PRI Reflections on Scripture • 3-30-24 - Holy Saturday At the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter

Finding God In Our Hearts with Msgr. Don Fischer

Gospel Mark 16:1-7
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb. They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large. On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed. He said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.’”
Reflection The reaction of the angel is very interesting. Can you imagine walking to a place where you thought the person was still there? You knew he was dead, and you encounter a figure, a beautiful young man who simply says, He's not here,
He's risen. And yet they were told that would happen. And so they were totally amazed. And the response is so interesting coming from the angel, why are you amazed? Did you not believe it? Did you not understand Jesus? And of course, that is the point. They did not understand Jesus’ teaching. They didn't fathom the fullness of what he would be until those many days, those beautiful 40 days after he rose and taught them, awakened them to the mystery of the God that wants to live within them.
Closing Prayer Father, your promise to be with us, to be in us, to be for us, to forgive us. All these things are still struggles for us to be able to fully fathom what they are. Bless us with the kind of wisdom, the longing that Eve had at the very beginning of the human races relationship with God. She longed for wisdom. That's what we still need, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. And we asked this in Jesus’ name, Amen.