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Recognizing the Risen Christ

3/4/2026

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:
The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

John
20.1-18

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. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.”

When she had said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord, “ and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

To recognize someone implies some level of relationship.

A few weeks ago, I went to a thrift store looking for a particular item. I had a specific image in my head of what I was looking for and I was on a mission. As I was surveying the shelves, a person and her cart encroached on my space. I moved, thinking maybe I was in her way. But she stayed close. I shuffled in the opposite direction. She inched closer to me. I was starting to feel crowded in. So I looked up to see why this person wasn’t moving past me. As I raised my head, the young woman said, “Aurea?” Wait a minute, she knows me? My brain immediately flipped through my mental filing cabinet trying to match a name to the face. Found it: she was a great volunteer from my time as local volunteer coordinator for a national children’s charity. We had a lovely catch-up chat. It had been over 15 years since we’d seen each other yet, because of our shared experience (which had impacted both of us), she recognized me and I recognized her.

So why didn’t Mary recognize Jesus? She had spent so much time with Jesus, how could she not recognize him? Was she blinded by her grief? Was Jesus disfigured because of his crucifixion? Was she just not paying attention? Or was she, like me, so zoned in on her own plan that she wasn’t letting anything get in the way?

I won’t ever know the answer to that question, on this side of heaven anyway. But I can also ask myself a similar question: Why don’t I recognize Jesus? What stops me from recognizing him? Me. In the infamous words of Taylor Swift: “Hi, I’m the problem. It’s me.”

I stop myself from recognizing the Risen Christ:

when I choose to take for granted the sacrifice God made in giving His Son, His only Son to save all of humankind;
when I choose to define who Jesus is rather than discover who He is through His self-revelation;
when I choose to prioritize other relationships rather than my relationship with Him;
when I choose to limit His impact on my life.

I have known Jesus much longer than I have the young woman in my opening story. Like the young woman, Jesus recognizes me. But unlike her, Jesus knows me, and He wants me to know Him. He has had a much larger impact on my choices, my actions, my life. Yet, like Mary, I too can be so focused on what’s in front of me that I completely forget that Jesus is no longer on the Cross. But He is not on the Cross. He is standing beside me daily. Calling my name. Inviting me into relationship with Him. Awaiting my recognition of Him so that I can boldly and wholeheartedly witness Him to others.

I choose to recognize Him.

Aurea Sadi

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Hidden, Not Lost

2/4/2026

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A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:
The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

Colossians
3.1-4

Brothers and sisters: 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, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

“... [Y]our life is hidden with Christ in God.”

I misplace things a lot. I mean, a lot. For example, on the theme of Easter, I recall the year I hid a large bag of chocolate eggs, only to have to go buy another because I couldn’t remember what nook or cranny I had stashed them in a week earlier!

It’s dreadful realizing you’ve lost something, particularly if it’s an important item, or if it happens frequently. When I do, our family tries to stop what we are doing, retrace our steps, and everyone (reluctantly) pitches in to help find the lost item.

So what does losing things have to do with this Sunday’s reading from Colossians? Well, in a sense, things that are lost are just hidden from view. At least in the immediate, they haven’t ceased to exist – they’re somewhere, whether under the sofa, left on the bus, or in a spot we haven’t noticed.

With every passing Lent, we hope our Lenten encounter with God puts to death things in us that keep us from being one with Him. At Easter, He has won the victory, our hope is secure, and we rejoice in being made new in some way, big or small. We have new life in Him.

But Paul tells us that this new life is hidden! And doesn’t “hidden” sometimes feel more like “lost and I really don't know where I put it” in the everyday humdrum of life?

What do I normally do when something important seems lost? I retrace the steps that preceded the loss, trying to grasp again what I can’t seem to lay my eyes upon. In terms of my faith, that grasping is often for parts of my former self that I once thought had died with Him.

Why do I reach back to seek security? Despite the victory of the cross, it seems deeply embedded in my fallen human nature to continue to question God’s care. It is as if I am one of the women visiting Jesus’ tomb, to whom the angels ask, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen!” (Luke 24:5-6)

What is hidden in Christ is my identity, won for me by His blood. I don’t need to stop everything to go looking for it every time it doesn’t feel near or seems absent from view. My identity in Him will never cease to exist. It just is, because He is. It’s securely hidden in eternity and will one day be revealed. Unlike a lost object, it can never be stolen or destroyed. It will not remain hidden forever.

So this Easter, I will do as Paul says, and set my mind on what is above. The cross has won! There is no need to go back to what was, to find what I seek.

