Easter

The sound of Alleluias fills the 50 days of Easter Sunday to Pentecost as we give thanks for the gift of our salvation. The Easter Triduum recalls the passion and resurrection of Christ in the sacred journey from Holy Thursday to Easter Vigil. "Dying he destroyed our death. Rising he restored our life."

Sunday Readings and Backgrounds

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Easter Sunday

Reading I : Acts 10:34a, 37-43

God raised him up on the third day.

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter efficiently summarizes Jesus’ life and death.
Peter, whose denial of Jesus was heartrending, had now been given a new strength to tell the story of God’s anointed one.
The source of Peter’s strength was his “witness”; he was one of the few who had been chosen “to eat and drink with Jesus after he rose from the dead”. (Acts 10:41)

Reading II : Colossians 3:1-4

Set your heart on what pertains to higher realms.

The two readings from the letter of Paul (we will use one or the other in our Liturgy of the Word) provide encouragement and insight to the newly baptized and to all Christians.
The event of Baptism is a life-long journey that we renew every day.
In both readings, Paul’s point is clear: The Lamb of God has been sacrificed to give us fullness of life, and we must respond to that gift by the way we live our lives.

Gospel : John 20:1-9

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb.

The Gospel reading is John’s version of the disciples’ discovery of the empty tomb.
Central to the story is how the participants come to believe in the risen Lord.
The disciples saw and believed, however the author calls attention to the “Beloved Disciple”, who saw only the minimum yet believed.