Gospel according to Saint John 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.
Rise with Him
Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries
Rome, April 20, 2025 | Resurrection Sunday
Acts 10: 34a.37-43; Col 3:1-4; Jn 20: 1-9
Those women who got up early to reach Jesus’ tomb “while it was still dark” were more diligent than the disciples, who were warned by them. But at least the two disciples ran to the place where they had to go to finally understand what Christ had announced to them. Conclusion: Christ asks us to make an effort to be able to participate in his Kingdom, something that many modern self-proclaimed atheists have not done, that is to say, they have not looked carefully inside themselves to see what happens,
This explains why our Founding Father writes a devastating phrase in his Transfigurations: Atheism is thought that flees from effort.
Indeed, neither atheists nor lazy Christians bother to do as those helpful women and those surprised disciples did: carefully exploring what happens in our souls, which would allow us to realize how there are so many events in our lives that we are not aware of and whose most obvious explanation is that the breath of the Holy Spirit pushes us -almost always in a gentle and delicate way- towards new horizons.
It is something similar to the millions of chemical reactions that take place in our bodies every day or to the fascinating and silent production of red blood cells: two million of them per second. We know that this happens, that it is necessary for our life, but it is not under our control.
The experience of the Resurrection of Jesus is not only a historical memory of the event we celebrate at Easter, but an existential reality that impacts our daily lives. As our Founding Father has so often reminded us, it is something we experience here and now, not only in the future. Something happens within us:
You are already children of God. The Spirit of his Son cries out in our hearts: “Abba! Father!”(Galatians 4:6-7).
For this very reason, we feel sent to proclaim with our lives that light conquers darkness, and we also feel that we can spread hope. It is an impulse to live with purpose, with meaning, with the certainty of serving a Father who is always waiting for us. This is what happened to the disciples after their encounter with the Risen One.
To say that the Christian dies to sin and is born to a new life (cf. Rom 6: 4) IS NOT a metaphor, but the most accurate description of our participation in the Resurrection of Christ. He did not need to die to sin, but he did conquer death. We experience a distancing from the power of sin, although we sometimes fall; we feel that we need a profound change, a true resurrection, even if we do not have any of our faults at the forefront of our memory. The death-life contrast is not limited to the sublime moment that we celebrate today in the life of Christ.
With some well-known words of St. Paul to Timothy, St. John Paul II concluded his catechesis on the Resurrection:
“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead’: this affirmation of the Apostle gives us the key to hope in true life in time and in eternity” (MAR 15, 1989).
—ooOoo—
In many traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism or certain philosophical currents, reincarnation is understood as the return of the soul to a new body, in a repetitive cycle of births and deaths, with the aim of purifying itself or reaching enlightenment. It could be said that the belief in reincarnation reflects an ancient and intuitive search for that fuller truth that the Christian faith reveals through the Resurrection.
As St. John Paul II said in Evangelium Vitae: Man has inscribed on his heart the hope of life after death. […] The resurrection of Christ not only responds to that hope: it infinitely surpasses it.
Let us not forget that young people, who we so often label as materialists, individualists or relativists, also have this longing for eternity written in their hearts, even though they may seem pessimistic or skeptical of everything.
The Resurrection offers us a profound certainty: death does not have the last word. Christians experience peace in the midst of pain, even in the face of physical death, because they believe and have a foretaste that there is eternal life. This hope changes the way they live in the present: they do not cling to the ephemeral, but in a thousand ways seek the eternal.
If I had to explain it to a child, I would put it like this:
Once upon a time, in a garden full of light, there was a little caterpillar called Nuna. Every day she would run across the green leaves, looking at the sky and listening to the stories the flowers would tell. Although her world was small, she dreamed of something more.
What is beyond these plants? she would ask the insects, but nobody would answer her. We are fine here, the ants would say. There is nothing but branches and wind.
One day a butterfly spoke to her in a soft voice: Everything that lives in this garden has a purpose. And even though you are close to the ground now, one day you will fly.
Nuna didn’t understand: How could I fly? I’m small, slow… and I can hardly see the sky through the branches.
