Easter Sunday - The Lord Has Risen

On Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026, the Church celebrates the Resurrection of the Lord with joy and solemnity. The readings for the Mass during the Day proclaim the heart of our faith: Jesus Christ, crucified and buried, has risen from the dead.

 The Readings for Easter Sunday 2026

- First Reading (Acts 10:34a, 37-43): Peter preaches that God raised Jesus on the third day, and the apostles are witnesses who ate and drank with Him after the Resurrection. This event fulfills the prophets and brings forgiveness of sins to all who believe.

- Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23): "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad." The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.

- Second Reading (Colossians 3:1-4, or optionally 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8): We are called to seek what is above, where Christ is seated at God's right hand. Our life is now "hidden with Christ in God," and when He appears, we will appear with Him in glory.

- Gospel (John 20:1-9): Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty. Peter and the beloved disciple run to it, see the burial cloths (especially the head cloth rolled up separately), and the beloved disciple believes. They did not yet fully understand the Scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead.

These readings invite us to move from the empty tomb to personal faith in the risen Lord.

 The True Meaning of Easter

Easter is the Christian celebration of Jesus Christ's Resurrection from the dead on the third day after His crucifixion. It is the culmination of the Paschal Mystery—His Passion, Death, and Resurrection—which conquers sin and death and opens the way to eternal life for all who believe. The name "Easter" in English has roots in Old High German referring to the dawn of this new day of salvation, not in pagan deities. The core feast itself derives directly from the Jewish Passover (Pesach or Pascha in Greek and Latin), as Jesus was crucified during Passover and rose as the new Paschal Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Early Christians celebrated it as the fulfillment of God's saving action in history, with no connection to pagan spring fertility rites or goddesses like Eostre or Ishtar. Claims of pagan origins are modern myths that ignore the historical and biblical evidence: Easter is thoroughly rooted in the Jewish-Christian tradition of redemption.

 The Resurrection as a Real Historical Event

The Resurrection is not a myth, symbol, or legend—it is a real event that transformed history. Saint Paul states it plainly in 1 Corinthians 15: "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain... you are still in your sins." If Jesus did not rise, Christianity collapses into nothing more than moral teaching or wishful thinking. But because He did rise, everything changes: death is defeated, sins are forgiven, and new life in God is possible.

This event profoundly impacted the early Christians. The apostles, who fled in fear during the Passion, became bold witnesses willing to suffer persecution and martyrdom. They proclaimed the Resurrection not as a comforting story but as something they had seen, touched, and experienced—eating and drinking with the risen Jesus (as Peter testifies in Acts). Thousands of early believers faced death rather than deny it, because they knew it was true. Their transformed lives, the rapid spread of the faith despite Roman opposition, and the empty tomb all point to a real, bodily resurrection that no alternative explanation (theft of the body, hallucination, or swoon) adequately accounts for.

The Resurrection Was Physical, Not Merely Spiritual

Some modern interpretations suggest that Jesus' Resurrection was a purely spiritual event — that His spirit or "presence" continued in some exalted way while His body remained in the tomb or simply decayed. This view reduces the Resurrection to a symbolic or subjective experience, stripping it of its historical and transformative power. However, this idea contradicts both the clear testimony of Scripture and the unbroken teaching of the Church from the very beginning.

The New Testament emphatically presents the Resurrection as bodily and physical. When the risen Jesus appears to His frightened disciples, He directly addresses any doubt about a ghostly or purely spiritual apparition:

> "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." (Luke 24:39)

He then invites them to touch Him and, to remove all doubt, eats a piece of broiled fish in their presence (Luke 24:41-43). These are not the actions of a disembodied spirit. The Gospels also record that the tomb was empty, and the burial cloths — including the head cloth folded separately — were left behind (John 20:6-7). If the Resurrection had been only spiritual, there would have been no need for an empty tomb or for the physical evidence that convinced the beloved disciple to believe.

Saint Paul, in his great defense of the Resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, insists that if Christ has not been raised (bodily), then our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. He links Christ's physical rising directly to our own future resurrection of the body: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised" (1 Cor 15:13). Paul describes the resurrected body as a "spiritual body" (1 Cor 15:44) — not meaning "non-physical," but a body fully dominated and transformed by the Holy Spirit: imperishable, glorious, powerful, and free from suffering and death. It is the same body that was sown in weakness and corruption, now raised in glory. Grace does not destroy nature; it perfects and transforms it.

