28 March 2027 · Latin Rite
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“Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;” John 20:8
“This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Today the whole Church sings the Psalm of Easter. The stone the builders rejected, the man condemned and crucified on Friday, “has become the chief cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” In the first reading Peter stands in the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and tells the whole Gospel in a few lines: Jesus of Nazareth, anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, “but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” The Resurrection is not a feeling or a beautiful idea. The Apostles ate and drank with the risen Lord; they touched him; they gave their lives for what they had seen. And Peter ends with an offer for everyone: “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
St Paul tells us what the Resurrection changes in us. “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Through Baptism our life is “hidden with Christ in God,” and when Christ who is our life is revealed, we too will be revealed with him in glory. Easter is not only something that happened to Jesus; it has happened to us. The alternative reading uses the image of the Passover bread: “Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch… For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival… with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Then, before the Gospel, the ancient Sequence is sung: “Christians, to the Paschal Victim offer your thankful praises… Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous: the Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.” And it turns to Mary Magdalene: “Speak, Mary, declaring what you saw, wayfaring,” and she answers: the tomb of Christ, who is living, the glory of Jesus' Resurrection, angelic witnesses, the shroud and the napkin.
The Gospel takes us to the garden early on the first day of the week, “while it was still dark.” Mary Magdalene sees the stone removed and runs to Simon Peter and the beloved disciple: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Two men run. The younger disciple outruns Peter, bends down and sees the linen wrappings lying there, but waits. Peter arrives and goes in. He sees the linen wrappings lying, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head “not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.” No thief would unwrap a body and fold the cloth. Then the other disciple goes in, “and he saw and believed.” He sees signs, an empty tomb and folded cloths, and he believes in what he does not yet see: the living Lord. That is the way of faith for us too. John adds honestly: “as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” Faith begins with a run, a look and a heart open to God; understanding grows afterwards.
The Resurrection of Jesus is the centre of our faith. He did not return to an ordinary life to die again, as Lazarus did. His true body, the body that was crucified and still bears the wounds, has passed into a new and glorious life that will never end. St Paul says plainly: “if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). But Christ has been raised, the first fruits of those who have died. Because he lives, sin does not have the last word, death does not have the last word, and the grave of everyone we love is not the end. This is why we gather every Sunday: every Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, a little Easter. And this is why we receive his Body: the risen Lord himself, truly present, gives us the seed of our own resurrection. At every Mass today the faithful renew their baptismal promises and are sprinkled with Easter water. Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia.
Theme: “He saw and believed.”
The empty tomb, the witnesses who ate with him, the life hidden with Christ, and Christ our Passover.
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” Psalm 118:22–23
“Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;” John 20:8
Apply: Go to Mass every Sunday of the Easter season as a meeting with the risen Lord, not an obligation.
“I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD.” Psalm 118:17
“but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” Acts 10:40–41
Apply: Learn one simple way to explain the Resurrection to a friend who asks.
“he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces” Isaiah 25:8
“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,” Colossians 3:1–2
Apply: Choose one earthly worry and hand it over to God each morning this week.
“The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:13
“Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Corinthians 5:7–8
Apply: Clean out one “old yeast” this week: a grudge, a lie or a habit of malice.
Christ is truly risen in his body; the tomb is empty and the witnesses ate with him.
Raised with him in Baptism and fed by him in the Eucharist, we live as an Easter people.
Take-home resolution: Greet everyone this week with “Christ is risen!” and live one concrete act of Easter joy each day.
Dear brothers and sisters, Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia! This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone (Psalm 118:22).
Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. Perhaps you too have come to Easter in some darkness: a loss, an illness, a sin, a worry. Mary found the stone rolled away. The darkness was already breaking, though she did not yet know it.
Peter and John ran. John looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth from Jesus' head rolled up by itself. Then he went in, and he saw and believed (John 20:8). He saw an empty tomb, and he believed in a living Lord. That is our faith: we see signs, and we believe in him.
And this faith is not a dream. Peter tells Cornelius: God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear… to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead (Acts 10:40–41). The Apostles ate with him, touched him and died for him. The Resurrection is real.
St Paul says: so if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above (Colossians 3:1). At Baptism we were raised with him. So Easter must show in our lives: forgiveness instead of grudges, hope instead of fear, generosity instead of greed.
