Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
April 20, 2019
At daybreak on the first day of the week
the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus
took the spices they had prepared
and went to the tomb.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb;
but when they entered,
they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were puzzling over this, behold,
two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.
They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.
They said to them,
“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?
He is not here, but he has been raised.
Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners
and be crucified, and rise on the third day.”
And they remembered his words.
Then they returned from the tomb
and announced all these things to the eleven
and to all the others.
The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James;
the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles,
but their story seemed like nonsense
and they did not believe them.
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb,
bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone;
then he went home amazed at what had happened.
As a law student at Notre Dame, I am greeted by a crucifix every time I enter a classroom. I know the story: Jesus died on the cross and rose again to save us from our sins. On the cross I see also that my death, my own ‘Good Friday’ of sorts, looms before me. But I also see the hope that Christ’s death offers me.
Yesterday, we observed the Passion and Death of Our Lord. Today, we remember that Jesus lay cold and dead in the tomb. Tonight, the Easter Vigil anticipates his great victory over the grave. Against this well-known timeline, it is easy to overlook the awesome shock that the empty tomb presented to the women, Peter, and the other Apostles.
If there is any knowledge American Catholics retain from their childhood Sunday School, it is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. The story of the Resurrection is overly familiar.
But some 2,000 years ago on this Holy Saturday, Jesus’ disciples had little hope. Their teacher was dead. He had not fulfilled their expectations for a Messiah. The imperial Roman government had executed Jesus like a common thief. His followers buried the body hastily in a rock-hewn tomb. A contemporary observer might have scoffed at these Jews who appeared so misled by a lowly Nazarene, another false prophet.
How extraordinary, then, was that Sunday morning.
How extraordinary, still, that God promises to bridge the gap between Good Friday and Easter for us all.
Prayer
Almighty God of surprises, your plans and actions exceed not only our expectations, but also our imagination. Help us to remember not to seek the living among the dead. Open our eyes to notice experiences of darkness transformed into light, death to new life. As Mary, Joanna, and Mary were harbingers of joy and salvation, help us to be the same, through Christ our Risen Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Today, the Church recalls Jesus' suffering and death and waits in hope to celebrate the resurrection, by which we receive new and abundant life.
The reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus holds relics from the tomb of Jesus.
Like yesterday, no sacraments are celebrated today (until the Easter Vigil) because we recall Jesus’ entombment in death. This day is the quietest moment of the Church year—there are no liturgical services today as we wait outside of the tomb.
The icon to the left is from Cora Church in Istanbul. This famous icon depicts Christ's harrowing of Hell, as he pulls our first parents, Adam and Eve, out of their caskets and ushers them into the Resurrection.
Holy Saturday commemorates Christ's death—Christ's entry into the deepest pain of our existence, into the shades of Hades, where no one can praise God. Christ enters into the deepest, darkest places of the human experience—places where the human being can separate herself from God. But Christ the Bridegroom enters into the darkness of hell, into our own Calvary of pain or loss, and brings us to the joy of Easter.
An ancient sermon for Holy Saturday paints this beautiful image of Christ coming to awake these sleeping souls, Christ as a lover who urges us to leave hell and rise with him to heaven:
Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.
Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image.
Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.
For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave;
I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth.
As we wait in quiet today for the joy of the Resurrection tomorrow, let us remember that Christ loves us so deeply, he will descend to the darkest reaches of the universe to bring us back to him.
On this Holy Saturday, let us wait near the tomb of Jesus, hopeful for the resurrection!
Image Credit: Our featured image of the harrowing of hell on Good Saturday is in the public domain. Last accessed February 13, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
