development of Western Civilization, nor the Greco-Roman empire, and certainly not the foundation of the USA, but the life, death, and especially the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

This is that to which the prophets pointed and therefore this is that to which God was directing history.

All else is oriented around this fact. And that Peter addresses this to Gentiles points to all nations and peoples being oriented to and conditioned by this center of history

Furthermore, this was an event in real history

When one reads John’s gospel, one is impressed by the fact.

Mary of Magdala, Peter, and the Disciple whom Jesus loved, who chooses to stay anonymous, do not expect a resurrection. Even an opened tomb lacking a body does not suggest a resurrection to them. Only the fact that the body was not in the graveclothes (discernable with the face cloth removed) and yet they were still there and the facecloth neatly placed separately - like a man making his bed - shattered all theories of body removal and meant that the body had passed through the graveclothes, and then made his bed.

This honesty without any whitewashing of major players in the later Church points to a historical reality as solid as the claim that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Finally, that is the basis for our whole orientation

“If then 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.”

We were joined to Christ in his death and resurrection through baptism and are therefore raised with Christ. Thus every thought should be conditioned by Christ where he is above. We are dead to the major concerns and values of this world, but very much alive to God. The world will see the real you only when it sees you in transformed state alongside the real resurrected Christ.

This has practical implications

A former student in the Ukraine asked me for funds to start a small egg business to support him, his family, and his aged mother, for he has always worked to support himself, drawing no support from the community he pastors. So I ask Christ how he sees the situation and it is clear that feeding the hungry and caring for the poor, especially when they labor with their hands like Paul to care for the people of God is Jesus’ value. I do not need to ask if Russia or Ukraine is at fault. I do not need to ask if it is effective - was Paul’s leatherwork effective? I do not know. I ask how it looks from “above.”

Now that is a simple example, but all of our decisions should be made the same way. We may act the same way someone else would without being oriented by Jesus, but our motivation should be totally different.

Christ’s resurrection changed everything and it change your and my future - our goal is not to earn teacher of the year or grow the biggest church or win a Nobel prize or anything else other than to be alive to God and be reoriented so that we fit alongside Christ when he return.

I trust you can think of ways in which it changes everything for you. And that we will all be more reoriented next year than we are this year, for Christ is risen.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 4-9-2023: Easter Sunday

FIRST READING

Acts 10:34a, 37–43

34 Then Peter proceeded to speak and said, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.

37 what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, 38 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. 39 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. 40 This man God raised [on] the third day and granted that he be visible, 41 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. 42 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. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Catholic Daily Readings 4-9-2023: Easter Sunday

RESPONSE

Psalm 118:24

24 This is the day the LORD has made;

let us rejoice in it and be glad.

PSALM

Psalm 118:1–2, 16–17, 22–23

1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

his mercy endures forever.

2 Let Israel say:

his mercy endures forever.

16 the LORD’s right hand is raised;

the LORD’s right hand works valiantly.”

17 I shall not die but live

and declare the deeds of the LORD.

22 The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

23 By the LORD has this been done;

it is wonderful in our eyes.

Catholic Daily Readings 4-9-2023: Easter Sunday

SECOND READING

Option A

Colossians 3:1–4

CHAPTER 3

1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

Catholic Daily Readings 4-9-2023: Easter Sunday

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

1 Corinthians 5:7b–8a

7 Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

GOSPEL

Option A

John 20:1–9

1 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. 2 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.” 3 So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. 4 They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; 5 he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. 6 When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, 7 and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. 8 Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. 9  For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 4-9-2023: Easter Sunday

SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 2023 | EASTER

EASTER SUNDAY

YEAR A | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

First Reading Acts 10:34a, 37–43

Response Psalm 118:24

Psalm Psalm 118:1–2, 16–17, 22–23

Second Reading Colossians 3:1–4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6b–8

Gospel Acclamation 1 Corinthians 5:7b–8a

Gospel John 20:1–9 or Matthew 28:1–10 or Luke 24:13–35