Monday in the Octave of Easter
Acts 2:14,22-33  +  Matthew 28:8-15
April 5, 2021

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed ….

During most of the liturgical year, the First Reading at Holy Mass comes from the Old Testament.  But Easter is different.  During Easter, we hear first from Acts of the Apostles.  Why is this?  There are plenty of apostolic letters that could be proclaimed:  Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, 1 John, Jude, and so on.  These New Testament epistles preach about the Resurrection.  So why do we hear, each and every day of the Easter Season, from Acts of the Apostles?

The answer is that what the apostles were about throughout Acts is what God is calling us to throughout Easter.  In a phrase, this answer is:  forming the Church and living out her mission.

The Church was conceived, so to speak, from the water and blood that poured forth from the side of Jesus crucified.  But the Church was born some fifty days later, on the feast of Pentecost.  The story of Acts is the first history of the Church:  going forth, out into the world, to proclaim in word and action the saving mystery of Jesus, crucified and Risen.  This Church has lived on earth for some 2000 years, and each of us is called to share in her life and saving mission.

Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord
Acts 10:34,37-43  +  Colossians 3:1-4  +  John 20:1-9
April 4, 2021

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.

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click HERE to read Monsignor Charles Pope’s Easter homily

click HERE to watch Bishop Michael Burbidge’s homily for Easter (6:47)

click HERE to watch Archbishop Alexander Sample’s homily for Easter (12:36)

click HERE to watch Archbishop Charles Chaput’s homily for Easter (17:05)

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click HERE to read the 2019 homily of Pope Francis for Easter

click HERE to read the 2012 homily of Pope Benedict XVI for Easter

click HERE to read the 2000 homily of Pope St. John Paul II for Easter

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references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church cited for this Sunday by the Vatican’s Homiletic Directory:

CCC 638-655, 989, 1001-1002: the Resurrection of Christ and our resurrection
CCC 647, 1167-1170, 1243, 1287: Easter, the Lord’s Day
CCC 1212: the Sacraments of Initiation
CCC 1214-1222, 1226-1228, 1234-1245, 1254: Baptism
CCC 1286-1289: Confirmation
CCC 1322-1323: Eucharist

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Easter is not just the single day of Easter Sunday, but a season of seven weeks plus one more day.  The Church celebrates Easter for fifty days so as to be able to ponder thoroughly the mysteries of this holiest season of the Church’s year.  There are three mysteries of our Faith that the Church celebrates throughout the Easter Season.  They are the first three Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary.  We need to see how all three of these are part of a single plan.

The First Glorious Mystery is the proper focus of today:  the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  This mystery is presented by today’s Gospel Reading, where the young apostle John serves as a model of how to ponder.

St. John, who served God as both apostle and evangelist, accomplished all he did because he was the Beloved Disciple.  As an apostle and an evangelist, he was like a zealous Martha.  But before he acted zealously, he was a faithful Mary.  The Beloved Disciple at the Last Supper took the stance that Mary did at the meal in her home, sitting and listening at the feet of the Word made Flesh.

In many churches, we see above the high altar the youngest of the apostles—St. John—at one side of the Cross, and our Blessed Mother on the other.  This is the scene of the Crucifixion that the Church celebrated just days ago.

But on the third day, John ran with Peter to the tomb.  Along with Saint Peter and the beloved disciple, Saint John, we also see the wrappings lying on the ground.  John saw and believed.  With no sign of Jesus and without a word from Jesus, John saw and believed simply because the tomb was empty.  It is ironic that on the greatest feast of the Christian year, Christ doesn’t even appear in the Gospel passage, nor speak a word.  We see only His empty tomb, and hear only silence.

Following His Resurrection on Easter Sunday, Jesus appears several times in His glorified body.  Yet He remained on this earth only for forty days proclaiming the Resurrection in this glorified body.  He remained only forty days because He had in store a different means of proclaiming the Resurrection, by means of a different body:  the Mystical Body of Christ.  What Jesus did in a glorified body for forty days, He would do until the end of time in His Mystical Body.

The Second Glorious Mystery is the Ascension.  The Ascension is the bittersweet transition between two means of Jesus revealing His love for fallen man.  The first means was the physical body that He received from the Blessed Virgin Mary—through the power of the Holy Spirit—at the Annunciation.  The second means was, is, and will be “unto the end of the age” the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.  All of the Joyful, Luminous, and Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, as well as the first two Glorious Mysteries, make possible the event of Pentecost:  the “birth” of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.  All of those earlier mysteries are preludes or prologues to the event of Pentecost.  Even the Resurrection that took place on Easter Sunday morning.

The Third Glorious Mystery is the “birth” of the Church at Pentecost.  This is what Jesus died for.  This is what Jesus rose for.  Jesus’ resurrection in a glorified body foreshadows what the Church becomes on the day of Pentecost.

Jesus bears new life when He rises from the dead.  Yet He wants His new life to ours.  The Church—the Mystical Body of Christ—is the means by which we share in the life of the Risen Jesus.  The Church makes it possible for Easter to be not a mere historical event, but an ever-present reality:  in fact, the source of strength and grace each day that we live on this earth.

St. John teaches us to pray during these fifty days of Easter for a great gift.  God has a gift ready for us, the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  That is why we hear every day of Easter from the Acts of the Apostles:  the book that describes the Church at work through the Power of the Holy Spirit.  The descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the culminating mystery of Easter.  We don’t simply celebrate it on the last day of Easter as an afterthought:  it is the mystery that Jesus leads us towards through His Resurrection.

Holy Saturday
April 3, 2021

… suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell ….

How ought Christians spend Holy Saturday morning and afternoon?  Is this time simply an extension of the tenor and tone of Good Friday?  What happened to Jesus during the time between His Death and Resurrection?

Although Jesus was not subject to death as every sinner is, Jesus submitted to death.  His sacred Body did not undergo corruption or decay during this time.  However, Jesus was “divided”, so to speak, during the time between His Death and Resurrection.

When a sinner such as you or I dies, the sinner’s body and soul are separated.  The body decays, while the soul heads off towards its eternal reward or punishment.  The souls of those headed for Heaven may have to wayfare through Purgatory.  Yet regardless of where the soul heads after death, it will not be reunited with its body until the end of time.  However, after Jesus’ death, something very different happened.

The Nicene Creed, which the Church usually professes at Sunday Mass, does not mention what Jesus did between His burial and His Resurrection.  But the Apostles’ Creed does affirm that “he descended into hell” (Latin: “infernos”; Hebrew: “Sheol”; Greek: “Hades”).  This is not the place where the damned face eternal punishment.  Instead, the Catechism refers to it simply as “the abode of the dead” [CCC 633].

Even morally good persons who died before Christ’s saving Death were destined for this “abode of the dead”.  Due to the merit of sin, both Original Sin and actual sin, even those who were just in terms of their human moral actions could not enter Heaven.  Only by the grace and merit of Christ’s Passion and Death could anyone enter into the presence of the Trinity in Heaven.

So when Jesus descended into the abode of the dead, He revealed Himself—bearing the wounds of His Passion and Death—to the just.  Those who wished were able to follow Jesus out of that abode and into Heaven.  This saving work that Jesus carried out is traditionally called “the harrowing of Hell”.  This saving work that Jesus performed even as His sacred Body lay in death reminds us of the depth and extent of God’s love.  At the same time, this work is a call to Jesus’ disciples to bear in daily life a love for others that is as deep and extensive.