Sunday, 5 April 2026

EASTER OF THE LORD – YEAR A

Commentary on the Sunday Gospel

Mt 28:1-10

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. 

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, 

for his love endures forever. 

Let Israel say: ‘His love endures forever’.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! 

The right hand of the Lord is exalted, 

the right hand of the Lord has done mighty deeds. 

I shall not die, but live 

and proclaim the works of the Lord. 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! 

The stone rejected by the builders 

has become the cornerstone. 

This was done by the Lord: 

a marvel in our eyes.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! 

Praise be to you, my Lord! Alleluia! With hearts overflowing with Easter joy, today we contemplate the central event of our faith: the resurrection of Christ! We are at the culmination of the history of salvation, with the liturgy of the Easter Triduum. We have arrived from the profound journey of Laudato Si’ Lent, moving away from the tomb of death, the tomb of ecological sins, and towards new life, a life of ecological conversion. We invite you to slow down, to take the time to reflect and pray on these verses from the Word. The reading of Matthew’s passages during these solemn days has focused on the setting of the events, immersed in creation. A vegetable garden, a mountain and a garden. Today we find ourselves in the garden, already anticipated in the silence of Mount Golgotha. And here we are struck by a phrase: ‘I know you are looking for Jesus’. Jesus is not to be sought among the dead, because he is the Living One! We can encounter him every day, in our daily lives, if only we learn to live according to his logic, stripping ourselves of the human prejudices that give us a distorted view of the face of God.

What is resurrection? Perhaps we should ask ourselves this question from time to time. Today is a special day for all of us, and it is fitting to devote some of our attention to this concept of faith that we often risk taking for granted. We are Christians, and we believe in the risen Jesus. If Jesus had not risen, what would we believe in? So it is clear that, for our faith, this is the central event of all history. But one might ask: do we really believe this, or are we like the Sadducees who denied the resurrection? To the Sadducees, Jesus replied: ‘He is not a God of the dead but of the living! You are greatly mistaken.” The great mistake that arises “because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” This is God’s great promise, from the Old Testament onwards, and reiterated by Jesus. Instead, it often seems as if we only believe what we see, in the light of our fears. We are afraid of death, and so we think that “while there is life, there is hope”. The resurrection is much more than that.

It is not a matter of reviving a corpse, as happened to Lazarus, who died again some time later, months or years later. Nor is it a matter of reincarnation, as if the body became a kind of prison for the soul. Instead, resurrection concerns both body and soul, together because they are enlivened by the spirit of God. It is God who grants resurrection, which will allow us, in this same body, to have the form of God, which manifests itself in the virtues and gifts of the Spirit. The beautiful thing is that we can live as resurrected beings already now, already today, if we feel the full joy of this promise in our hearts! 

‘The first day after the Sabbath’ indicates the first day of the new creation, the first of the Sabbaths. With the resurrection, there is nothing else but a single day, the day of the Lord. Every Sunday, the first day of the week, is therefore a memorial of Christ’s resurrection. A single day on which the sun always shines, after we have lived through a single long night in which even the day was darkened. When the sun is within us, there is no alternation between day and night. The women go to the garden “at dawn on the first day”, literally at dawn, when the sun begins to light up the night sky. They had to wait until the end of the Sabbath, the day of rest, and as soon as they can, they go immediately to the tomb in this garden.

The tomb, in Greek μνημεῖον (= mneméion), has a root in common with memory (μνημεῖον) and with death and the Moirai (Μοῖραι). It is the concrete sign of the awareness of death that accompanies human life. Through the tomb, each of us remembers the destiny that unites all humans, that is, the ‘humandi’ who are destined to return to humus, to the earth. Memory of our origins, we are all made of earth, and destined to return to the earth. A stone, in every tomb, therefore separates those who have already died from those who have not yet died. Our entire culture can be based on the fear of death, or on the experience of the women in this garden. If for us everything ends with death, and we return only to the earth, then we risk living greedily, consumed by fear. If we remember that, in addition to the earth, Adam and Eve live with the breath of life from God, it means that we also return to God, and then our perspective changes.

‘He is risen, as he said’ sounds today like an invitation to all of us, at the end of this Laudato Si’ Journey, which has led us to a more attentive reading of Scripture over these Sundays. And more generally, it is an invitation to everyday life, accompanied by the memory of the words of life we have received in recent years, at Mass in our parish, or by following paths of deepening our understanding of Scripture, Laudato Si’ Circles, spiritual exercises, Laudato Si’ Retreats, pilgrimages, personal encounters with those who have helped us taste the beauty of God’s Word. Today we are all invited to remember.

Remembering, from the Latin recŏrdari, derives from the prefix re- and cordis (literally ‘to bring back to the heart’). Perhaps it is not so much an act of the mind, because the heart was considered the seat of memory. So today we are not called to make a philosophical or intellectual gesture, but in remembering we are called to make the strings of our heart vibrate, our most spontaneous and beautiful humanity. What should we take to heart today? Why does this lead us to believe in the resurrection?

“They left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy.” Each of us today is called to be like these women, who go early in the morning, who prepare aromas out of love, but who are surprised, who overcome fear, who trust in an announcement given by angels. Who react with fear and great joy. How many angels we meet in our lives! Today we are invited to listen to words of life, to remember these words that make us alive. Only in this way do we emerge from anonymity, and in fact, only after this act of remembrance does the evangelist bother to tell us the names of these women, who were “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary”. The women believed that love is stronger than death!

Such beautiful news, which fills life. Imagine someone who loves you so much that they tell you good news, a success. Your heart is filled with joy. This is what we are called to do today, to rejoice and proclaim. To carry on this word of mouth that has lasted for two thousand years, in which men and women tell other men and women this beautiful news.

St Francis, in his beautiful paraphrase of the Our Father, reminds us that: “O most holy Father of ours: creator, redeemer, comforter and saviour of ours. Who art in heaven: in the angels and saints, enlightening them with knowledge, because you, Lord, are light; inflaming them with love, because you, Lord, are love; dwelling in them and filling them with bliss, because you, Lord, are the highest good, eternal, from whom all good comes and without whom no good exists” (FF 266). We thank the Lord for the immense gift of his death and resurrection for us and for creation, and for teaching us to trust in ourselves. We pray on this feast day that this new creation may be for us a seed of joy to carry into our daily lives. 

We thank you for walking with us and sharing your reflections on this journey through the Sunday Gospel.

Happy Easter from the Lord

Laudato si’!