Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
Recognizing The Risen Lord
Liturgical Cycle: A, B, C | Lectionary Cycle: I, II
Introduction
It is not always easy to recognise the risen Lord. This was the experience of Mary Magdalene. We too, are asked, “Whom are you seeking?” Are we really seeking the Lord Jesus? Do we recognise him not only in our prayers and during the reception of the Holy Eucharist, but also when he walks by our side in our sufferings and in our joys, in the people around us, and in the ordinary events and circumstances of life? Jesus is indeed our Lord and Messiah. Mary Magdalene recognised him when she heard his voice. Are we really in love with him and attuned to his Good News that we can say when hearing him: “It is you, Lord, speaking to me.”
Opening Prayer
Our God of life,
We profess our faith in Jesus
and recognise him as our Lord and Saviour.
Make us listen to him,
when he speaks his Good News to us,
for it is a message of life.
May we also hear his voice,
when he cries out to us in people in need
or simply when he speaks to us
through the people who express to us
their joys and hopes, their love and their faith.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
First Reading
Therefore let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
When they heard this, they were deeply troubled. Then they asked Peter and the other apostles:
“What shall we do, brothers?”
Peter answered:
“Each of you must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. Then, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise of God was made to you and your children and to all those from afar, whom our God may call.”
With many other words, Peter gave the message and appealed to them, saying:
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand people were added that day.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20 and 22
R.(5b) The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sequence -- optional
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
Offer your thankful praises!
A Lamb the sheep redeems;
Christ, who only is sinless,
Reconciles sinners to the Father.
Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous:
The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.
Speak, Mary, declaring
What you saw, wayfaring.
“The tomb of Christ, who is living,
The glory of Jesus’ resurrection;
bright angels attesting,
The shroud and napkin resting.
Yes, Christ my hope is arisen;
to Galilee he goes before you.”
Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining.
Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!
Amen. Alleluia.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb; as she wept, she bent down to look inside.
She saw two angels dressed in white sitting where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the feet.
They said to her:
“Woman, why are you weeping?”
She replied:
“They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.”
As she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize him.
Jesus asked her:
“Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener and answered:
“Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her:
“Mary!”
She turned and said to him:
“Rabboni!”—which means Teacher.
Jesus told her:
“Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father, and your Father, to my God, and your God.”
So Mary of Magdala went and told the disciples:
“I have seen the Lord, and this is what he said to me.”
Prayers of the Faithful
– Lord, do not remain a stranger to us. Make the Church see your image, even in sinners, so that they will be raised up to a new life, we pray:
– Lord, do not remain a stranger to us. Make us see you and lift you up in the beggars in the streets and the fugitives from oppression, we pray:
– Lord, do not remain a stranger to us. Make us console you in those who weep and mourn, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord, our God,
in these signs of bread and wine,
we seek the Lord Jesus,
for we want to find him
and to become near to him
in our life of every day.
Let him become close to us
and raise us above the banality
of everyday life.
Let him make our life rich and beautiful
in goodness and deep faith,
for he is our Risen Lord, now and forever.
Prayer after Communion
Lord God,
bring to perfection in us
what you have let Jesus begin in us.
Let him show us what we have to do,
let him keep converting us to his ways
of patient service and deep love.
Let him nourish his new life in us,
when in the Eucharist, he sits at table with us,
his disciples today.
Grant us all this through Christ, our Lord.
Blessing
“Do not hold on to me,” says Jesus. Do not try to possess him for ourselves alone. Let us go to our brothers and sisters and share Jesus with them as the Lord of life who raises us above ourselves by making us with him people-for-others. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTION:
John 20:11-18
To turn around
The most hopeful word in the Bible is “the third day”. And the joy of the third day is Easter. The word “third day” appears first in Hosea 6:2 – “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up”. “Three days” signifies the dark nights of any person. The body gets disintegrated. Once disintegration happens, there is nothing more to hope for. In this mode of helplessness, God begins something new.
For Mary Magdalene, the Holy Saturday must have been the most horrifying and depressing day because Christ was absent. She must have truly felt the Godlessness. In such a dark experience, she hears the whisper, “Mary”. For everyone and everything, there is a “third day” - “The end of all hopes and human expectations, but the right time for God to work”. During dark moments in life, let's patiently wait for the third day, the day of miracles, the day of life.
“Mary turned around” - away from the tomb and saw Jesus outside in the garden. However, she mistook him for the gardener. Mary's action of “turning around” was an understatement. What Mary was about to witness would change everything the world had ever known. To have faith in Easter requires a turning around – a metanoia - on all our previous assumptions and world views and be open to the newness of life that rises from the empty tomb.
============
John 20: 11-18
The Grace of Tears: A Path to Encountering Christ
Pope Francis teaches us to ask for the grace of tears, a gift that softens our hearts and prepares us to see Jesus. In a homily at the Domus Sanctae Marthae in the first year of his Papacy in 2013, he reflected on the Gospel account of Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the Risen Lord (Jn 20:11-18). Her tears were not just expressions of sorrow but also of deep love. Having been forgiven much, she loved much. At the empty tomb, her weeping reflected not only grief but also the aching absence of the One who had transformed her life. Yet it was in this moment of darkness that Jesus revealed Himself to her.
Like Mary Magdalene, we, too, experience moments when our hopes seem shattered, when we feel lost or abandoned. But these moments of sorrow can become moments of grace. Tears purify, making way for divine encounter. They break through the hardness of our hearts, allowing us to recognize Christ’s presence even when all seems lost. It is often in our deepest struggles that the Lord draws near, calling us by name as He did with Mary.
Mary’s response, “I have seen the Lord,” is the ultimate testimony of faith. Even if we do not see Jesus with our eyes, we are called to recognize Him with the eyes of our hearts. He reveals Himself in the Eucharist, in Scripture, in acts of love, and in the quiet stirrings of grace within us.
May we not fear our tears but embrace them as a path to encountering Christ. And may we, like Mary Magdalene, bear witness to His living presence, proclaiming with confidence: “I have seen the Lord.”