29 March 2027 · Latin Rite
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“Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”” Matthew 28:9–10
The Church does not celebrate Easter for one day only. For eight days, the Octave, she lives each day as if it were Easter Sunday: the Gloria is sung, the Alleluia rings out, and each day's readings show us a new appearance of the risen Lord. The early Christians called this week the week of the white garments, because the newly baptized wore their white robes every day until the following Sunday. Today Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost with the Eleven and speaks to the crowd in Jerusalem. He speaks of “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs.” He was handed over and crucified, “But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.” Then Peter reads Psalm 16, today's Psalm, as a prophecy: David sang, “you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit.” But David died and was buried, and his tomb is still there. So he was speaking of the Messiah. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.”
Notice what has happened to Peter. A few weeks earlier he was so afraid that he denied Jesus before a servant girl. Now he stands before thousands and speaks with boldness. Nothing explains that change except what he says: he has seen the Lord alive, and he has received the Holy Spirit. The Resurrection is not only proven by an empty tomb; it is proven by transformed lives. Peter's courage, the joy of the martyrs, the faith that spread to the ends of the earth, including the shores of Kerala, all flow from that first morning. The Psalm gives words to this new confidence: “I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.”
In the Gospel the women leave the tomb “quickly with fear and great joy” and run to tell the disciples. Fear and joy together: that is often how Easter faith begins. And on the way, “suddenly Jesus met them.” He greets them simply, as a friend would. They take hold of his feet, real feet, and worship him. He says: “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers.” He calls the disciples who abandoned him “my brothers.” The Resurrection is reconciliation. Matthew then tells of a different response. Some of the guards report to the chief priests, who pay them to say that the disciples stole the body while they were asleep. Matthew records this because, in his own time, this story was circulating as an explanation of the empty tomb. It is not a judgement on the Jewish people; it is a reminder that every age offers its own ways of explaining the Resurrection away. St Augustine asked with a smile: if the guards were asleep, how did they know who took the body? The truth cannot be bought. The empty tomb stands, the witnesses speak, and the Lord meets us still on the road with his greeting: do not be afraid.
Theme: “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers.”
Not abandoned to the grave, fear and great joy, and the truth that cannot be bought.
“For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit.” Psalm 16:10
“But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.” Acts 2:24
Apply: Pray Psalm 16 slowly each morning of this Octave.
“You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11
“So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” Matthew 28:8
Apply: Spend a few minutes before the Blessed Sacrament this week, worshipping the risen Lord as the women did.
“I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” Psalm 16:8
“and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:14
Apply: When someone mocks the Resurrection, answer gently and with your own witness, without anger.
God raised Jesus; death could not hold him, and his witnesses were transformed.
The risen Lord meets us on the road and sends us to our brothers and sisters.
Take-home resolution: Tell one person each day of this Octave that Christ is risen.
Dear friends, the Church keeps Easter for eight whole days, because one day is not enough for so great a joy. Today Peter stands before a great crowd and says: this Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses (Acts 2:32).
Think of who is speaking. A few weeks earlier Peter denied Jesus three times. Now he speaks with boldness before thousands. What changed him? He met the risen Lord, and he received the Holy Spirit. The best proof of the Resurrection is a changed life.
Peter quotes David: you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit (Psalm 16:10). David died and his tomb was still there. But Jesus' body did not see corruption. God raised him up, because it was impossible for him to be held in death's power (Acts 2:24).
In the Gospel the women run from the tomb with fear and great joy. And suddenly Jesus meets them: greetings! They hold his feet and worship him. He says: do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers. He calls those who ran away his brothers. Easter is forgiveness.
Some tried to explain it away: the disciples stole the body while we were asleep. St Augustine laughed: if they were asleep, how did they see? People still try to explain away the Resurrection. But the truth cannot be bought.
This week, let us be like the women: running with joy, holding fast to the Lord in the Eucharist, and telling our brothers and sisters: do not be afraid, he is risen. Alleluia. Amen.
Children, the women ran from the tomb so happy, and Jesus met them on the way and said: hello! Do not be afraid!
Jesus says the same to you today: do not be afraid, I am alive and I am with you. Go and tell your friends!
O God, who give constant increase to your Church by new offspring, grant that your servants may hold fast in their lives to the Sacrament they have received in faith. 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 met the women on the road and said: do not be afraid. Meet us today on our roads. Turn our fear into joy, make us bold witnesses like Peter, and call back to you all our brothers and sisters who have wandered away. Alleluia. Amen.
