Easter! Anti-Catholics get riled about the word. They say it is derived from another pagan feast and is consistent with the paganism of Catholicism. They don't realize that it is a word used in the English language and that in a different country like Italy, the word used would be "Pascua", the Pasch. In the gospel reading for the morning mass of Easter Sunday, John narrates the discovery of the empty tomb (John 20:1-10) and the beginning of a shift from the Jewish sabbath to the Christian Sunday. Read the relevant article here and reflect on the following questions.
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1. Easter is the feast of the Lord's Resurrection. His victory over death opens the door for every man's access to the life denied them by Adam's sin. The tree of life is once more made available through the wood of Christ's cross. The Catechism has this to say:
The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren." We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection. (CCC, 654)
What is so exciting and joyful in this event?
2. The beloved disciple attained to faith in the Resurrection because of a love that is borne of discipleship: of heeding the words of Christ and by following Him to the cross. The catechism describes the scene involving the empty tomb thus...
The disciple "whom Jesus loved" affirmed that when he entered the empty tomb and discovered "the linen cloths lying there", "he saw and believed". This suggests that he realized from the empty tomb's condition that the absence of Jesus' body could not have been of human doing and that Jesus had not simply returned to earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus.(CCC, 640)
The beloved disciple understood the signs left by the Lord at the empty tomb such that "he saw and believed."
The signs of the Resurrection are still visible in your community: in lives changed by the Word of God. Could you see any of this?
3. Again one finds these words in the Catechism about "Sunday" (CCC, 2174)
Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week." Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eighth day" following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica), Sunday
The above is followed by a quote from Justin the Martyr that explains the word "Sunday"
We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead
What do you do to make Sunday a real "day of the Lord" for you and your family?
