22 - Easter Sunday

Readings and Gospel

Lectionary for this day - This has all the readings and Gospel

Genesis 1:1—2:2 - Story of Creation

Genesis 22:1-18 - The Testing of Abraham

Exodus 14:15—15:1 - Crossing the Red Sea

Isaiah 54:5-14 - The New Zion

Isaiah 55:1-11 - An Invitation to Grace

Baruch 3:9-15, 32--4:4 - Importance of Wisdom

Ezekiel 36:16-17a, 18-28 - Regeneration of the People

Romans 6:3-11 - Freedom from Sin; Life in God

Mark 16:1-7 - The Resurrection of Jesus

John 20:1-9 - The Empty Tomb (More information in the footnotes here.)

Who / What / Where is...?

Abraham 

• Original name is Abram

• Means "father of many nations"

• The founding father of the special relationship between the Jews and God

• The man whom God called out of Ur to go to the Promised Land and that he will be the "Father of all Nations".

Isaac

• Son of Abraham and Sarah

• Father of the twins, Esau and Jacob

• Husband of Rebecca

Mount Moriah

• Genesis 22 - Abraham brought Isaac as a sacrifice in Mount Moriah.

• 2 Chronicles 3:1 - Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah in 957 BC

• The same location where the second temple was built under the authority of Zerubbabel in 516 BC, completed in the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah in 349 BC, modified by Herod the Great in 20-18 BC, and destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD

• The same location where the current temple mount is in Jerusalem, City of David

• Zion

holocaust

• A burnt offering

Yahweh-yireh

• the Lord will provide

Moses

• The person that God called to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

• Through Moses, God taught the Israelites how to be His children including the Ten Commandments, how to trust and worship God, and how to be a people of God (the Church).

• God appeared to Moses as a Burning Bush on Mount Horeb.

Pharaoh

• Ruler of Egypt in the time of Moses

LORD of hosts

• This appears about 261 times in the Old Testament

• LORD (capitalized) refers to Yahweh

• hosts = armies of heaven

Isaiah

• Isaiah, one of the greatest of the prophets, appeared at a critical moment in Israel’s history. The Northern Kingdom collapsed, under the hammerlike blows of Assyria, in 722/721 B.C., and, in 701 B.C., Jerusalem itself saw the army of Sennacherib drawn up before its walls. In the year that Uzziah, king of Judah, died (742 B.C.), Isaiah received his call to the prophetic office in the Temple of Jerusalem. (More information)

Baruch

• He is the scribe and disciple of Jeremiah (prophet). He lived when the Jews were exiled in Babylon. 

• Background: The Babylonians conquered the Jews around 587 BC. They brought many Jews to Babylon (in present day Iraq). This ended around 538 BC when Cyrus, the Persian conqueror of Babylon, allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Some Jews chose decided to stay in Babylonia.

Ezekiel

• A prophet whose name means "God is strong" or "God strengthens".

• At around 587 B.C, he revealed prophecies regarding the destruction of Jerusalem, and the restoration to the land of Israel.

Son of Man

• The Hebrew expression "son of man" (בן–אדם, ben-'adam) appears 107 times in the Hebrew Bible, the majority (93 times) in the Book of Ezekiel. It is used in three main ways: as a form of address (Ezekiel); to contrast the lowly status of humanity against the permanence and exalted dignity of God and the angels (Numbers 23:19, Psalm 8:4); and as a future eschatological figure whose coming will signal the end of history and the time of God's judgment (Daniel 7:13–14). (Source: Wikipedia)

Reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans

Romans

• St Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome. This is today's Italy and surrounding areas.

• More information here.

right hand of God

• "By 'the Father's right hand' we understand the glory and honor of divinity, where he who exists as Son of God before all ages, indeed as God, of one being with the Father, is seated bodily after he became incarnate and his flesh was glorified. (CCC 663)

• See the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 659.

• From the Compendium of CCC - 132: What does the Ascension mean? --  After forty days during which Jesus showed himself to the apostles with ordinary human features which veiled his glory as the Risen One, Christ ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Father. He is the Lord who now in his humanity reigns in the everlasting glory of the Son of God and constantly intercedes for us before the Father. He sends us his Spirit and he gives us the hope of one day reaching the place he has prepared for us.

Gospel

Mark

• He was the travel companion and interpreter of Peter. He was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus.

  • • 12 Apostles - the first 12 people that Jesus called to follow Him.

Mary of Magdala (or Mary Magdalene)

• A woman who, according to the four Gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of His followers and was a witness to His crucifixion and resurrection.

• Magdala is a village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee that was primarily known in antiquity as a fishing town.

Peter

• Also known as Peter the Apostle, Peter the Rock, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas

• He was later given by Jesus the name Cephas, from the Aramaic כֵּיפָא, Kepha, 'rock/stone'.

• He was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus.

  • • 12 Apostles - the first 12 people that Jesus called to follow Him.

• Considered as the first Pope of the Catholic Church.

More

Dig deeper into this Sunday's Readings and Gospel with teachings from Brant Pitre.

Saints