He Has Been Raised; He Is Not Here

Throughout Lent, we’ve shared excerpts from Lenten Grace, an inspiring journey through the season’s Gospel readings. Please enjoy today’s Easter Vigil reading. Also, you can get this entire six-volume series of daily Gospel reflections at 20% off.  Get it now.

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Lectio

Mark 16:1–7

Meditatio

“Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified.

He has been raised; he is not here.”

The sun was just inching its way over the horizon when the women sought to anoint you, Lord. Their love for you pushed aside any apprehension they must have felt at seeing the stone rolled away. Your messenger, the young man in white, told them the Good News: “The Crucified has been raised!” They saw the empty space where your body lay on Good Friday evening. They believed and were immediately commissioned: “go and tell” the apostles that Jesus is alive and “you will see him, as he told you.”

Lord, I often take this Good News for granted. Your paschal mystery encompasses your saving passion, death and resurrection. Sometimes I fall into a sort of spiritual denial by resenting opportunities to share in the first two parts of your paschal mystery. My sufferings and the little “deaths” of daily living pull a thick curtain over the window of my soul. When your grace reminds me of the resurrection, it pulls aside that curtain and floods my soul with the light of resurrection hope and joy. Of all the days of the year, today is a day to “rejoice and be glad.” Your resurrection erases all fear. It’s the bedrock of my faith. As Saint Paul says, without the resurrection, our faith would be in vain (see 1 Cor 15:17). Two millennia of martyrs and saints, a true “cloud of witnesses,” have gone before us and invite me to join them. Like the holy women, I too am entrusted with the message “to go and tell” the consoling news that death is not the end, but the beginning of eternal life.

Oratio

Lord Jesus, I kneel in awe before your tomb. I do believe in your resurrection and in my resurrection in the life to come! Thank you for your resurrection that roots me in Christian hope. Demolish the tomb of my woundedness, regrets, and bad habits. Let me look beyond myself to see those longing to hear the Good News from my lips, to see Good News in my actions and my conviction. Let me be aware of those next to me longing for your Good News. May my life be a sign of hope for all to see, and a song of thanksgiving for your dying and rising. Amen.

Contemplatio

He has been raised.… He is going before you.

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