From: Matthew 28:1-10

Jesus Appears To The Women

[1] Now after the sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulchre. [2] And behold, there
was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and
came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. [3] His appearance was like
lightning, and his raiment white as snow. [4] And for fear of him the guards
trembled and became like dead men. [5] But the angel said to the women, “Do
not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. [6] He is not
here; for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. [7] Then
go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold,
He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. Lo, I have told you.”
[8] So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to
tell His disciples. [9] And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Hail!” And they
came up and took hold of His feet and worshipped Him. [10] Then Jesus said
to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee; and there
they will see Me.”

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Commentary:

1-15. The resurrection of Jesus, which happened in the early hours of the Sun-
day morning, is a fact which all the evangelist state clearly and unequivocally.
Some holy women discover to their surprise that the tomb is open. On entering
the hall (cf. Mark 16:5-6), they see an angel who says to them, “He is not here;
for He has risen, as He said.” The guards who were on duty when the angel
rolled back the stone go to the city and report what has happened to the chief
priests. These, because of the urgency of the matter, decide to bribe the guards;
they give them a considerable sum of money on condition that they spread the
word that His disciples came at night and stole the body of Jesus when they
were asleep. “Wretched craftiness,” says St. Augustine, “do you give us wit-
nesses who were asleep? It is you who are really asleep if this is the only kind
of explanation you have to offer!” (”Enarrationes in Psalmos”, 63, 15). The Apos-
tles, who a couple of days before fled in fear, will, now that they have seen Him
and have eaten and drunk with Him, become tireless preachers of this great e-
vent: “This Jesus,” they will say, “God raised up, and of that we are all witnes-
ses” (Acts 2:32).

Just as He foretold He would go up to Jerusalem and be delivered to the leaders
of the Jews and put to death, He also prophesied that He would rise from the
dead (Matthew 20:17-19; Mark 10:32-34; Luke 18:31-34). By His resurrection He
completes the sign He promised to give unbelievers to show His divinity (Matthew
12:40).

The resurrection of Christ is one of the basic dogmas of the Catholic faith. In fact,
St. Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and
your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14); and, to prove his assertion that Christ
rose, he tells us “that He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then He ap-
peared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still a-
live, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the
apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me” (1 Corin-
thians 15:5-8). The creed states that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day
(”Nicene Creed”), by His own power (Ninth Council of Toledo, “De Redemptio-
ne”), by a true resurrection of the flesh (”Creed” of St. Leo IX), reuniting His soul
with His body (Innocent III, “Eius Exemplo”), and that this fact of the resurrection
is historically proven and provable (”Lamentabili”, 36).

“By the word ‘resurrection’ we are not merely to understand that Christ was
raised from the dead...but that He rose by His own power and virtue, a singular
prerogative peculiar to Him alone. Our Lord confirmed this by the divine testimo-
ny of His own mouth when He said: ‘I lay down My life, that I may take it again
....I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it up again’ (John 10:17-
18). To the Jews He also said, in corroboration of His doctrine: ‘Destroy this tem-
ple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (John 2:19-20) [...]. We sometimes, it is
true, read in Scripture that He was raised by the Father (cf. Acts 2:24; Romans
8:11); but this refers to Him as man, just as those passages on the other hand,
which say that He rose by His own power, related to Him as God” (”St. Pius V
Catechism”, 1, 6, 8).

Christ’s resurrection was not a return to His previous earthly existence; it was a
“glorious” resurrection, that is to say, attaining the full development of human life
—immortal, freed from all limitations of space and time. As a result of the resur-
rection, Christ’s body now shares in the glory which His soul had from the begin-
ning. Here lies the unique nature of the historical fact of the resurrection. He
could not be seen by anyone but only by those to whom He granted that grace,
to enable them to be witnesses of this resurrection, and to enable others to be-
lieve in Him by accepting the testimony of the seers.

Christ’s resurrection was something necessary for the completion of the work of
our Redemption. For, Jesus Christ through His death freed us from sins; but by
His resurrection He restored us all that we had lost through sin and, moreover,
opened for us the gates of eternal life (cf. Romans 4:25). Also, the fact that He
rose from the dead by His own power is a definitive proof that He is the Son of
God, and therefore His resurrection fully confirms our faith in His divinity.

The resurrection of Christ, as has been pointed out, is the most sublime truth of
our faith. That is why St. Augustine exclaims: “It is no great thing to believe that
Christ died; for this is something that is also believed by pagans and Jews and
by all the wicked: everyone believes that He died. The Christians’ faith is in
Christ’s resurrection; this is what we hold to be a great thing — to believe that
He rose” (”Enarrationes in Psalmos”, 120).

The mystery of the Redemption wrought by Christ, which embraces His death
and resurrection, is applied to every man and woman through Baptism and the
other sacraments, by means of which the believer is as it were immersed in
Christ and in His death, that is to say, in a mystical way he becomes part of
Christ, he dies and rises with Christ: “We were buried therefore with Him by
baptism unto death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

An ardent desire to seek the things of God and an interior taste for the things
that are above (cf. Colossians 3:1-3) are signs of our resurrection with Christ.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Mass Readings

There is no Mass on Holy Saturday itself. Here are the readings for the evening Easter Vigil.

First reading	Genesis 1:1-2:2 ©

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God’s spirit hovered over the water.

God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light. God saw that light was good, and God divided light from darkness. God called light ‘day’, and darkness he called ‘night.’ Evening came and morning came: the first day.

God said, ‘Let there be a vault in the waters to divide the waters in two.’ And so it was. God made the vault, and it divided the waters above the vault from the waters under the vault. God called the vault ‘heaven.’ Evening came and morning came: the second day.

God said, ‘Let the waters under heaven come together into a single mass, and let dry land appear.’ And so it was. God called the dry land ‘earth’ and the mass of waters ‘seas’, and God saw that it was good.

God said, ‘Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees bearing fruit with their seed inside, on the earth.’ And so it was. The earth produced vegetation: plants bearing seed in their several kinds, and trees bearing fruit with their seed inside in their several kinds. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came: the third day.

God said, ‘Let there be lights in the vault of heaven to divide day from night, and let them indicate festivals, days and years. Let them be lights in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth.’ And so it was. God made the two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, the smaller light to govern the night, and the stars. God set them in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth, to govern the day and the night and to divide light from darkness. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came: the fourth day.

God said, ‘Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth within the vault of heaven.’ And so it was. God created great sea-serpents and every kind of living creature with which the waters teem, and every kind of winged creature. God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply upon the earth.’ Evening came and morning came: the fifth day.

God said, ‘Let the earth produce every kind of living creature: cattle, reptiles, and every kind of wild beast.’ And so it was. God made every kind of wild beast, every kind of cattle, and every kind of land reptile. God saw that it was good.

God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth.’

God created man in the image of himself,

in the image of God he created him,

male and female he created them.

God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I give you all the seed-bearing plants that are upon the whole earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this shall be your food. To all wild beasts, all birds of heaven and all living reptiles on the earth I give all the foliage of plants for food.’ And so it was. God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came: the sixth day.

Thus heaven and earth were completed with all their array. On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing.

First reading	Genesis 1:1,26-31 ©

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth.’

God created man in the image of himself,

in the image of God he created him,

male and female he created them.

God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I give you all the seed-bearing plants that are upon the whole earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this shall be your food. To all wild beasts, all birds of heaven and all living reptiles on the earth I give all the foliage of plants for food.’ And so it was. God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good.

Psalm	Psalm 103:1-2,5-6,10,12-14,24,35 ©