Trust me, said an old oak tree. You can’t imagine what will happen now. I was once a small seed, but you will change too. Don’t be afraid.
Days passed. The cold arrived. Nuna felt a sleep so deep that it forced her to stop. She clung to a branch and weaved a cocoon, as if she were sleeping.
She has gone, said the crickets, She was a good caterpillar. Her story has ended.
One morning, when the sun kissed the garden, the cocoon opened… and out of it came Nuna, resplendent. She was no longer a caterpillar; she was a butterfly! With wings of light, she rose to the sky she had dreamed of so much.
—ooOoo—
The Resurrection is not just a one-off event: it is a daily dynamic of dying and being reborn. Every time a Christian chooses to love, to forgive, to rise up from sin, to trust in the middle of the night… he is experiencing something of the Resurrection.
This is how Jesus himself puts it in the Parable of the Prodigal Son: He was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found. Every time I repent with true awareness of having offended God and my neighbor, I recognize that I have distanced myself from love, I receive a grace so that not only a change in behavior takes place in me, but a change that we can well call Resurrection, rebirth; it is another thing if I accept it with gratitude and coherence.
I cannot speak of the Resurrection of Christ (nor of my own) if an enthusiasm for the mission is not visible in my life, a gratitude for the life I have, for my talents (even if they are few or not very spectacular). A few days ago, in a conversation, we recalled how many of the volunteers in hospitals caring for cancer patients are precisely former cancer patients, who are grateful for having regained their strength, even if it is less than what they had before. But now, after that “resurrection” of their health, they recognize the value of every minute, of every opportunity to serve, console and encourage others.
Those of us who have the desire to be apostles should be enthusiastic and attentive to the mission of our brothers, to the smallest opportunity to strike up a friendly conversation with the hairdresser, the shop assistant or a neighbor. A person who DOES NOT DO THIS, who does not have this attitude, said to me a few days ago: It is not enough to be nice and friendly. Maybe so, but it is the beginning, the visible sign of someone who believes in others, not because they seem perfect to them, but because they are called to eternal life.
St. Philip Neri was known for his holiness… but also for his great sense of humor. He had a special gift for bringing people closer to God with a smile.
One day, a clear young nobleman began to feel drawn to the spiritual life. But he also had a small problem: he cared too much about what other people thought. He always dressed impeccably, carefully looking after his image and his reputation. Saint Philip noticed this. So, one day, he called him and said:
I want you to do a small act of humility… put on this ridiculous feathered hat and go all over Rome to do your errands.
The young man was stunned. That would be a scandal! What a shame! But he obeyed, somewhat embarrassed, and went out into the street.
People laughed, pointed at him, and some even thought he was crazy. When he returned, Saint Philip looked at him with a smile and said: Very well. Today you have begun to die to pride and to resurrect the freedom of the heart. For he who laughs at himself has already conquered the world.
Do I make a continuous effort to get closer to others?
As John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church once said: My parish is the whole world!Likewise, in every community, in every parish or workplace, our care and apostolic attention is not only for Catholics, but for everyone, believers or not, those whom we hasten to call “distant” or “indifferent”.
Like Mary Magdalene, the disciples of Emmaus, the apostles or even St. Paul, after our encounter with the Risen Christ we must live free from all fears about the future. From being cowards and fearful of their enemies, especially the Jewish authorities, they went on to proclaim the Good News courageously even when they were being persecuted and risking their lives.
Let us show that during these days of Easter we have had moments of special intimacy with the Risen Christ, that we have shared our old fears with Him and entrusted our disillusionment to Him, like the disciples of Emmaus, our doubts, like Saint Thomas.
In fact, only those who have had a renewed encounter with Christ are capable of bringing the Good News. In particular, let us tell others about our small or large conversions, as we who have the privilege of the Examination of Perfection do. It is something urgent, although we do not always see it as such. The news of recent months, the new forms of violence, the conflicts in the world, not only affect the immediate victims, but also spread a halo of pessimism and hopelessness from which no one is free.
May our Easter joy not be artificial, but the fruit of a true contemplation of the Risen Christ.
_______________________________
In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Luis CASASUS
President
