Daily Mass Reflection & Daily Mass Readings

12th April – Second Sunday of Easter

We are familiar with the expression, ‘seeing is believing’. When it comes to Jesus, seeing was not always believing. Many of his contemporaries saw him and did not believe in him. However, there were some who saw Jesus and believed in him. They formed the core group of disciples around Jesus. Their faith in Jesus was severely shaken by his passion and death. It was Jesus’ resurrection and his appearances to them that renewed their faith and their desire to share in his mission to the world.

This is what we find happening in today’s gospel reading. Mary Magdalene had gone to the disciples with the good news of Easter declaring, ‘I have seen the Lord’. However, her witness to the Lord’s resurrection didn’t have any impact on the disciples. In today’s gospel reading the disciples are huddled together in a locked room out of fear. They were trying to lock out those who had been responsible for Jesus’ death. Yet, they were unable to lock out Jesus. He was now alive with a new kind of life over which locked doors had no power. The risen Lord didn’t need to knock on the door and wait to be admitted. He simply stood among them, saying to them, ‘Peace be with you’.  We can all try to lock other people out of our lives, for a whole variety of reasons. We can even attempt to lock the Lord out of our lives. Today’s gospel reading suggests that we cannot really lock him out of our lives. He is always standing before us, whether we invite him or not.

He comes to us as he came to those first disciple with the greeting, ‘Peace be with you’. They had failed the Lord, deserting him when he most needed them, but he wanted them to know that he was at peace with them and they could be at peace with him. He stood among them to reconcile them to himself. When he showed them his hands and his side, he was showing them his wounds that spoke of the strength of his love for them, wounds through which the light of God’s love was now shining upon them. The Lord who stands among us does so to show us the strength of his love for us. His stands before us to grant pardon for our failings and to draw us into a closer relationship with himself. All he asks is that we open ourselves to his presence. It is said of the disciples that when they recognized the Lord they were filled with joy. The Lord comes to us to fill us with a share in his own joy. It is a joy that comes from knowing that we are unconditionally loved and that nothing in our lives need separate us from the Lord’s love.

That moment in the room where the risen Lord appeared was a truly graced moment for the disciples. The Lord gifted them with his love, without asking them to earn it or deserve it. That is how the Lord relates to us all. The Lord went on to breathe the Holy Spirit upon them, which was the Spirit of God’s love. Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans says that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. The risen Lord stands before us too to fill us afresh with the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God’s reconciling love. The Lord who graced those first disciples in a wonderful way was empowering them to go out of their closed room and bring his love they had just received to others. They were to be ambassadors of God’s merciful love, conveying God’s forgiveness to all. The risen Lord who stands among us and graces us so abundantly does so with a view to our going out to others too and bringing them the love that we have received from the Lord. We are sent as messengers of the Lord’s reconciling and renewing love. The Lord’s mission in the world didn’t end with his crucifixion. It was only beginning. As risen Lord he wants to continue his mission of bringing God’s love to a world that is so often broken and wounded, through each one of us.

Just as the disciples were unmoved when Mary Magdalene said to them, ‘I have seen the Lord’, Thomas was unmoved when this group of disciples went to him and said, ‘We have seen the Lord’. He wanted to see the risen Lord for himself, and more than that, to feel his wounds. The Lord granted his request. Without any word of rebuke to him, he showed Thomas the wounds that spoke of his love, and called on Thomas, ‘Doubt no longer but believe’. In response Thomas made one of the most striking profession of faith in all of the gospels, ‘My Lord and my God’. The Lord accommodated himself to Thomas, and he does the same for us all. He meets us where we are and then he calls us beyond where we are. The Lord is always calling on us to journey into a fuller and richer faith, into an ever deeper relationship with himself. If we are faithful to that journey we will be included in the Lord’s beatitude at the end of the gospel reading, ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe’.

11th April – Easter Saturday

There is a focus in today’s gospel reading on the refusal of the disciples to believe the report of some of their group that Jesus had appeared to them. They did not believe Mary Magdalene or the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It was only when the risen Lord appeared to them himself that they believed he had been raised from the dead. Once Jesus had been crucified, the disciples never expected to see him again. The news from others that he was alive was too good to be true. Perhaps we are all a little like the first disciples. We find it easier to believe that Jesus was crucified than that he was raised from the dead. It often seems that the dominant symbol of Christianity is the crucified Jesus rather than the risen Jesus. We tend to have far more images of the crucified Jesus in our churches than of the risen Jesus. Yet, the good news that Jesus is risen is at the core of our faith. As Saint Paul, to whom the risen Lord appeared, says in one of his letters, ‘if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain’. We can also say that if Christ had not been raised, then the disciples who had gone into hiding after the crucifixion of Jesus would never have been seen again. Instead, they became enthusiastic and courageous proclaimers of the gospel of Christ crucified and risen. In today’s first reading, when the Jewish leaders gave Peter and John a stern warning never to teach in the name of Jesus again, they replied, ‘We cannot promise to stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard’. Christ is risen and is alive among us and within us. This is the good news of Easter that we are asked to believe in and make our own. It is such good news that the church gives us seven weeks to reflect upon it and absorb it. Just as Lent lasted seven weeks, the Easter season lasts seven weeks, from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. As we absorb the good news of Easter during this time, we can come to say with Saint Paul, ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’, and we can enter more fully into our Easter calling to bring Christ to others by our lives.

