Monsignor Robert Draper shares a reflection for Easter Sunday.
Acts 10:34, 37-43; Ps 117; Col 3:1-4; Jn 20:1-9.
In the first reading, Peter offers Cornelius a wonderfully concise catechetical summary of the Christian story. What is so striking is that Peter roots it in his own experience, and that of his fellow disciples, and they can witness to that experience. The importance of witnessing is an immediate consequence of the Resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is not just recognised as a confirmation of Jesus’ identity and role, it is also a call to take that to others: “he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people.” Peter insists that what has happened is not simply justifying the past experience of those who were disciples when Jesus ministered, but is focussed on the future, and is a demand to action – the call to evangelisation.
Peter may emphasise that he and the others can do this because they were witnesses to the ministry and encountered the Risen Lord, but the gospel invites us to understand that faith in the Lord is not dependent on that. There is something deliberately low key about the gospel we are offered today – all that is seen is an empty tomb and some burial cloths, and yet that is enough for the beloved disciple: “he saw and he believed.” No one today could quite use Peter’s exact words to Cornelius, but many could – and do – articulate something similar based on the witness of their own faith, coming through some simple reality, like the beloved disciple; and those gathered at the Eucharist today, in a real sense, can proclaim that faith as witnesses who have “eaten and drunk with him.”
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