Introit

Kyrie

Gloria

Collect

O God, who on this day,
through your Only Begotten Son,
have conquered death
and unlocked for us the path to eternity,
grant, we pray, that we who keep
the solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection
may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit,
rise up in the light of life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading Acts 10:34a, 37-43

Peter proceeded to speak and said:
"You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commissioned us to preach to the people
and testify that he is the one appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23

R/. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”

“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.”

The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.

Second Reading  I Cor 5:6b-8

Brothers and sisters:
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?
Clear out the old yeast,
so that you may become a fresh batch of dough,
inasmuch as you are unleavened.
For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us celebrate the feast,
not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Sequence Victimae paschali laudes

Christians praise the Paschal Victim
Offer thankful sacrifice.
Christ the Lamb has saved the sheep;
Christ the Just One paid the price,
Reconciling sinners to the Father.

Death and Life fought bitterly
For this wondrous victory;
The Lord of life who died
Reigns glorified!

O Mary, come and say
What you saw at break of day.
"The empty tomb of my living Lord!
I saw Christ Jesus risen, and adored!"

Bright angels testified,
Shroud and grave-cloths side by side!
"Yes, Christ my hope rose gloriously.
He goes before you into Galilee."

Share the good news, sing joyfully:
His death is victory!
Lord Jesus, victor King, show us mercy.
Amen. Alleluia!

Alleluia Cf. 1 Cor 5:7b-8a

Gospel Jn 20:1-9

On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.

Reflection Questions

What might be some “old yeast” you have cleaned out this past Lent?

How have you made for yourself “a new batch of dought?”

What brings you to “see and believe” in the mystery of resurrection?

Catena Nova

"O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory?"
Christ is risen, and you are overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the Angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and Life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the tombs!
For Christ being raised from the dead, has become the first-fruits of them that slept. To Him be glory and dominion through all the ages of ages! (St. John Chrysostom)

We awaken in Christ's body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ. He enters
my foot, and is infinitely me.

I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God indivisibly
whole, seamless in his Godhood.)

I move my foot, and at once
He appears in a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? - Then
open your heart to Him

And let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love him,
we wake up inside Christ's body

Where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized as joy in Him,
and He makes us utterly real.

And everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed

and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light.
We awaken as the Beloved
in every last part of our body. (Symeon the New Theologian)

Christ is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep and are first born from the dead. This resurrection is prototype of all others and guarantees the rising of our spirits and of our bodies.... Through the living out of the paschal mystery in our daily lives we rise from the death of sin, and by the joyful celebration of this feast today we rouse ourselves from laziness and sleep and from half-heartedness to feel a thrill of joy and a sense of new life and vigor.... This is the day that knows no evening, the day whose sun will never set again. Once that sun went down but now, once and for all, it has ascended above the heavens, leading death itself captive. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad. And what about you? Do you watch daily at the threshold of wisdom’s house, fixing your eyes on the doorway and keeping vigil like Mary Magdalen? She kept vigil at the tomb and if you do you will find what she found. Jesus, like wisdom, hastens to make himself known to those who long for him. While it was still dark Mary came to watch at the tomb and she found Jesus! He was standing there in the flesh! Perhaps you think that you can know him only in the Spirit. Yes, you can be sure of finding his spiritual presence. If he observes you persevering prayer, he will come to you in this way. So, say to the Lord what Mary did: “My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks for you”. But you can also find him even in the flesh. Recall his own words: “Whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters you did for me!” If your eyes are opened by faith you can see the Lord in these brothers and sisters! You can reach out to them and care for them and not let them go away unaided. How can you help them? You can help them to a more alive faith so they too see the face of Christ in one another—even in you. (Guerric of Igny)

