Easter Sunday

Our readings for Easter Sunday morning are:

1. Acts 10: 34a, 37-43
2. Psalms 118: 1-2, 16-17, 22-23
3. 1 Corinthians 5: 6b-8
4. John 20: 1-9

• Border walking
• Acts 10 chronicles how the apostle Paul was first invited to preach to the Gentiles.  Lucky for us, he listened to this unlikely invitation, luckier still that the Holy Spirit elected to take him out of his comfort zone.
• Think of a time in your life where you felt a call to do the unlikely.
• Did you feel ready to take that step?
• How did you finally decide to move forward into that uncharted terrain?
• Are you glad that you did?

• Patterns of mercy
• Finding the mercy of God in our past can be hard sometimes.  Tragedy strikes, calamity works to separate us from our loved ones and family, and years later we look back on those events and wonder where God was in all of that, or what we had done to deserve His anger, or even what sort of God would allow such to happen.
• Do those questions have answers?
• Should they?
• Where have you found your answers to those questions?
• What do those answers tell you about God?

• Transformation
• The Gospel of John portrays a risen Jesus with mortal wounds still evident.  A meditation on this can be found here.  It would seem that the wounds of Christ are not eradicated, but transformed.
• What are some of the biggest changes that you have come in your life?
• Were any of those caused by a tragedy, hurt, disaster?
• What gave you hope in those circumstances?
• Does that hope color your perceptions today?

• Meta cognition
• How we learn things, what it really means to learn, and what is worth learning are all important questions.  An even deeper one is where lies the distinction between faith information and faith formation.
• The first disciples had the reality of the empty tomb to bear witness to the resurrection.  What, in your life, gives witness to that resurrection today?
• Jesus made several appearances to His disciples before He ascended.  Where is He making His presence known in your life today?
• The Liturgical seasons are gateways, doors to the sacred realities that are always with us.  Those realities are eternal, transcendent.  Hence, it is always Advent, always Lent, always Easter.  How is it Easter in your life today?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Where is God calling me to reach out to the untouchable today?
2. Where has God's mercy been hardest to find in my life?
3. What hurts of mine does God want to transform?
4. Where is God calling me to hope unexplainable?

Shalom!