Today we will renew our baptismal promises, and then receive the risen Lord in the Eucharist. Let us go home as Easter people: greet one another with Christ is risen, visit someone lonely, and let the Alleluia be our song. Because he lives, death is not the end. Alleluia! Amen.
Children, Jesus is alive! On Easter morning his friends found his tomb empty. He had risen from the dead!
Today let us say to everyone: Jesus is risen! And let us sing Alleluia, which means: praise the Lord!
O God, who on this day, through your Only Begotten Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity, grant, we pray, that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord's Resurrection may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit, rise up in the light of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. Let us also pray: Risen Lord Jesus, you have conquered death and opened heaven. Let the joy of this day fill our homes. Raise us from every tomb of sin and sadness, teach us to seek the things that are above, and keep us faithful witnesses of your Resurrection until we see you face to face. Alleluia. Amen.
The Gospel of this morning does not show the risen Lord at all. It shows a stone moved, two men running, cloths lying in a tomb, and one disciple who “saw and believed”. Around that quiet scene the other readings tell us what it means. Peter, in a Roman officer's house, gives the first summary of the Christian message: we ate and drank with him. Psalm 118 sings of the rejected stone and of “the day that the Lord has made”. Colossians says that our own life is now hidden with Christ. The alternative second reading from First Corinthians calls Christ our paschal lamb and tells us to keep the feast.
Before the Gospel the Church sings the Sequence, Victimae paschali laudes, an eleventh-century hymn usually attributed to Wipo of Burgundy. It is a small drama: death and life have fought a wondrous duel, and Mary is asked, “Tell us, what did you see on the way?” The key words today are witness, raised and above.
Setting.
Peter has come to Caesarea, the Roman capital of the province, to the house of Cornelius, a centurion who feared God. Through a vision on a rooftop Peter has learned not to call anyone unclean (10:9–16, 28). This is a turning point in Acts: the first preaching of the Gospel to a Gentile household. Many scholars see in the speech a summary of the early Church's preaching, in the same order as the Gospels themselves: John, Galilee, Jerusalem, the Cross, the Resurrection.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (10:38)
The whole public life in one line. God is the first actor in the sentence, and the Trinity is quietly present: God, Jesus and the Spirit.
“They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear,” (10:39–40)
“They” here are those in Jerusalem who were involved in that day's events. The Church teaches that the Passion cannot be charged against all Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 597). The weight of the sentence is on “but God”.
“not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” (10:41)
This is the detail that a witness would remember. A ghost does not eat. The risen Jesus shared meals and showed that he was truly alive (CCC 645).
“All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”” (10:43)
“Everyone” is the word Cornelius needed to hear. As Peter speaks, the Holy Spirit falls on the listeners (10:44).
How the Church reads it.
This speech shows the Church's faith in its first form: a story with witnesses, not a theory. The Catechism speaks of the appearances to witnesses as the basis of the Resurrection faith, and calls the apostles and Peter above all “the foundation stones” of the Church (CCC 642). The sacrament of Easter joy is also a meal: we too eat and drink with him, at every Mass.
Setting.
Psalm 118 closes the Hallel (Psalms 113–118), the psalms Jewish families have long sung at Passover. So it is very likely the hymn that Jesus and his disciples sang before going out to the Mount of Olives (Mark 14:26). It is the song of someone who has come through mortal danger and goes up with a procession to give thanks at the Temple. The Church sings it on the morning of Easter, and its verse “This is the day” is the refrain today and an antiphon throughout the Octave.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.” (118:17)
The psalmist spoke of rescue from danger. In the mouth of the Church this line goes further, because the risen Christ can say it for good.
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” (118:22–23)
Jesus applies this to himself at the end of the parable of the vineyard (Mark 12:10–11). Peter quotes it before the council (Acts 4:11), and it appears again in 1 Peter 2:7. Notice who does the reversal: “the Lord’s doing”.
“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (118:24)
This refrain is not among the numbered verses of today's psalm, but it is what the people sing. For the Church “the day” is Easter itself, and so also every Sunday.
How the Church reads it.
The Roman liturgy has used this psalm at Easter from early times. Its verse “This is the day” is sung throughout the Octave as if the whole week were one single day. Today's psalm therefore teaches us to read Easter as the Lord's doing, and to answer with thanks before anything else. The Church gives thanks, and joins the song of Israel; she does not take it away from Israel.
Setting.