Join me! Christ is Risen, Alleluia!

Michelynne Gomez

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A Forever Kind of Love

1/4/2026

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A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:
The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

Psalm 118

R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever. Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”

R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

“The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.” I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.

R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

“I haven’t heard that song in forever!” “Ugh, this elevator is taking forever!”

I’ll be the first to admit that I am a big-time culprit of these kinds of misuses of the word “forever.” If something feels relatively long, we call it forever, even if it’s been under a minute!

The concept of “forever” is admittedly really difficult to wrap our finite minds around. We are used to time, and we’re used to chopping up our time into smaller, manageable blocks so that we can conceptualize it and get through it.

So – for the sake of reflecting on today’s Psalm – would you do an experiment with me?

Let’s take a breath and think about the Trinity existing before time began, before there were humans or dinosaurs, before there was any earth or sun or anything material. God was always there…. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit – I imagine them floating in an abyss of space for all of the time before the earth was formed, forever before.

Now think about the earth coming into being at God’s Word, and dinosaurs and humans and all the rest: paradise, sin, strife, Jesus’ redemptive sacrifice, our lives, our deaths, the lives and deaths of all those who will come after us and the end of time and the earth as we know it … and then what? Then God exists for all eternity, forever after.

This is the kind of expansive, mysterious “forever” that we should understand in today’s Psalm. “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!”

His love existed not only from before the beginning of time, His love for us endures forever – and we get the opportunity to live with Him forever. This Psalm is so beautifully chosen for Easter as it proclaims that we too will live forever because of Christ’s death and resurrection: “I shall not die, but I shall live…. Alleluia!” Because of Jesus’ rising from the dead, we are able to live in that steadfast love forever.

“This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad.” This new day that we experience on Easter morning is a new day that spans into eternity. May we all experience that huge embrace of the Trinity, God in Three Persons, who have loved us from before time began, and will love us, with a steadfast love, forever.

Sr Angela Burnham

2 Comments

What Do I Know?

31/3/2026

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A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:
The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

Acts
10.34a, 37-43

Peter began to speak: “You know the message that spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 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.

“We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. 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

“He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the Prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

“You know.… ” So what’s holding you back?

This has been a season of seeking deeper meaning, a time of walking closely with my corporal and spiritual poverty and the reality of the general frailty of the human mind and body. As Catherine Doherty has said, “Lent is a time of going very deeply into ourselves…. What is it that stands between us and God? Between us and our brothers and sisters? Between us and life, the life of the Spirit? Whatever it is, let us relentlessly tear it out, without a moment’s hesitation.” Let us relentlessly tear it out.

My path to divorcing myself from these things that are separating me from God has been one of trust and obedience. I have learned that obedience to my prayer time each morning sets the foundation for firmly trusting in God’s goodness, a trust that frees me to do the other difficult things He is calling me to – things like forgiveness, mercy, self-gift, an open and loving heart, all the things that oppose my desire to self-protect. Self-protection in and of itself perpetuates my belief that I know more than God knows.

Saint Peter walked this same road from time to time, as he found himself stuck in divisions created by man rather than in the love required by God, stuck in the mindset that he knew more than God knew. Yet God’s presence in Peter’s prayer — whether in his waking prayer or his dreams — provided a continual conversion of his heart and mind so that he could fully enter into the open disposition God was calling him to. The truth Peter preaches here comes from an awakening while he was sleeping, a profound dream emblematic of God’s desire for the unity of all peoples. And it convicted Peter of his poverty, and instilled in him a desire to share this message that is so rich in Truth.

The truth is: I am His chosen. I will eat and drink with Him this day. He, the Bread of Life, will be with me intimately as I celebrate with my brothers and sisters all that Saint Peter has confirmed.

He rose from the dead.

What more could He do to prove His sacrificial love and fidelity to me, His created? To affirm His saving omnipotence? To stir within me a desire to reflect and refract the love He poured out for me? To confirm that His knowingness is far beyond what I could ever know? To instill in me the knowledge of His protection if I can open myself to follow in His way?

The answer is: nothing. There is no more. It is finished. He is the One. He is here with me, all around me, within me. He has risen! Alleluia!

Lori MacDonald

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Recognizing the Risen Christ

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

Hidden, Not Lost

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

A Forever Kind of Love

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

What Do I Know?

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

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A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:
The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:
The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:
The Solemnity of Easter Sunday

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, April 5th, 2025:
The Solemnity of Easter Sunday