Commentary on the readings for the First Sunday of Pember
At the end of the Passion narrative, Luke introduces Joseph of Arimathea who asks for the body of Jesus, takes it down from the cross, wraps it in a sheet and buries it in a new tomb hewn out of the rock. Then he writes: "The women who had accompanied himñThey followed him from Galilee, and saw the tomb and the tomb.óHis body had been laid out. When they returned, they prepared spices and myrrh. And the sárested in accordance with the precept of the". The women themselves are witnesses to what happened on the first day of the week, the first day of the new life of the world. That begins with them, the women, experts in accompanying death and the life that begins: they will witness the birth of the humanity of Jesus to a new life, the first fruits of our future life. Christ God incarnate, in the middle of the night was born from the womb of the new rock of the tomb, to a new life.
They had not thought how to remove the stone, but their impulse of love is rewarded by the author of life: the stone no longer closes the tomb. Luke, who speaks of angels in several passages of the Gospel, nevertheless says here that two men in dazzling clothes appear to the women. Also in the Acts of the Apostles he will say of two men who appear and dialogue with the Eleven after the ascension. "Two men" are also Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration who speak with Jesus. "of his exodus, which él was to be consummated in Jerusalem"(Lk 9:30-31). Moses and Elijah are also protagonists of the Scriptures who bear witness to Christ, as Jesus explained to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, "..." (Lk 9:30-31).and, beginning with Moses and continuing through all the prophets". And a little later to the Eleven apostles and "your fellowñeros"and shut up in the Upper Room on the evening of that same first day of the week, opening their minds to the things written about him" (Acts 2:1).in the law of Mosesés, in the Prophets and Psalms".
But above all the two men remind the women that he, still in Galilee, spoke of his death and also of his resurrection. "Remember", say these men, or angels with human features. The women remember and run to tell what happened. There are not only three, but several. On the same day of the Resurrection, of the empty tomb, of the things heard by men with a particular light, they experience the humiliation of the little ones towards the strong who command. "They took it for a delusion and didn't believe them.". By the way, they have not yet seen Him. But they believe on the basis of His word which they heard in Galilee. And they are blessed. They achieve a first step: Peter goes out and goes to see the empty tomb. Soon all will see Him and His wounds and will again hear His voice that will never die.
Homily on the readings of the First Sunday of Easter
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
