Psalm 105 : 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5
Alleluia! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His love endures forever. Who can count the Lord’s mighty deeds, or declare all His praises?
Blessed are they who always do just and right. Remember me, o Lord, when You show favour to Your people.
Rescue me when You deliver them, let me see the triumph of Your faithful, let me share the joy of Your nation, and join Your people in praising You.
Luke 1 : 39-56
Mary then set out for a town in the hill country of Judah. She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with Holy Spirit, and giving a loud cry, said, “You are most blessed among women, and blessed is the Fruit of your womb! How is it that the mother of my Lord comes to me? The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby within me suddenly leapt for joy. Blessed are you who believed that the Lord’s word would come true!”
And Mary said,
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit exults in God my Saviour! He has looked upon His servant in her lowliness, and people forever will call me blessed.”
“The Mighty One has done great things for me, Holy is His Name! From age to age His mercy extends to those who live in His presence.”
“He has acted with power and done wonders, and scattered the proud with their plans. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up those who are downtrodden.”
“He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He held out His hand to Israel, His servant, for He remembered His mercy, even as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.”
Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months, and then returned home.
Zephaniah 3 : 14-18
Cry out with joy, o daughter of Zion; rejoice, o people of Israel! Sing joyfully with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem!
YHVH has lifted your sentence and has driven your enemies away. YHVH, the King of Israel is with you; do not fear any misfortune. On that day they will say to Jerusalem : Do not be afraid nor let your hands tremble, for YHVH your God is within you, YHVH, saving warrior.
He will jump for joy on seeing you, for He has revived His love. For you He will cry out with joy, as you do in the days of the Feast. “I will drive away the evil I warned you about, and you will no longer be shamed.”
Alternative Reading
Romans 12 : 9-16b
Let love be sincere. Hate what is evil and hold to whatever is good. Love one another and be considerate. Outdo one another in mutual respect. Be zealous in fulfilling your duties. Be fervent in the Spirit and serve God.
Have hope and be cheerful. Be patient in trials and pray constantly. Share with other Christians in need. With those passing by, be ready to receive them. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not wish evil on anyone.
Rejoice with those who are joyful, and weep with those who weep. Live in peace with one another. Do not dream of extraordinary things.
Psalm 149 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b
Alleluia! Sing to the Lord a new song, sing His praise in the assembly of His saints. Let Israel rejoice in his Maker, let the people of Zion glory in their King!
Let them dance in praise of His Name and make music for Him with harp and timbrel. For the Lord delights in His people; He crowns the lowly with victory.
The saints will exult in triumph; even at night on their couches. Let the praise of God be on their lips. This is the glory of all His saints. Alleluia!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we who believe in Christ, and put our trust in His words, and place ourselves in His great love, do not belong to this world, which is owned by the evil one, with the sole intention of steering all of us away from the true path, that is the way of Christ. This they have done together by tempting the faithful ones in Christ, God’s sheep with the false promise of earthly pleasures and false joy and happiness.
Do not fear though, my brethren in faith, for Christ, our Lord Himself had also suffered such temptations and yet He won, because of His obedience to God His Father, and His unshakeable faith. We too ought to have that kind of faith and love for God, that we can deny the evil one, a passage into our hearts. Do not let the devil dwell inside us, but rather, let us put God at the centre of our very being, making our own body into a Holy Temple of His Presence.
God has made all of us His own, and gave Himself freely for our sake, giving His own flesh and blood that we can live eternally with Him in eternal joy and bliss. Not the temporary and false joy and happiness that this world can offer, but the lasting happiness of heaven. True happiness, and true joy, that the world cannot give, for there is only true joy when we are together and united with Christ our Lord and God, never again to be separated from Him.
The world hates the Lord, because it belongs to the devil, and therefore it will hate all of us too, who keep the faith in God strong. But if we remain faithful to the Lord, the devil and this world will have no power over us. We must keep our faith in God strong, and how to do this? By constant and healthy prayer life, to anchor ourselves in God, by being in constant direct line to God, we can keep ourselves from the power of evil. We also should receive the Lord regularly in deep devotion during the Mass, by attending Mass frequently, and devoutly receiving the Lord in the Eucharist.
The Eucharist, that is our Lord’s Precious Body and Blood will transform us into a Holy Temple of His divine Presence, as He enters our own unworthy bodies, and from the inside, He would transform us and made us worthy of Him, but only if our minds, our hearts, and our soul are open to Him and willing to accept Him.
Let us put our trust in God, who is our divine Master and Lord, who had triumphed over death, and who had won for us the fight against evil, and banish evil forever into the ultimate fate that awaits him, that is the lake of fire. Let us not fear evil and the world anymore, but continue to put our trust in God and love both Him and our fellow men. Keep our guard up, that the evil one will not ‘steal’ us from under God’s watch, but we need not fear if we stay in our faith in Him. God bless us all. Amen.
Revelation 1 : 9-11a, 12-13, 17-19
I, John, your brother, who shares with you, in Jesus, the sufferings, the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island of Patmos, because of the Word of God and witnessing to Jesus. On the Lord’s day, the Spirit took possession of me and I heard a voice behind me which sounded like a trumpet. “Write down all that you see, in a book, and send it to the seven Churches.”
I turned to see who was speaking to me; behind me were seven golden lampstands and, in the middle of these, I saw someone like a Son of Man, dressed in a long robe tied with a golden girdle.
