EASTER SUNDAY (C)
17th April 2022

Dear Parishioner

The gospel highlights the insufficient faith of Jesus disciples, as Mary Magdalene, Peter and the other disciple scramble around trying to make sense of the empty tomb.

Mary Magdalene is confused. Her explanation of the empty tomb is that there has been a robbery. The body has gone. She passes off this conclusion on Peter and the other disciple. "We don't know where they have put him." When Peter gets to the tomb, he notices something strange. The head cloth has been rolled up and put in a place by itself. These are unusually neat robbers. Did he begin to wonder, "Does the empty tomb have another explanation?" When the other disciple went into the tomb, he came to a deeper conclusion. Putting the evidence together and, relying on his close relationship with Jesus, as the one who was close to Jesus at the last supper, "he saw and believed". The gospel reminds us that the faith of individual believers can be at different levels.

We like the disciples quite often visit the emptiness of our tombs, the mind, filled with worldly materials, ideologies, and desires. The disciples had to empty the idea instilled in their mind by Mary of Magdalena "We don't know where they have put him" and find novelty and freshness with a resurrected mind that of the beloved disciple who came, saw and believed.

Today we might ask ourselves about our own faith. "Do I desire a deeper relationship with Jesus?" If the desire is there, Jesus will seek it out. After today's gospel, the risen Jesus seeks out Mary and Peter and the disciples on their journey to Emmaus. He consoles them and brings them to a deeper faith in himself. The first reading today shows Peter proclaiming to his pagan convert Cornelius that he and the other apostles were witnesses to Jesus' resurrection; they even ate and drank with the risen Jesus. I can remember moments of growth in faith in my own life. It came constantly by listening to the word of God and through the sacraments of penance where the lord opened the stone of my tomb which obstructed my hearing, seeing, feeling, thinking and relating. Like Lazarus I too was called out to walk the Jesus walk. As a community we proclaim the Risen Lord. As individuals we remember that "our lives are hidden with Christ in God". So perhaps this is a moment of grace to ask the risen Lord to lead us into a deeper friendship.

As the joy of the resurrection fills our hearts today, may we make this joy to impact on our brothers and sisters as we join in bringing the news of the risen saviour to them.

Happy and Joyous Easter to all of you!

Fr Jijo George

Notices:
Please remember to pray for:

Daily for the sick clergy of our Diocese

The sick and housebound

Those who have recently died

Years Mind:
Sunday: Frank McElligott
Thursday: Fr Arthur Ryan, Fr Michael Enright
Friday: Canon Thomas Smith
Saturday: Saloman and Zady Saad
Sunday: Fr Simon Sullivan