MEDITATIO

According to the account given by Saint John the Theologian, the women bringing the spices sent Mary Magdalene ahead to the tomb. It was dark, but love gave her light. Thus she saw the large stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb and returned saying: “Disciples, do you know what I saw? The stone no longer covers the tomb. Could they have taken away my Lord? There are no guards in sight; they have fled. Could he have risen, he who brings resurrection to fallen humankind?” (…) He who sees all, seeing Magdalene overcome with sobbing and weighed down by sorrow, was touched to the heart. (…) He who tests our inmost part and heart, knowing that Mary would recognize his voice, called his little sheep – he, the true shepherd. “Mary”, he said, and immediately, she recognized him. “It really is my shepherd who is calling me so that from now on he may count me among the ninety-nine sheep. I know well who it is who is calling me. I said to him: It is my Lord; it is he who brings resurrection to fallen humankind”. (…) The Lord said to her: “Woman, may your mouth henceforth proclaim these marvels and explain them to the children of the Kingdom who are waiting for me, the Living One, to awaken. Go quickly, Mary, gather together my disciples (…); awake them all as if from sleep so they may come to meet me with torches alight. Go, tell them: the Bridegroom has awakened, he is coming out of his tomb. (…) Apostles, drive away your mortal sorrow, for the one who brings resurrection to fallen humankind is awake (…).” “Suddenly my mourning is transformed into rejoicing, everything has become joy and gladness for me. I say without wavering: I have received the same glory as Moses. I have seen – yes, I have seen! – not on the mountain, but in the tomb; not veiled with a cloud, but in my body: I have seen the Lord of all things incorporeal and their hosts, the one who is, who was, and who is to come. It is he who told me: Make haste, Mary, go to those who love me and reveal that I have risen. Carry the good news to the descendants of Noah as the dove carried them the olive branch (Gen 8:11). Tell them that death has been destroyed, and he who brings resurrection to fallen humankind has risen from the tomb.”
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

The holy men who lived before the coming of the Savior understood that God had in mind “a plan to bring peace to the race of mortal men” (Jer 29:11). For the Word “would do nothing on earth which he did not reveal to his servants the prophets” (Am 3:7). But this Word was hidden from many (…); but those who foreknew the redemption of Israel also proclaimed that Christ would come in the flesh and that with him would come peace (…): “There will be peace when he comes to our earth” (cf. Mi 5:5). In those days, while the prophets foretold peace, the faith of the people continually wavered because there was no one to redeem or save them, for the Author of peace delayed his coming. So men complained at the delay, because the Prince of Peace (Is 9:5), who had been so often proclaimed, had not yet come, as had been promised by the holy men who were his prophets from of old (Lk 1:70) (…). It was as if one of the people were to answer the messengers of peace: “How much longer are you going to keep us waiting?” (Jn 10:24). You foretell a peace which does not come. You promise good things and there is still confusion (Jer 14:19). See, many times and in many ways angels, announced to the patriarchs and our fathers, proclaimed to us, saying: “Peace. And there is no peace” (Jer 6:14). (…) Let God confirm that his messengers spoke the truth, if they were his messengers, and let him follow them in person. (…) Here are sweet promises full of consolation : “Behold the Lord will appear; and he will not lie. If he seems slow, wait for him, for he will come and that soon” (Hab 2:3). And again: “The time of his coming is near and his days will not be prolonged” (Is 14:1), and from the person of him who was promised: “Behold,” he says, “I am running toward you like a river of peace and like a stream in flood with the glory of the nations” (Is 66:12 Vg).
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

Christ – the Unique Word of Holy Scripture. In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words: “Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men.” (Vatican II, DV 13). Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely (He 1:1-3): You recall that one and the same Word of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is one and the same Utterance that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since he who was in the beginning God with God has no need of separate syllables; for he is not subject to time (Saint Augustine). For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and Christ’s Body (DV 21). In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, “but as what it really is, the word of God” (1 Th 2:13). “In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them” (DV 21). God is the author of Sacred Scripture. “The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit” (DV 11). (…) Still, the Christian faith is not a “religion of the book”. Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, “not a written and mute word, but incarnate and living” (Saint Bernard).  If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open our minds to understand the Scriptures” (Lk 24:45).
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team