THE UNPRECEDENTED TRIUMPH OVER EVIL

V/​ I will turn to you O God, 

R/​ to God who gives joy to my youth

V/​ Give me the Wisdom that sits by your throne; 

R/ that I may be counted among your children

Lord, in your all-providential plan, you have led me to this moment to rediscover me in your Word and Wisdom. Aid me to make this time of meditation and prayer enriching, transforming, and liberating for my well-being and others. Amen!

THE UNPRECEDENTED TRIUMPH OVER EVIL

By Dr. Susan Muto

Easter Sunday

Act 10:34, 37-43; Psalm 118(117): 1-2, 16-17,22-23; Colossians 3:1-4; Luke 24:1-12

20th April 2025

Today’s first reading from Acts 10:34 forecasts what Paul and Barnabas announce in Antioch: “We bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus” (Acts 13:32-33). Peter had already given an eyewitness account of the Resurrection to the Gentiles, assuring them that “God shows no partiality.”

Acceptable to Peter are those from every nation who live in awe of this mystery and do what they know in their heart to be right. He says with the conviction of an experienced disciple that “Jesus Christ…is Lord of all,” anointed by the Holy Spirit to heal those sick in soul and body because of sin and “healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” Peter testified to who Jesus was, to what he had done, and to what he had to endure. Put to death, yes. Hanging from a tree, yes. But his story did not end there. God raised him on the third day. He appeared to witnesses like he himself, eating and drinking with them and commanding them to preach the Good News. He foresaw that the risen Lord would come to judge the living and the dead and that of his kingdom there would be no end.

In a few short verses from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we receive instruction pertaining to how the event of Christ’s Resurrection ought to affect us personally. These two directives, fully obeyed, will be life-changing. First, we are to seek our happiness not in what is here below but in what is above, developing a life of intimacy with the Trinity and letting that relationship transform our lives.

Secondly, rather than seek worldly notoriety, we ought to live our days on earth “hidden with Christ in God.” We attend to the duty of the moment while awaiting the life to be revealed to us in glory. In the words of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, “A moment is a treasure…one act of love will make us know Jesus better…it will bring us close to Him during the whole of eternity.” Perhaps in reading The Living Flame of Love (1.15), she learned from Saint John of the Cross that “…the Father of Lights (Jas 1:17)…diffuses himself abundantly as the sun does its rays…always showing himself gladly along the highways and byways…to find his delights with the children of the earth at a common table in the world…”

On that first Easter morning, before the sun had risen, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to reverence Jesus. To her sheer amazement, she saw that the stone covering it had been removed. What she witnessed was so beyond her comprehension that she had to find Simon Peter and John to instruct her. They did not hesitate to run with her towards the tomb. John arrived there first, but when he saw the linen wrappings lying there, he waited for Peter to precede him. Though they, too, had witnessed the empty tomb, they did not yet fully “understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” Soon enough their eyes would be opened, and when that happened, nothing about the life they once knew would ever be the same again, for such, in the words of Saint John of the Cross, “is the inebriation and courage of love.”