She turned round and saw Jesus standing,
but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?"
Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him,
"Sir, if you have carried him away,
tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her,
"Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father."
Gospel of John 20:14-17
The Church in her liturgy celebrates the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of Man, on Easter Sunday, the culmination of Holy Week and the Lenten Season. All four Gospels date the Resurrection to the "first day of the week," but Matthew (28:1) and Mark (16:1) specifically add that it was after the "Sabbath was over." The Paschal Mystery of Christ, his Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Glorious Ascension, constitute one action for the salvation of mankind, for Jesus "was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification" (Romans 4:25).
Jesus opened the door to eternal life: "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:3-4).
St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica reasoned it was necessary for Christ to rise again, one reason being "for the raising of our hope, since through seeing Christ, who is our head, rise again, we hope that we likewise shall rise again." He referred to Job 19:25-27 in Hebrew Scripture: "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!"
Thomas Aquinas further discussed Christ's new manner of existence, that he had a glorified body. St. Thomas reasoned that Christ rose with a true body, for, in order for it to be a true Resurrection, it was necessary for his same body to be united with his soul. And we read in Luke that he ate a piece of baked fish in front of his disciples during his appearance in Jerusalem (Luke 24:43)! But he had a glorified body from his Resurrection, as St Paul relates, "If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body" (I Corinthians 15:44).
Jesus Christ made multiple appearances to his disciples for forty days following his Resurrection. For example, Luke 24 contains four major scenes: the empty tomb, the journey on the road to Emmaus, the appearance to his disciples in Jerusalem, and the Ascension of Christ. After the women and Peter had discovered the empty tomb, Christ appeared to two forlorn disciples on the road to Emmaus. They did not recognize him until at dinner, "he was at table with them, took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them" (24:30). Reminiscent of the Last Supper and the feeding of the multitude (9:10-17), the disciples recognized Christ, and at this point he suddenly vanished.
Tannehill has observed the narrative unity of Luke's Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles, evident in Chapter One of Acts (1:3), where he continues to describe Christ after his Resurrection, that "he presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them for forty days and speaking about the Kingdom of God." After the risen Jesus promises he will send the Holy Spirit, Luke then recounts the Ascension of our Lord (1:9-11).
Pope Benedict, in his book Jesus of Nazareth - Holy Week, summarizes the Resurrection event by calling it "a historical event that nevertheless bursts open the dimensions of history and transcends it." The Sabbath, the seventh day of rest during the Creation, was celebrated as the day of worship for at least 2000 years. It must have been an improbable and miraculous event that so deeply moved the early Christians to produce the theological shift of the day of worship from the Sabbath to Sunday, the Lord's Day!
The Lord's Day was recognized as early as the writing of the Book of Revelation (1:10) and the Letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, an Apostolic Father who lived about 100 AD and served as the Bishop of Antioch. He reported on the Resurrection in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans (III, 1-3), and the celebration of the Lord's Day (rather than the Sabbath) in his Letter to the Magnesians (IX, 1).
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
How to Achieve Business Excellence »
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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