Today, as we celebrate the Feast of Feasts, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we follow the women to the tomb only to discover it is empty. As Tony explains, by following these women’s journey to the tomb and back to tell the Apostles the Good News, we discover that love is stronger than death and that we find our true identities as human creatures created in God’s image precisely in this Love.
Mass Readings:
Reading 1: Genesis 1:1-2:2 or Genesis 1:1, 26-31a
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35 or Psalm 33:4-5, 6-7, 12-13, 20 and 22
Reading 2: Genesis 22:1-18 or Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11
Reading 3: Exodus 14:15-15:1
Responsorial Psalm: Exodus 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18
Reading 4: Isaiah 54:5-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
Reading 5: Isaiah 55:1-11
Responsorial Psalm: Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6
Reading 6: Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11
Reading 7: Ezekiel 36:16-17a, 18-28
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 42:3, 5; 43:3, 4 or Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6 or Psalm 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19
Epistle: Romans 6:3-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Gospel: Luke 24:1-12
Endnotes:
The Easter Proclamation (Exsultet), St. Paul Daily Missal, 522.
1 Corinthians 15:17-19
The Easter Proclamation (Exsultet), St. Paul Daily Missal, 522-523.
Song of Songs 8:6
1 John 4:8
1 Peter 1:3-4; cf. Daniel Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude, 20 in the Catholic Commentary on Scripture Series.
1 Peter 1:8-9.
Luke 23:54-56
Luke 23:49
Fr. Brendan Byrne, S.J., A Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of St. Mark’s Gospel, 254.
Exodus 20:8 & Deuteronomy 6:12
Exodus 20:11
Genesis 2:2-3.
St. Augustine of Hippo, Homilies on the Gospel of John, 17.15. For Augustine’s reference to Holy Saturday as a kind of “holy vacation,” see The Literal Meaning of Genesis, 4.11.21.
Mark 16:3
Luke 9:30 & Acts 1:10
Fr. Pablo T. Gadenz, The Gospel of Luke, 390-391 in The Catholic Commentary on Scripture Series.
Luke 9:30 & Acts 1:10
Acts 1:11
Acts 1:6-8
Tony Crescio is the founder of FRESHImage Ministries. He holds an MTS from the University of Notre Dame and is currently a PhD candidate in Christian Theology at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on the intersection between moral and sacramental theology. His dissertation is entitled, Presencing the Divine: Augustine, the Eucharist and the Ethics of Exemplarity.
Tony’s academic publications can be found here.