The early Church Fathers unanimously rejected any notion of a merely spiritual resurrection. St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107 AD), writing against early heresies, affirmed: "I know and believe that He was in the flesh even after the resurrection... He ate and drank with them as one in the flesh." Similarly, St. Justin Martyr and others taught that Christ rose in the very flesh that had suffered and died, serving as the pattern for our own bodily resurrection. The Apostles' Creed and the Catechism of the Catholic Church continue this teaching: we believe in the "resurrection of the flesh" — the true resurrection of this mortal body, now glorified, just as Christ's own body was raised.

A purely spiritual resurrection would actually require more faith, not less. It would mean accepting that the apostles were mistaken or deceptive about the empty tomb, the physical appearances, and the wounds they touched. It would also undermine the entire Christian hope: if death ultimately triumphs over the body, then the material creation God declared "very good" is ultimately discarded rather than redeemed. But the physical Resurrection proclaims that God loves and saves the whole human person — body and soul. Jesus' risen body is the firstfruits of the new creation, the guarantee that one day our own bodies will be raised and transformed.

This is why the early Christians were willing to die for their faith. They were not proclaiming a comforting spiritual metaphor or a private vision. They were witnesses to a real, historical event: the same Jesus who was crucified now stood before them alive in a glorified yet undeniably physical body. The Resurrection was not an escape from the body but its redemption and glorification.

As we celebrate Easter, let us rejoice not in a vague spiritual survival, but in the concrete victory of Christ over sin and death in His risen flesh — the same victory He promises to share with us.

 The Shroud of Turin

One powerful piece of physical evidence often linked to the Resurrection is the Shroud of Turin, a linen cloth bearing the faint image of a crucified man consistent in every detail with the Gospel accounts of Jesus' Passion (scourging, crown of thorns, nail wounds, side pierced). Scientific studies show the image is superficial (only on the top fibers), three-dimensional, and cannot be replicated by any known artistic or natural means. Recent research, including advanced dating methods and analysis of the bloodstains and pollen, supports a first-century origin in the Jerusalem area. Some studies suggest the image formed through an intense burst of energy—possibly vacuum ultraviolet light—consistent with a sudden release from a dead body, leaving no signs of decomposition. While the Church does not officially declare it the authentic burial cloth of Jesus, it stands as a compelling "icon" inviting contemplation of the crucified and risen Lord. It reminds us that the Resurrection was not merely spiritual but involved a real transformation of the body.

 The Liturgy of Easter Sunday

The Easter liturgy is filled with symbols of new life. The Easter Vigil (celebrated the night before, on Holy Saturday) is the "mother of all vigils," featuring the blessing of the new fire, the Paschal candle (symbolizing the risen Christ as light in the darkness), numerous readings from salvation history, the blessing of baptismal water, and the renewal of baptismal promises. On Easter Sunday itself, many parishes continue this spirit.

In the renewal of baptismal promises (often included or echoed in the Vigil and sometimes in Sunday Masses), the priest asks the assembly:

- Do you renounce Satan?

- And all his works?

- And all his empty show?

Then:

- Do you believe in God, the Father almighty...?

- Do you believe in Jesus Christ...?

- Do you believe in the Holy Spirit...?

The people respond "I do" to each, reaffirming the faith of their baptism. This is followed by sprinkling with blessed water, recalling how we were buried with Christ in baptism and raised with Him to new life (Romans 6:4). The liturgy calls us not just to remember the Resurrection but to live it: to die to sin daily and rise to holiness, seeking "what is above" as Colossians urges.

Easter is therefore both a historical celebration and a personal invitation. As we reflect on the empty tomb, the witnesses, and the Shroud's mysterious image, let us renew our own faith. Christ is risen—truly risen! This changes everything. May we, like the beloved disciple, see and believe, and live as people of the Resurrection, bearing witness with joy and courage in our own time. Alleluia!

We from Sacerdotus Ministry wish you and your family a Blessed Easter Sunday and season! We also welome to millions who joined the Catholic Church last night during the Easter Vigil!  Welcome to Christ's Holy Catholic Church!