Surrexit Christus Alleluia!
 

The Resurrection of the Lord, Easter Day: Reading cycle Year B
† 23rd April 2000
Cycle of Prayer: New Members of the Church.
[Patron of England: celebration of St George martyr transferred to 5th May]

First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles 10 : 34. 37 - 43
We hear the words of the Apostle Peter, “Now I, and those with me, can witness to everything Jesus did.” Peter recounts the teaching of Jesus, the healing of the sick, the arrest and death of Jesus upon the cross, and then, he says, “ Now we are the witnesses - we have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead - and he has ordered us to proclaim this to the people.” Here is the essential message of the primitive ‘kerygma’ or teaching of the Church, here the Good News of salvation is proclaimed.

Second Reading from the Letter of Paul to the Colossians 3 : 1 - 4
It is thought that this text is an example of an early credal statement. The emphasis, is upon the new life that the Christian now has, through sharing the benefits of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Being, re-created, renewed, the disciple can put behind the faults, and failures of the past, and live now in the new way. The Apostle Paul directs the Christians of Colossia to concentrate their thoughts and aspirations upon heavenly things, and on the truly important life in Christ.

Gospel according to John 20 : 1 - 9
This account of the discovery of the empty tomb, the witness of the women, Simon Peter and the ‘other disciple’, provides some of the evidence for the belief in the apparently impossible. The fact of the dead Jesus rising to new life again! The evangelist also says, “Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture that he must rise from the dead.” It is likely, that most of us don’t appreciate the full meaning, and the important impact upon our own lives of the Risen Jesus . Today we are challenged to rediscover the meaning of the Risen Lord in our lives, and in the lives of those around us.