31. VI SAT of Resurrection-Visitation of the Bl.V. Mary

Lk. 1: 39-45: The joy of two annunciations is being shared by the two mothers – Mary and Elizabeth. Mary is Jesus’ mother through her faith, before she is his mother physically. Mary teaches us that we too can have relationship with Jesus through works and sharing of faith. 

30. VI FRI of Resurrection

Jn. 3: 31-36: What matters is a man’s reaction to Christ. If that reaction be love and longing, that man will know life. If it be indifference or hostility, that man will know death. It is not that God sends his wrath upon him; it is that he brings that wrath upon himself. 

29. VI THU of Resurrection – Ascension of our Lord

Lk. 24: 44-53: The disciples are instructed to continue his message and his presence. They are to proclaim his name everywhere and be witnesses of the Christ-event to others. Having said this in his last instruction, Jesus ascends to his Father. Luke’s gospel ends where it began in the house of God, where the disciples spend their times in prayer in order to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit. 

28. VI WED of Resurrection

Jn. 15: 11-17: Jesus says “You have not chosen me but I have chosen you” it was not we who chose God, but God who in his grace, approached us with a call and an offer made out of his love. We are chosen for joy, for love to his friends, to be his ambassadors (to send you out) to be his advertisements (to bear fruit) with a privileged member status of the family of God

27. VI TUE of Resurrection

Mk. 13: 32-37: Jesus prophesies about his second coming. He exhorts us by saying that we must be like men who know that their master coming but do not know when. We live in the shadow of eternity. We must complete our work every day in a way fit for him to see and being at any moment ready to meet him face to face. All our life becomes then a preparation to meet the King. 

26. VI MON of Resurrection

Mt. 23: 23-28: Jesus criticizes the scribes and Pharisees for their lack of authenticity. There is no compassion and love in their hearts. From outside they seem to b e ‘honorable’ or show themselves to be so but inside of them are full of extortion and rapacity. So they are compared to a cup or plate that is washed from outside and white washed tombs. 

25. VI SUN of Resurrection

Jn. 17: 20-26: Jesus prays for all his followers. He prays for unity among them as he experiences the unity with the Father. This unity that he has with the Father and reflected among his followers will always remain a ‘challenge’ to this divided world. This unity which is established on love and understanding will be the conscience of the world. This must be the thrust and endeavor of the church always.

24. V SAT of Resurrection

Jn. 15: 26-16:4: We are to be witnesses for Christ in this world. It is possible only when we have personal intimacy with Christ with inner conviction which in turn makes us to give testimony to our faith. It is a way of glory. So Jesus prepare us with open eyes to venture for his name. 

23. V FRI of Resurrection

Mt. 15: 10-20: No man can call himself good because he observes rules and regulations. He can call himself good only when his heart is pure. It will come to an end to all our pride and make us to say to God “God be merciful to me a sinner”.

22. V THU of Resurrection

Jn. 5: 24-29: The passage invites one to a close relationship with God in which fear is banished. One has to accept the way of life that Jesus offers us though difficult with sacrifices but bring peace and happiness. By accepting the Risen Lord means to welcome the guidance of the Holy Spirit which will strengthen each follower of Jesus. To be dead (spiritually dead) means to have stopped feeling and thinking that one may have eternal life. 

21. V WED of Resurrection

Jn. 3: 1-8: To be born again is a change that comes when we love Jesus and allow him into our hearts. We are forgiven for our past and live armed with the Holy Spirit for the future. It is this process by which we accept the will of God and thereby become citizens of the kingdom of God and sons of God - a life in the eternal which is the very life of God. 

20. V TUE of Resurrection

Mt. 21: 18-22: Uselessness invites disaster. So is profession without practice condemned. The tree had leaves; the leaves were a claim to have figs in them. The tree had no figs. So the claim was false. Therefore it was doomed. So fruitfulness according to Jesus is to live according to its claims. If we claim to be a Christian, live like a Christian. 

19. V MON of Resurrection

Lk. 11: 29-32: Jesus speaks about the sign of Jonah at which the Ninevites repented. The word of god is given to all people in many ways. Some receive it more clearly than others. All receive it as the silent movements of their conscience. We are accountable to it in our responses towards it. God is not silent in any individual’s life. Very often, we fail to tune in.

18. V SUN of Resurrection

Jn. 21: 1-14: The disciples toiled alone all throughout the night. At day break Jesus joins with them. They catch a great haul of fishes as Jesus directed them. Because Jesus is the vine and they are the branches and those who remain with the vine (Jesus) produce fruit.’ The mission work also must be done with Jesus and they would find success on their way. 

17. IV SAT of Resurrection

Mk. 6: 1-6: The people of Jesus’ home town were too familiar to Jesus. They regarded him to be a teacher or rabbi but not as Lord. The same can happen in our faith in Jesus. Jesus is very familiar to us may be physically or humanely but the divinity is often not seen in him. In such circumstances a crisis of faith happens but can generate a fresh start to our faith again.

16. IV FRI of Resurrection

Mk. 6: 35-44: All four gospels record this miracle of multiplication of bread. Just before this in the palace of king Herod was a dinner party given to the senior officials of the court on the birthday of King Herod (v. 21). But Jesus’ miracle as recorded here gave goodness for many ordinary people. The comparison is striking so as to make the reader think ‘who really is the king of the people!’