12th April >> Mass Readings

Divine Mercy Sunday (2nd Sunday of Easter) 

(Liturgical Colour: White. Year: A(II))

First Reading Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47 The faithful all lived together and owned everything in common.

The whole community remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. The many miracles and signs worked through the apostles made a deep impression on everyone. The faithful all lived together and owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions and shared out the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed. They went as a body to the Temple every day but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously; they praised God and were looked up to by everyone. Day by day the Lord added to their community those destined to be saved.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 117(118):2-4,13-15,22-24

R/ Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Let the sons of Israel say: ‘His love has no end.’ Let the sons of Aaron say: ‘His love has no end.’ Let those who fear the Lord say: ‘His love has no end.’

R/ Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

I was thrust down, thrust down and falling, but the Lord was my helper. The Lord is my strength and my song; he was my saviour. There are shouts of joy and victory in the tents of the just.

R/ Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner stone. This is the work of the Lord, a marvel in our eyes. This day was made by the Lord; we rejoice and are glad.

R/ Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Second Reading 1 Peter 1:3-9 You did not see Christ, yet you love him.

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us a new birth as his sons, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away, because it is being kept for you in the heavens. Through your faith, God’s power will guard you until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the end of time. This is a cause of great joy for you, even though you may for a short time have to bear being plagued by all sorts of trials; so that, when Jesus Christ is revealed, your faith will have been tested and proved like gold – only it is more precious than gold, which is corruptible even though it bears testing by fire – and then you will have praise and glory and honour. You did not see him, yet you love him; and still without seeing him, you are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described, because you believe; and you are sure of the end to which your faith looks forward, that is, the salvation of your souls.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes

Christians, to the Paschal Victim offer sacrifice and praise. The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb; and Christ, the undefiled, hath sinners to his Father reconciled.

Death with life contended: combat strangely ended!

Life’s own Champion, slain, yet lives to reign.

Tell us, Mary: say what thou didst see upon the way.

The tomb the Living did enclose; I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!

The angels there attesting; shroud with grave-clothes resting.

Christ, my hope, has risen: he goes before you into Galilee.

That Christ is truly risen from the dead we know. Victorious king, thy mercy show!

Gospel Acclamation John 20:29

Alleluia, alleluia! Jesus said: ‘You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’ Alleluia!

Gospel John 20:19-31 Eight days later, Jesus came again and stood among them.

In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.

‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’

After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:

‘You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

11th April >> Mass Readings

Easter Saturday 

(Liturgical Colour: White. Year: A(II))

First Reading Acts of the Apostles 4:13-21 We cannot promise to stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard.

The rulers, elders and scribes were astonished at the assurance shown by Peter and John, considering they were uneducated laymen; and they recognised them as associates of Jesus; but when they saw the man who had been cured standing by their side, they could find no answer. So they ordered them to stand outside while the Sanhedrin had a private discussion. ‘What are we going to do with these men?’ they asked. ‘It is obvious to everybody in Jerusalem that a miracle has been worked through them in public, and we cannot deny it. But to stop the whole thing spreading any further among the people, let us caution them never to speak to anyone in this name again.’ So they called them in and gave them a warning on no account to make statements or to teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John retorted, ‘You must judge whether in God’s eyes it is right to listen to you and not to God. We cannot promise to stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard.’ The court repeated the warnings and then released them; they could not think of any way to punish them, since all the people were giving glory to God for what had happened.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 117(118):1,14-21

R/ I will thank you, Lord, for you have given answer. or R/ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end. The Lord is my strength and my song; he was my saviour. There are shouts of joy and victory in the tents of the just.

R/ I will thank you, Lord, for you have given answer. or R/ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

The Lord’s right hand has triumphed; his right hand raised me up. I shall not die, I shall live and recount his deeds. I was punished, I was punished by the Lord, but not doomed to die.

R/ I will thank you, Lord, for you have given answer. or R/ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Open to me the gates of holiness: I will enter and give thanks. This is the Lord’s own gate where the just may enter. I will thank you for you have answered and you are my saviour.

R/ I will thank you, Lord, for you have given answer. or R/ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes

Christians, to the Paschal Victim offer sacrifice and praise. The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb; and Christ, the undefiled, hath sinners to his Father reconciled.

Death with life contended: combat strangely ended!

Life’s own Champion, slain, yet lives to reign.

Tell us, Mary: say what thou didst see upon the way.

The tomb the Living did enclose; I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!

The angels there attesting; shroud with grave-clothes resting.

Christ, my hope, has risen: he goes before you into Galilee.

That Christ is truly risen from the dead we know. Victorious king, thy mercy show!

Gospel Acclamation Psalm 117:24

Alleluia, alleluia! This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad. Alleluia!

Gospel Mark 16:9-15 Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News.

Having risen in the morning on the first day of the week, Jesus appeared first to Mary of Magdala from whom he had cast out seven devils. She then went to those who had been his companions, and who were mourning and in tears, and told them. But they did not believe her when they heard her say that he was alive and that she had seen him. After this, he showed himself under another form to two of them as they were on their way into the country. These went back and told the others, who did not believe them either. Lastly, he showed himself to the Eleven themselves while they were at table. He reproached them for their incredulity and obstinacy, because they had refused to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. And he said to them, ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation.’

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