Christ was in the tomb; the whole world was sown with the seed of Christ’s life; that which happened thirty years ago in the womb of the Virgin Mother was happening now, but now it was happening yet more secretly, yet more mysteriously, in the womb of the whole world.  Christ had already told those who flocked to hear Him preach that the seed must fall into the earth, or else remain by itself alone.  Now the seed of His life was hidden in darkness in order that His life should quicken in countless hearts, over and over again for all time.  His burial, which seemed to be the end, was the beginning.  It was the beginning of Christ-life in multitudes of souls.  It was the beginning, too, of the renewal of Christ’s life in countless souls. (Caryll Houselander)

Sunrise is an event that calls forth solemn music in the very depth of human nature, as if one's whole being had to attune itself to the cosmos and praise God for the new day, praise God in the name of all the creatures that ever were or ever will be. I look at the rising sun and feel that now upon me falls the responsibility of seeing what all my ancestors have seen, in the Stone Age and even before it, praising God before me....When the sun rises each one of us is summoned by the living and the dead to praise God. (Thomas Merton)

Christ is risen because by death he has conquered and delivered Earthly existence at its very core.  And, in rising, he has retained this core.  And so he has remained.  When we confess him as risen to God in Heaven, we are saying that he is withdrawing from us his concrete transfigured humanity for a little while, and we are saying, moreover, that there is no longer a chasm between God and the world.  Christ is already at the very heart of all the lowly things of the Earth that we are unable to let go of and that belong to the Earth as mother.  He is at the heart of the nameless yearning of all creatures, waiting – though perhaps unaware that they are waiting – to be allowed to participate in the transfiguration of his body.  He is at the heart of Earth’s history, whose blind progress amidst all victories and all defeats is headed with uncanny precision toward the day that is his, where his glory will break forth from its own depths, thereby transforming everything.  He is at the heart of all tears and all death as concealed rejoicing and as the life that gains victory by its apparent death.  He is at the heart of one’s handing something to a beggar as the secret wealth that is bestowed on the giver.  He is at the heart of the miserable defeats of his servants as the victory that is God’s.  He is at the heart of our weakness as the power that is allowed to appear weak because it is invincible.  He is even at the heart of sin as the patient mercy of everlasting love that remains until the end.  As the most secret law and the innermost nature of all things, he is what still triumphs and prevails when all other laws appear to be dissolving.  He is with us like the light of the day and the air to which we pay no attention, like the secret law of a movement, a law that we do not grasp because the duration of the movement that we can experience is too short to allow us to detect its underlying formula.  But he is here, the heart of this Earthly world and the secret seal of its everlasting promise. (Karl Rahner)

Christ died and rose once for all, and for everyone, but the power of the Resurrection, this Passover from slavery to evil to the freedom of goodness, must be accomplished in every age, in our concrete existence, in our everyday lives.  How many deserts, even today, do human beings need to cross!  Above all, the desert within, when we have no love for God or neighbor, when we fail to realize that we are guardians of all that the Creator has given us and continues to give us.  God’s mercy can make even the driest land become a garden, can restore life to dry bones. So this is the invitation which I address to everyone: Let us accept the grace of Christ’s resurrection!  Let us be renewed by God’s mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives, too; and let us become agents of his mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation, and make justice and peace flourish. And so we ask the risen Jesus, who turns death into life, to change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace.  Yes, Christ is our peace, and through him, we implore peace for all the world. (Pope Francis)

Homily

Call Me By Your Name

            Can you believe it?  Can you believe she didn’t recognize him early [that] morning, on the first day of the week.  After she saw the stone had been moved away; after she ran off to Simon Peter and the other disciple to tell them what she found; after the two of them came and went, while Mary stayed outside the tomb, weeping (cf. G)?  It’s hard to believe the rest of the story.

            Do you remember how the gospel goes on to say she soon spotted someone near the tomb coming toward her, someone who asked her, Woman, why are you weeping?  Whom are you looking for (G)? And can you believe it, she thought it was the gardener?  But it wasn’t. Not until he called her by name -- Mary – did she know it was the Lord.