15. IV THU of Resurrection

Mt. 15: 1-9: The tradition of the elders is not the law. Jesus respected and followed the law i.e. the ‘Thora’ but Jesus often spoke against some of its interpretation of the law by the Rubies. The disciples disobeyed an unimportant interpreted law but Jesus accused the Jews that they disobey the very important Law of Moses. 

14. IV WED of Resurrection

Mt. 11: 25-30 It is the Christian conviction that in Jesus Christ alone we see what God is like and Jesus can give that knowledge to anyone who is humble enough and trustful enough to receive it. Jesus is compassionate to those people trying to find God to be good and doing so, driven to weariness and despair. 

13. IV TUE of Resurrection

 Mt. 19: 23-30: Riches are an obstacle to entering the kingdom, if it cannot be overcome by human power. The impossibility of the phrase ‘the eye of a needle’ indicates the renunciation of wealth and God helps one to share with the needy so that one becomes free from the world to enter the kingdom like that of the disciples, who left everything. 

12. IV MON of Resurrection

Lk. 20: 9-16: The people of God are that vineyard which God planted and nurtured. To look after them God sends time and again leaders (Isaiah 5: 1-7; Jeremiah 2: 21). Jesus is killed outside of the city of Jerusalem (here the vineyard) what the Jews rejected (Jesus) became the corner stone of the new church. 

11. IV SUN of Resurrection

Jn. 16: 16-24: After living with Jesus for 3 years, the disciples were sad to hear about the death of Jesus. But their sadness will be changed into happiness when he is raised to life. This happiness will remain forever. So the sadness is only momentary while the happiness is everlasting. But how to celebrate this happiness? We sing in the prayer ‘onissadiraase’ in the holy Mass of this season that we should celebrate this like ‘the bride in her bridal attire and like the other who is happy when her children are with her’. It the ‘peseha’ feast is to have meaning in our life we must participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

10. III SAT of Resurrection

Lk. 6: 46-49: Words without action are hypocrisy. Word of God, not followed through action it has no meaning. As the light of sun becomes perfect when it shines for me so is the word of God meaningful and perfect when it is practiced in life. Jesus tells this parable of the house built on the rock foundations.

9. III FRI of Resurrection

Lk. 6: 6-11: A Jew regarded the Sabbath as a day of rest. It was the most sacred law for them. Jesus, with the God the Father’s vision, sees every law in the context of human need. Every law is meant for the betterment of man. This is what Jesus wants to affirms through the action and miracle healing in this passage. 

8. III THU of Resurrection

Mk. 4: 35-41: The ‘storm’ in the sea of Galilee is symbolical to the chaos and destruction at work in the world. Jesus’ calming the sea is to be seen as a divine intervention which controls and subdue such forces so that no harm can happen to humanity. The event also portrays that the human heart must open itself to him, of itself and that is ‘FAITH’. Jesus only can chide the disciples, by pointing to their ‘little faith’.

7. III WED of Resurrection

Mt. 8: 1-4: Lepers (in those times all who had skin diseases were considered lepers) are outcasts in Jesus’ times.  By curing such a one is a conspicuous and significant feature of the ministry of Jesus. Jesus brings back the lost dignity of man into the warmth of human communion.

6. III TUE of Resurrection

Mk. 4: 13-20:  It is the interpretation of Jesus for the parable of the sower that we see in this passage. If more importance is given to the sower and the seed in the parable of the sower, in the explanation of the parable Jesus give more importance to the soil were the seeds have fallen. There are many enemies to the seed- the Satan 4:15 suffering 4: 16-17 anxieties of the world 4: 18-19. The real disciple of the word gives hundred fold fruit 4: 20.

5. III MON of Resurrection

Mt. 25: 1-13: The five sensible brides were ready to face any eventuality to meet the bridegroom while the other five foolish ones were not. We, likewise, when we began our journey in faith, could not foresee that we would meet trials. We do not believe someday it will cost us everything to remain faithful to our commitment. We do not realize that, as time goes our attitudes and obedience to the faith will undergo a change.

4. III SUN of Resurrection

Jn. 14: 1-14: Jesus is the way to the Father in heaven. This message is blurred even in the minds of apostles. So Jesus says “Don’t let your hearts be troubled”v.1a. By trusting in God and in Jesus (1b) one hopes to reach n heaven. He is both the aim and the way of one’s life. He has sown this by his very life. By living in this way one will finally realize that Jesus is God (10:30).

3. II SAT of Resurrection

Jn. 14: 1-6: If we have true faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ we will be liberated from all our sufferings. The ‘rooms’ show the intimate communion, sharing the very life of God, reaches its culmination in the life with God after our death. It starts with the present life in which Jesus is the Way, the truth and the life.

2. II FRI of Resurrection

Mk. 4: 1-9: The kingdom of God is compared to the seed that fell on ground in this parable of the Sower. The seed that fell on the roadside is not even allowed to sprout up. Those on rocks sprouted up but did not grow. Those on thistles sprouted up, grew but were not allowed to give fruit. Only those fell on good soil fulfilled the intention of the sower and the fruit and harvest overwhelms that of those were lost. The kingdom of God is likewise. 

1. II THU of Resurrection – St. Joseph the worker

Mt. 13: 53-58: Jesus’ people failed to discern the power of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit in his words and works. To discern this, one needs to have an atmosphere of love and prayers. These are conditions in which one is bound with people and Jesus both privately and liturgically giving direction and structure to our individual spiritual life.