EASTER OF RESURRECTION - 2023

April, 9th

The apostles had remained gathered in the cenacle but were sad and suffered to the point that the fear and sadness of being left alone, without Jesus, had darkened their mind. However, Jesus himself had announced: "The Son of Man must suffer many things” He said. “He must be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life" (Lk 9:22).

When the women announced to the apostles that the sepulcher was empty, none of the apostles believed them. In fact, Peter and John came to the tomb only because they feared that the enemies had taken Jesus' body away. But they understood it as soon as they entered: “Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in. And he saw and believed" (Jn 20.8).

John affirms: "He saw and believed". In fact, it was impossible for the apostle not to believe, because he had seen that the bandages and the shroud were sagging and arranged in the same way that the body of Jesus had been wrapped. Christ had passed through the bandages and the sheet, leaving them intact and in the same position. John was the first to believe in the Resurrection. He was the apostle of love, therefore, to believe in the Resurrection, we must love Christ; it is not possible to believe in God and his works if we do not love him. Whoever loves God believes in his interventions, whoever does not love him does not believe in his works.