            So we might well ask, “How could she fail to recognize him?”  After all, she was his disciple in Galilee. . .[where] he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (I), casting from her seven demons.  And she was among the women who followed him to Jerusalem, who stood with him to the end, by the cross.  That she, who was chosen to be the first witness of the resurrection, that she would not know him makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Why, even when he appeared to the other disciples later that evening, they knew him.  The marks on his hands and his feet were a dead giveaway.  But not Mary Magdalene: not at first.

            Now you might think there’s an easy answer to all this. She didn’t recognize him for one simple reason -- no one in their right mind would think a man crucified three days ago would be found among the living today.  After all, we tend to see only what we expect to see, and little else.  People look right through what they don’t think should be there, even when it’s staring them right in the face.  But I don’t believe that’s a good enough answer to why she, of all people, failed to see who was standing there, in front of her.

            So I wonder if it has something to do with the little exchange that took place between them -- before she knew it was the Lord: when Jesus first spoke to her, calling her, Woman -- the normal way a man would speak in that culture.  It’s at that point, she doesn’t know who it is.  See, she was still in the realm of the familiar, of custom, of what she would expect from any man. But when he calls her by name, Mary, all of a sudden she knows who it is. See, something made him address her differently, more freely, less bound to the past.  He was changed. And all of a sudden something about her changed too. She was somehow open to seeing and hearing something new.  The perception of each one was transformed, both his and hers.

            Now I’m sure you can think of a time in your life when you’ve gone through some change that made people wonder if it was really you who said this or did that. When something that lay buried in a tomb deep inside of you suddenly got out, and people had no idea what to make of it: to the point they might have wondered if you were someone else -- even those closest to you.  And you felt unrecognized.

            It’s times like these in our lives when we’re ripe for new ways of relating to others, and others to us: for changing the ways we perceive them and they us -- as Jesus changed his perception of the Magdalene from “Woman” to “Mary” and she her perception of him, from the gardener to Rabbouni and finally to Lord (G).

            In such times we might well insist others no longer cling to familiar expectations, but let go of them, and respect what’s changed about us, welcome it, and help us leave those former ways behind and “ascend” to new ones. For when a person moves away from something that has died about them, toward something that’s new, it’s no longer right for others to think of you as you were before.  And those who are open to it will see you in a different light, and let you speak and relate to them in new ways: as Mary did Jesus, and Jesus, Mary.

            But those who insist on clinging to what you were before, to their former expectations of how and what you should be, they’ll never recognize you for what you’ve become.  Even Mary Magdalene soon fell into former ways.  As soon as she recognized Jesus, she ran to embrace him, to something familiar. But he told her, Do not hold on to me (G).  You see, things were different between them now.  She had to relate to him on a whole new basis: one that required she let go of what he was before.

            So Easter it seems is all about a God who transforms us.  A God who calls us to leave empty tombs behind where we no longer belong, where we can no longer stay wrapped in what we’ve outgrown: a God who calls us to be healed of unclean spirits that oppress us, to a new and more abundant life, a God who asks us to clear out the old yeast so that [we] may become a new batch [of dough] (cf. II).

            Thus can we celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (II): the very bread we’re about to break transformed into Body, together with wine become Blood -- given to us who eat and drink with Christ after he rose from the dead (cf. I): Body and Blood recognized by those who are open to seeing the change in them. For the Eucharist is the sacrament of our transformation, the sign of God’s power to turn us from the old ways of death to ones that give life: just as our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed (II).  Who lives and reigns, forever and ever.

 Renewal of Baptismal Promises

 

Intercessions (cf. Pope Francis; Urbi et orbi)

Brothers and sisters, let us allow the peace of Christ to enter our lives, our homes, our countries!

 

May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged. In this terrible night of suffering and death, may a new dawn of hope soon appear! May there be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering.  May the leaders of nations hear people’s plea for peace.

