Gospel Reflection for Sunday, April 20, 2025

Dear brothers and sisters, peace and all good.

Dear friends: The Lord has risen! That child who was born in Bethlehem, raised by Mary and Joseph, who, at the age of 30, began His public ministry by being baptized in the Jordan River, and who went through the world doing good, speaking about God who is love, and bringing it to the lives of the poorest. That same Jesus who was judged, condemned to die on a cross, crucified, died, and buried. That very Jesus is now risen. Death could not defeat Him. Injustice did not triumph over an innocent victim. From now on, all the crucified of this world can carry their crosses with hope, because the same God who raised Jesus will also raise us.

The first reading reminds us of everything that has happened since Jesus began His preaching. It could serve as an initial announcement of the message to those who have never heard of Christ. How Jesus lived, serving, healing, and doing good to all. All this in a very specific time and place, because the Incarnation has to be noticed in everything.

From what Jesus did, Saint Peter moves on to recall the reaction of people to His public life. The Master was killed because they did not accept His message and decided that the best way to deal with Him was to end it – once and for all, or so they thought. We know that those same people who shouted «Hosanna to the Son of David» on Palm Sunday, called for His death on Good Friday.

But God could not abandon His Son, so He raised Him from the dead and began a new era where death no longer has the final word. Peter gives testimony of all this, and we too must give testimony of all this. The apostles are His witnesses because they were with Him, shared the Last Supper with Him, heard His teachings, and saw the signs He did. They are witnesses not because they were the best, but because they had a unique experience and were in a position to share it with those who honestly and openly wish to listen. Just like us, who are not the most capable or the holiest, but we often share the Eucharist, hear the Word of God, and have all the tools to give a credible testimony with our lives.

The brief passage from the letter to the Corinthians also reminds us of something very important for us: we live in this world, but the fullness of our lives will only take place in the Kingdom of Heaven. Only then will we have answers to the most complex questions about the meaning of life and death.

Saint Paul, with his own life, gave us an example that we must be involved in the things of this world. He worked with his hands so as not to be a burden to anyone, even though he knew that the important things are those above. He was deeply committed to making the world a better place, with many good works to witness that a new world is possible. Living fully in this world, to reach the fullness of life in Heaven. In this too, we can participate by hastening to do good, the more, the better.

And we come to the Gospel, which begins when everything is dark, lifeless, and ends with the sense, or rather the certainty, that the Lord has truly risen. A woman, moved by love, goes to perform the rites but finds the tomb open. She runs to find Peter and the beloved disciple who, also running, go to the tomb to confirm what the woman had told them.

In that empty tomb, the two of them, seeing the linen wrappings and the cloth rolled up, believed and understood everything Christ had been teaching them over the last three years. Before those signs of death, they begin to believe in Life. But for this to happen, there is a process, a journey that must be illuminated by the Word and by the Christian community.

Today, life starts again, God re-creates it and re-creates us, giving us a new chance to do things better, to be better ourselves, to make the world we live in better, and to treat the people we live with better. Today, «the first day of the week,» the risen Jesus tells us that living differently is possible, that life has meaning, despite difficulties, frustrations, and failures, that we should not be overcome by evil or negativity, because it is always possible to rise again.

Let us embrace this new opportunity that God gives us and renew our Baptism, our commitment to Him and to those around us, especially to the poorest and most in need. Let us renounce everything that opposes the lifestyle that Jesus offers us and choose a life lived in faith in the risen Jesus.

Your brother in faith,