Easter Sunday
Reflection
If there is a word that captures the spirit of Easter and spans the ages, it may be “vision.”  Vision can have many meanings of course.  Sometimes we hear of people “having visions,” which is often associated with extraordinary—even extraterrestrial—phenomena.  Such things are quite contrary to the Easter vision.

Today Scripture witnesses to us a vision that is better defined by “sight,” and its corollaries of “understanding” and “believing.”  In the Gospel, first Mary of Magdala, then Peter, and then “the other disciple” go to the tomb to “see.”   Each one “saw.”  The word is repeated at least four times.  In the end, they also “understood” and “believed” what before was unclear to them.  Acts tells us God granted that the raised Jesus be made “visible” in His glory to the ones who had been His companions in life.

The gift of sight that Jesus gave to His disciples allows them—and us—to “understand” our world and the universe in a whole new way.  Sight and understanding become “insight” at a whole new level. 

St. Paul writes: “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.”  Often, in daily life (especially in an election year), we allow the hype about economic well-being and political expediency to govern our spiritual lives.  Here St. Paul is not “having visions.”  To the contrary, he is urging us to “see” deeply within, gain insight, into the reality of our/humankind’s true dignity as God's beloved children

 Prayer
Gracious God, grant us the grace to see ourselves as Your children and all people as our sisters and brothers.  Fill us with Your grace so as to “think of what is above” so that the risen Lord may be made manifest even in our own time and space. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus, our risen Lord.  Amen.

Fr. Marcel Rainville, S.S.E. ’67, Edmundite Campus Ministry

 

Scripture
First Reading: Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8
Gospel: John 20:1-9, Luke 24:1-12, or Luke 24:13-35
 Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website