For eight days the Church lives one long Easter, and each day's readings show a further witness. Today Peter stands up at Pentecost and proclaims in Jerusalem what he had once denied. He reads Psalm 16, today's psalm, as a prophecy of the Resurrection: David died, and his tomb is still there, so he must have been speaking of another. In Matthew, the women running from the tomb are met by Jesus himself, while the guards are given money to tell a different story. The key words are witness, joy and go. Truth is spreading, and a false report is spreading too.
Setting.
It is the day of Pentecost, the Jewish feast of Weeks, and pilgrims from many lands are in Jerusalem. The disciples have just received the Holy Spirit, and the crowd is astonished. Peter, who a few weeks earlier denied Jesus to a servant girl (Luke 22:56–57), now speaks in public. This is the first Christian sermon in Acts. Peter speaks as a Jew to fellow Jews, and he reads their own Scripture with them.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.” (2:24)
The heart of the sermon. Death could not hold the author of life. The Catechism cites this verse in explaining that Christ's body did not see corruption (CCC 627).
““Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” (2:29)
Peter speaks with respect: “Fellow Israelites”, “our ancestor”. A tomb of David was known in Jerusalem in that time, and the Jewish historian Josephus also mentions one. The contrast is between a tomb with a body and a tomb without one.
“This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.” (2:32)
The verse the whole week could be built on. The witnesses are the proof that Peter offers. Nothing explains the change in him except what he says here.
“Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear.” (2:33)
The Father, the Son and the Spirit in one sentence. The sound and the speech that astonished the crowd are the sign that Jesus is alive and reigning.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that Jesus' violent death was no accident but part of the mystery of God's plan, as Peter says here (CCC 599), and that God's foreknowledge did not take away human freedom (CCC 600). It adds that personal guilt cannot be placed on the Jews as a people (CCC 597), for all sinners were the authors of the Passion (CCC 598). When we hear “you crucified” in this reading we should hear it addressed to ourselves too.
Setting.
In the verses just before (28:1–7), an angel has rolled back the stone and told the women to go to the disciples. Only Matthew tells of the guard at the tomb, set there at the request of the chief priests and the Pharisees (27:62–66). He places the two scenes side by side: the women go off to tell the truth while soldiers go off to report what happened. Many scholars think that Matthew wrote for a community with Jewish roots, in the decades when the two communities were debating these things.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” (28:8)
Fear and joy together: this is honest. A believer may have both at once, and that does not stop anyone from running with the news.
“Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.” (28:9)
He comes to them on the road as they obey. They take hold of his feet, so he is no ghost. They worship, so he is more than a man who has come back.
“Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”” (28:10)
Not a word of reproach about their flight. He calls them brothers and sends them a message by the women.
“So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day.” (28:15)
Matthew is reporting a dispute of his own time about a particular rumour. It must not be read as a charge against the Jewish people, then or now (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 597). The story itself admits one thing: the tomb was empty.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine, commenting on the Psalms, mocks the soldiers' story gently: you bring sleeping witnesses? If you were asleep, how do you know what happened (in substance)? St Justin Martyr, in the second century, also knew of this rumour. The Catechism sees the women as the first messengers of the Resurrection (CCC 641), and it notes that by “my brothers” the risen Jesus shows the new relationship of adoption that his Resurrection has opened to us (CCC 654).
Why does the Church keep repeating Easter for eight days?
An octave treats eight days as one great day, a very old custom, and the Octave of Easter keeps the rank of a solemnity. In the early Church the newly baptized wore white and received further instruction during this week. In the Liturgy of the Hours, each day of the Octave sings “This is the day”.
“You crucified him”: does the Bible blame the Jews for the death of Jesus?
No. Peter speaks to a particular crowd in Jerusalem, as one of them, calling them to repent and offering them forgiveness. The Second Vatican Council teaches that what happened in the Passion cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today (Nostra Aetate 4). The Catechism says that we sinners ourselves bear the graver responsibility (CCC 598).
In Italy and in some other places this day is called the Monday of the Angel, because of the angel at the tomb. The Regina Caeli is said in place of the Angelus. The Sequence may be sung again before the Gospel acclamation, and the double Alleluia is added at the dismissal. A household custom worth keeping is to pray the Regina Caeli together this week.