Easter Sunday (Cycle C, Year I)

Community Word:Christ’s sacrificial love leads us to eternal life.

Theme: We live Christ’s sacrificial love when we believe in the power of His resurrection.

Promise: When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” (Col 3:4)

Reflection:
The First Reading – Acts of the Apostles, is crucial to our reflection of Easter Sunday. It is an account of events after Jesus’ ascension to heaven and the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the apostles. Peter relates how he along with the other apostles were witnesses to the many miraculous events and how they were commissioned to preach to the people and testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God.

As disciples, that commissioning has been extended to us. We too are to testify to Christ’s work, death and resurrection. We too need to help reconcile the world to God. Pope Francis reminds us that the Church’s mission is to the poor, not only by ministering temporally to them through corporal works of mercy, but by evangelizing the poor in spirit as well. This means we need to be witnesses. But what does it mean to be a witness? A witness is one who was present when the event in question happened and who heard what was said. How can we be witnesses to an event todayin which we were not physically present? To be authentic witnesses to Christ today, we must have personally undergone our own resurrection experience – our own “passion, death and resurrection” and to testify how our lives have been renewed in our own transformation.

Our personal resurrection may not be a one-time, big conversion event. Most of us experience a series of ups and downs, peaks and valleys of conversion. Our conversion may be a process rather than a single event.

How do we know if Christ is winning the battle in us? If we no longer hate as much, envy as much; if we get into less disagreements as we did the day before; if we dismiss lustful or unfaithful thoughts faster than we did yesterday; if we are more patient, kinder, humbler, more forgiving, more trusting; if we can honestly say that we have made continuous improvement in our behavior; if we can truly say that we are making progress in our spiritual life, praying more, listening more, obeying more, and studying God’s word more ardently… then we are becoming more fruitful. Our resurrection experience is in progress and we are empowered to do better.

Yet, there may things that might hinder us from experiencing our own resurrection from old life to a renewed and fruitful life, especially for us who are members of community. For example, as long-time members, do we have the tendency to be a know-it-all person? If we are shepherds in the LSS, do we fail to bring our bibles and shepherd using God’s word, or just talk about our own transformation experiences?When we teach, do we teach using the Holy Scripture as basis? When we testify or share, do we glorify ourselves and not God’s victory in us? When we hold positions of authority, do we ascribe that authority to God or has power gone to our heads? Do we give more importance to being right and legalistic than being kind in dealing with rules?

Let us remember that by Christ’s resurrection, Jesus has shown us that life is not just about struggles and confusion, and that we can find answers to troubling questions and act accordingly because Jesus has conquered sin and death. Human suffering offered in faith and love becomes the means by which we receive a new and glorified life. For this reason we can stand firm on this week’s promise: “When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory,” (Col 3:4).

Prayer:
Almighty Father, without the resurrection of your Son, our faith would be empty and hopeless. But Jesus is alive and we rejoice in knowing that in Him anything that separates, injures and destroys has been overcome by that which unites and heals. We rejoice in you, our Risen Christ. Amen.

Reflection Guide Questions:
1.What “old things” in your life have not yet been renewed by our Risen Christ?

2.How can the truth of the Risen Christ nourish our daily life?

This Week’s Daily Mass Reading Guide:
April 21, 2019 (Sun)-Acts 10:34, 37-43/Ps 118:1, 2, 16, 17, 22, 23/Col 3:1-4/Jn 20:1-9
April 22, 2019 (Mon)-Acts 2:14,22-33/Ps 16:1, 2, 7-11/Mt 28:8-15
April 23, 2019 (Tue)-Acts 2:36-41/Ps 33:4, 5, 18,-20, 22/Jn 20:11-18
April 24, 2019 (Wed)-Acts 3:1-10/Ps 105:1-4, 6-9/Lk 24:13-35
April 25, 2019 (Thu)-Acts 3:11-26/Ps 8:2, 5, 6-9/Lk 24:35-48
April 26,2019 (Fri)-Acts 4:1-12/Ps 118:1, 2, 4, 22-25, 27/Jn 21:1-14
April 27, 2019 (Sat) – Acts 4:13-21/Ps 118:14-21/Mk 16:9-15

“Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ. Read your Bible daily!”