John 20: 1-9  

Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance.

She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, breathlessly panting, “They took the Master from the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.”

Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first, outrunning Peter. Stooping to look in, he saw the pieces of linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in. Simon Peter arrived after him, entered the tomb, observed the linen cloths lying there, and the kerchief used to cover his head not lying with the linen cloths but separate, neatly folded by itself.

Then the other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. The disciples then went back home.

Gospel Reflection

They came to the tomb. Women and friends. They had to do something, like we go to a grave a week later and rearrange the flowers. But they got another shock. The tomb was empty! These were three ordinary women, and they were the first witnesses of the resurrection. As a woman brought Jesus to birth, women first announced his new birth, his resurrection.

Two questions for Easter – Is it really good news? The good news is that there is always life, joy, hope here and now, and in the future. That God can take care of our past, present and future.

The other question – where is he now? Is his risen body the living body of Christ in his people? Each of us can be a tomb of dead faith, or the joy and the peace of the risen Lord. He is among us.

The Pope speaks a lot about the periphery! That’s where we are called to be. At the edge where we need God so much and our world also. Find yourself ever on the edge of loneliness, pain, depression? That’s the special place of the risen Lord. That where we enter life, not just with anointing oil for the dead, but to be anointed into life with the Spirit. Or at society’s edge — where people are homeless, in danger like our refugees, lost like many of our young and not so young people, and at the edge hour of death. That is the Galilee where we will find the risen Lord.

Thank you, Lord, for your life among us.