Seeing Him, I fell at His feet like one dead but He touched me with His right hand and said, “Do not be afraid. It is I, the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead and now I am alive forever and ever; and mine are the keys of death and the netherworld. Now write what you have seen, both what is and what is yet to come.”
Psalm 117 : 1 and 14-15, 16ab-18, 19-21
Alleluia! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His loving kindness endures forever. The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. Joyful shouts of victory are heard in the tents of the just.
The right hand of the Lord is lifted high, the right hand of the Lord strikes mightily! I shall not die, but live to proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord has stricken me severely, but He has saved me from death.
Open to me the gates of the Just, and let me enter to give thanks. “This is the Lord’s gate, through which the upright enter.” I thank You for having answered me, for having rescued me.
Christ is risen! He has risen from the dead!
That is the key to our faith, that is our faith in God. God who has loved us so much since the time of creation till now, and his everlasting love made Him to give us the only means to salvation, that is through Christ who died and then returned to life in the glorious Resurrection, which we commemorate in this Easter season. Such is the joy that our joy overflowed and lasted the entire fifty days since Easter Sunday to the day of Pentecost.
For in Christ, the keys to the kingdom of heaven is finally available to us, for Christ destroyed evil’s hold on us and sin’s slavery of mankind through His death. He descended into hell though He was sinless and pure, all because He did so out of pure love for us, and to release our forefathers who had died before us, who had been righteous but were still enslaved by the power of sin, because of mankind’s rebellion against God.
That was why Christ came into this world, to be the servant of our Lord who sent Him. He was rejected, vilified, and eventually was condemned to death like a criminal on a cross. That was so that the servant of God would be glorified, and lifted up high for all to see. For in Him, lies the salvation of this very world. As I had often mentioned, the Most Precious Blood which He offered to all of us through the Last Supper with His disciples, was poured down the wood of the cross, as a cleansing font of salvation, in which, if we choose to do so, we can cleanse ourselves and purify our beings in the blood of the Lamb.
Yes, Christ who is our Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, who did not resist, and pure as He was, He bought off our sins into Himself, that in His purity, our sins will be destroyed. And yet, as King David had mentioned, that God will not suffer His Son to suffer for such great injustice, that He suffered no corruption, because He who suffered for our sins was indeed still and always will be unblemished. This is why God brought Him up again on the third day as Christ Himself had mentioned.
If Christ died on the cross and remained dead, we would then have no hope, since Christ Himself succumbed to that same power of death which had enthralled us all this while. Death is our just punishment for our rebellion against God who is good and perfect. But Christ, through His Resurrection, showed His triumph over death, and He, who is the first to be risen from the dead in glory, through His own glory, conquered death, and threw a final rebuke against Satan, releasing all of us from the same bonds of death.
His victory gave us a new hope and indeed, the hope in Him, He who conquered death, and conquered evil in the same time. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us, in this Easter season, strive to put our trust and hope in Christ, our Lord, and strive to grow deeper in our faith in our God, and also our love for Him and for our neighbour. That we will grow ever stronger in faith, hope, and love, the three virtues that mark us as truly belonging to God, our Lord. Pray for one another as well.
Amen.
Matthew 28 : 8-15
The women left the tomb at once in fear, yet with great joy, and they ran to tell the news to Jesus’ disciples. Suddenly, He met them on the way and said, “Rejoice!” The women approached Him, embraced His feet and worshiped Him. But Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid! Go and tell My brothers to set out for Galilee; there they will see Me.”
While the women were on their way, the guards returned to the city, and some of them reported to the chief priests all that had happened. The chief priests met with the elders, and decided to give the soldiers a large sum of money, with this instruction, “Say that His disciples came by night while you were asleep, and stole the body of Jesus. If Pilate comes to know of this, we will explain the situation and keep you out of trouble.”
The soldiers accepted the money and did as they were told. This story has circulated among the Jews until this day.
John 20 : 1-9
Now, on the first day after the Sabbath, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark, and she saw that the stone blocking the tomb had been moved away. She ran to Peter, and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and she said to them, “They have taken our Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid Him.”
Peter then set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down and saw the linen cloths lying flat, but he did not enter.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and entered the tomb; he, too saw the linen cloths lying flat. The napkin, which had been around His head, was not lying flat like the other linen cloths, but lay rolled up in its place.
Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in; he saw and believed. Scripture clearly said that He must rise from the dead, but they had not yet understood that.
Alternative reading
Luke 24 : 1-12
On the Sabbath the women rested according to the commandment, but the first day of the week, at dawn, they went to the tomb with the perfumes and ointments they had prepared. Seeing the stone rolled away from the opening of the tomb, they entered, and were amazed to find that the body of the Lord Jesus was not there.
As they stood there wondering about this, two men in dazzling garments suddenly appeared beside them. In fright the women bowed to the ground. But the men said, “Why look for the living among the dead? You won’t find Him here. He is risen. Remember what He told you in Galilee, that the Son of Man had to be given into the hands of sinners, to be crucified, and to rise on the third day.” And they remembered Jesus’ words.
Returning from the tomb, they told the Eleven and all the others about these things. Among the women, who brought the news, were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. But however much they insisted, those who heard did not believe the seemingly nonsensical story.
Then Peter got up and ran to the tomb. All he saw, when he bent down and looked into the tomb, were the linen cloths, laid by themselves. He went home wondering.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 