May the numerous acts of charity of those who are welcoming migrants and refugees throughout Europe become a blessing for our societies, at times debased by selfishness and individualism, and help to make them welcoming to all.

May the conflict in Europe also make us more concerned about other situations of conflict, suffering and sorrow, situations that affect all too many areas of our world, situations that we cannot overlook and do not want to forget.

May there be peace for the Middle East, racked by years of conflict and division. On this glorious day, let us ask for peace upon Jerusalem and peace upon all those who love her (cf. Psalm 121 [122]), Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. May Israelis, Palestinians and all who dwell in the Holy City, together with the pilgrims, experience the beauty of peace, dwell in fraternity and enjoy free access to the Holy Places in mutual respect for the rights of each.

May there be peace and reconciliation for the peoples of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and in particular for all the Christian communities of the Middle East.

May there be peace also for Libya, so that it may find stability after years of tensions, and for Yemen, which suffers from a conflict forgotten by all, with continuous victims: may the truce signed in recent days restore hope to its people.

 

 

We ask the risen Lord for the gift of reconciliation for Myanmar, where a dramatic scenario of hatred and violence persists, and for Afghanistan, where dangerous social tensions are not easing and a tragic humanitarian crisis is bringing great suffering to its people.

 

May there be peace for the entire African continent, so that the exploitation it suffers and the hemorrhaging caused by terrorist attacks – particularly in the Sahel region – may cease, and that it may find concrete support in the fraternity of the peoples. May the path of dialogue and reconciliation be undertaken anew in Ethiopia, affected by a serious humanitarian crisis, and may there be an end to violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. May prayer and solidarity not be lacking for the people in the eastern part of South Africa, struck by devastating floods.

 

May the risen Christ accompany and assist the people of Latin America, who in some cases have seen their social conditions worsen in these difficult times of pandemic, exacerbated as well by instances of crime, violence, corruption and drug trafficking.

 

May the risen Lord accompany the journey of reconciliation that the Catholic Church in Canada is making with the indigenous peoples. May the Spirit of the risen Christ heal the wounds of the past and dispose hearts to seek truth and fraternity.

 

God of undying life,
by your mighty hand
you raised up Jesus from the grave
and appointed him judge of the living and the dead.
Bestow upon those baptised into his death
the power flowing from his resurrection,
that we may proclaim near and far
the pardon and peace you give us.
Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)

Offertory Hymn

 

Behold the end of night and dawn of day:

Why have you stood at the grave, O Mary?

Great darkness covered your mind,

So you asked the angel:

Where has Jesus been placed?

Behold, his disciples who hastened to the tomb saw a sign

of his Resurrection in the burial wrappings and the cloth

and remembered what was said about him in the Scriptures.

Therefore, we who believe through them praise you,

O Christ, the Giver of Life.

 

When Mary saw two angels inside the grave, she was seized with fright.

She did not recognize Christ but thought him the gard’ner.

She said to him: Sir, where have you placed the body of Jesus?

She knew from his voice that he was the Savior, and she obeyed him when he said:

Touch me not, for I am going to my Father.

Tell this to my disciples.

Communion Antiphon

 

Closing Hymn

 

This joyful Eastertide, Away with care and sorrow! My Love, the Crucified, Hath sprung to life this morrow.

Had Christ, that once was slain, Ne’er burst His three day prison, Our faith had been in vain; But now hath Christ arisen, Arisen, arisen, arisen!

My flesh in hope shall rest, And for a season slumber; Till trump from east to west, Shall wake the dead in number.

Had Christ, that once was slain, Ne’er burst His three day prison, Our faith had been in vain; But now hath Christ arisen, Arisen, arisen, arisen!

Deaths flood hath lost his chill, Since Jesus crossed the river: Lover of souls, from ill My passing soul deliver.

Had Christ, that once was slain, Ne’er burst His three day prison, Our faith had been in vain; But now hath Christ arisen, Arisen, arisen, arisen.