The letter comes to us under Paul's name. Many scholars think that it was written by a disciple of his in his spirit, while others hold that Paul wrote it himself, and the Church receives it as inspired in either case. It answers teachers at Colossae who urged special rules and visions (2:16–23). These four verses turn from the doctrine of the first two chapters to the moral teaching of the rest: because you are raised, live so.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (3:1)
“If” here means “since”. “Seated at the right hand” is from Psalm 110:1, the Old Testament verse most often quoted in the New.
“for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (3:3)
The strongest sentence of the reading. The newly baptized know that they have died in the water, and their true life is kept where nothing can touch it.
“When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” (3:4)
Not “he gives you life”, but “who is your life”. The hiddenness will end. What is secret now will be seen.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism uses these words directly: united with Christ by baptism, believers already truly participate in the heavenly life of the risen Christ, but this life remains “hidden with Christ in God” (CCC 1003). The risen Christ is the source of our own future resurrection (CCC 655). So Easter is both a fact and a hope.
Setting.
This is the alternative second reading. Paul is writing to Corinth around AD 54 about a case of grave sin that the community has tolerated (5:1–2). He answers with a picture from the Passover: before the feast every Jewish house had to be cleared of yeast (Exodus 12:15). The passage shows that Christians already spoke of Christ's death as the Passover, little more than twenty years after the event.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.” (5:7)
Once more the same logic: become what you are. The cleansing does not win the feast; the lamb has already been slain, and the house is put in order because of that.
“Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (5:8)
Easter joy has a moral shape. Yeast and bread have become ways of speaking of the heart.
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council quotes this verse: as often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which “Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed” is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out (Lumen Gentium 3; CCC 1364). The first Easter Preface of the Roman Missal takes up the same words.
Setting.
John's account of Easter opens “while it was still dark”, in a Gospel where light and darkness matter from the first page (1:5). Mary Magdalene stood at the Cross (19:25). The burial was hurried by the coming of the Sabbath (19:42). The “other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved” is the witness behind this Gospel (21:24), whom tradition identifies with St John the Apostle.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.” (20:1)
“The first day of the week” marks a new creation, and Christians will soon gather on this day. It is why we keep Sunday.
““They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”” (20:2)
Her first thought is theft. Nobody in this scene expected the Resurrection. The disciples did not invent a hope they did not have.
“and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.” (20:7)
St John Chrysostom points out that thieves would not have stripped the body and taken time over the cloths, which were stuck with myrrh (in substance).
“Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;” (20:8)
He has not yet seen the risen Lord, only signs of absence. Love reads the signs first. Yet he waits and lets Peter go in first (v. 5), and many readers see in this the respect of love for Peter's office.
“for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” (20:9)
Understanding of the Scripture will come only afterward. That is the task of the Emmaus road and of the whole Easter season.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism explains that the empty tomb is not a direct proof, but it was the first step to recognizing the Resurrection, as with the beloved disciple who “saw and believed” (CCC 640). It teaches that the Resurrection is a real, historical event, attested by witnesses, and also one that transcends history (CCC 639, 647). Christ's risen body is the true body, now in a new state (CCC 645–646).
Could the disciples have stolen the body or simply imagined all this?
The Gospels themselves show that nobody expected it: Mary thinks the body has been taken, and the disciples “did not understand the scripture”. The Catechism notes that their faith did not produce the Resurrection; the Resurrection produced their faith, for they were downcast and frightened, and at first took the women's report as an idle tale (CCC 643–644). People do not give their lives for what they know they made up.
Is the Resurrection like the raising of Lazarus?
No. Lazarus came back to this life and later died. Christ passed through death to a glorious life, with a true body no longer subject to time and space, and he will never die again (Romans 6:9; CCC 646).
Why do Christians gather on Sunday rather than the Sabbath?
Because the Lord rose on “the first day of the week” (John 20:1). The Church honours the Sabbath as God's gift to Israel and sees Sunday as the fulfilment of its meaning for Christians (CCC 2174–2175).
Today the Sequence must be sung or recited, and the renewal of baptismal promises with the sprinkling of water may take the place of the Creed. The double Alleluia is added at the dismissal through the Octave, and the Regina Caeli replaces the Angelus until Pentecost. The Vigil's Gospel of Mark may also be read today, and Luke's Emmaus account may be read at an afternoon or evening Mass. The Code of Canon Law asks every Catholic to receive Holy Communion at least once a year, in the Easter season if possible (can. 920). In your family, let the day begin with the simple greeting: Christ is risen!