Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007 The Resurrection

Lord, with the power of your Holy and Divine Will, in my work I call to action and give to each of them the merit, the good and the Power of Your Will, as if I were doing these acts again. These enriched acts are imbued with Grace and Beauty as to form the enchantment of all Heaven. As Celestial Dew these Acts envelop all the Saints to give them new Glory and Happiness. Your Will causes this Dew to rain on all earth’s wayfarers so that they may feel its power and Grace in their actions. I pray for souls burning with passion, with sin and with brutal pleasures to feel the freshness of this Divine Dew and convert to good.

Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Resurrection is the rising again from the dead, the resumption of life.

The Resurrection by El Greco

I. THE FACT OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION

The main sources which directly attest the fact of Christ’s Resurrection are the Four Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul.

Easter morning is so rich in incident, and so crowded with interested persons, that its complete history presents a rather complicated tableau. It is not surprising, therefore, that the partial accounts contained in each of the Four Gospels appear at first sight hard to harmonize. But whatever exegetic view as to the visit to the sepulchre by the pious women and the appearance of the angels we may defend, we cannot deny the Evangelists’ agreement as to the fact that the risen Christ appeared to one or more persons.

According to St. Matthew, He appeared to the holy women, and again on a mountain in Galilee; according to St. Mark, He was seen by Mary Magdalen, by the two disciples at Emmaus, and the Eleven before his Ascension into heaven; according to St. Luke, He walked with the disciples to Emmaus, appeared to Peter and to the assembled disciples in Jerusalem; according to St. John, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalen, to the ten Apostles on Easter Sunday, to the Eleven a week later, and to the seven disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. St. Paul (1 Corinthians 15:3-8) enumerates another series of apparitions of Jesus after His Resurrection; he was seen by Cephas, by the Eleven, by more than 500 brethren, many of whom were still alive at the time of the Apostle’s writing, by James, by all the Apostles, and lastly by Paul himself.

Here is an outline of a possible harmony of the Evangelists’ account concerning the principal events of Easter Sunday:
• The holy women carrying the spices previously prepared start out for the sepulchre before dawn, and reach it after sunrise; they are anxious about the heavy stone, but know nothing of the official guard of the sepulchre (Matthew 28:1-3; Mark 16:1-3; Luke 24:1; John 20:1).
• The angel frightened the guards by his brightness, put them to flight, rolled away the stone, and seated himself not upon (ep autou), but above (epano autou) the stone (Matthew 28:2-4).
• Mary Magdalen, Mary the Mother of James, and Salome approach the sepulchre, and see the stone rolled back, whereupon Mary Magdalen immediately returns to inform the Apostles (Mark 16:4; Luke 24:2; John 20:1-2).
• The other two holy women enter the sepulchre, find an angel seated in the vestibule, who shows them the empty sepulchre, announces the Resurrection, and commissions them to tell the disciples and Peter that they shall see Jesus in Galilee (Matthew 28:5-7; Mark 16:5-7).
• A second group of holy women, consisting of Joanna and her companions, arrive at the sepulchre, where they have probably agreed to meet the first group, enter the empty interior, and are admonished by two angels that Jesus has risen according to His prediction (Luke 24:10).
• Not long after, Peter and John, who were notified by Mary Magdalen, arrive at the sepulchre and find the linen cloth in such a position as to exclude the supposition that the body was stolen; for they lay simply flat on the ground, showing that the sacred body had vanished out of them without touching them. When John notices this he believes (John 20:3-10).
• Mary Magdalen returns to the sepulchre, sees first two angels within, and then Jesus Himself (John 20:11-l6; Mark 16:9).
• The two groups of pious women, who probably met on their return to the city, are favored with the sight of Christ arisen, who commissions them to tell His brethren that they will see him in Galilee (Matthew 28:8-10; Mark 16:8).
• The holy women relate their experiences to the Apostles, but find no belief (Mark 16:10-11; Luke 24:9-11).
• Jesus appears to the disciples, at Emmaus, and they return to Jerusalem; the Apostles appear to waver between doubt and belief (Mark 16:12-13; Luke 24:13-35).
• Christ appears to Peter, and therefore Peter and John firmly believe in the Resurrection (Luke 24:34; John 20:8).
• After the return of the disciples from Emmaus, Jesus appears to all the Apostles excepting Thomas (Mark 16:14; Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-25).

The harmony of the other apparitions of Christ after His Resurrection presents no special difficulties.

Briefly, therefore, the fact of Christ’s Resurrection is attested by more than 500 eyewitnesses, whose experience, simplicity, and uprightness of life rendered them incapable of inventing such a fable, who lived at a time when any attempt to deceive could have been easily discovered, who had nothing in this life to gain, but everything to lose by their testimony, whose moral courage exhibited in their apostolic life can be explained only by their intimate conviction of the objective truth of their message.

Again, the fact of Christ’s Resurrection is attested by the eloquent silence of the Synagogue which had done everything to prevent deception, which could have easily discovered deception, if there had been any, which opposed only sleeping witnesses to the testimony of the Apostles, which did not punish the alleged carelessness of the official guard, and which could not answer the testimony of the Apostles except by threatening them “that they speak no more in this name to any man” (Acts 4:17).

Finally the thousands and millions, both Jews and Gentiles, who believed the testimony of the Apostles in spite of all the disadvantages following from such a belief, in short the origin of the Church, requires for its explanation the reality of Christ’s Resurrection, for the rise of the Church without the Resurrection would have been a greater miracle than the Resurrection itself.

From: Catholic Encyclopedia/www.newadvent.org

Christian Calendar History

The seven planets, known to us as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, each had an hour of the day assigned to them; and, the planet which was regent during the first hour of any day of the week gave its name to that day (see CALENDAR). During the first and second century the week of seven days was introduced into Rome from Egypt, and the Roman names of the planets were given to each successive day. The Teutonic nations seem to have adopted the week as a division of time from the Romans, but they changed the Roman names into those of corresponding Teutonic deities. Hence the dies Solis became Sunday (German, Sonntag). Sunday was the first day of the week according to the Jewish method of reckoning, but for Christians it began to take the place of the Jewish Sabbath.

Sunday (Day of the Sun), as the name of the first day of the Apostolic times as the day set apart for the public and solemn worship of God. The practice of meeting together on the first day of the week for the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice is indicated in Acts, xx 7; I Cor., xvi, 2; in Apoc., i, 10, it is called the Lord’s day. In the Didache (xiv) the injunction is given: “On the Lord’s Day come together and break bread. And give thanks (offer the Eucharist), after confessing your sins that your sacrifice may be pure”. St. Ignatius (Ep. ad Magnes. ix) speaks of Christians as “no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also Our Life rose again”. In the Epistle of Barnabas (xv) we read: “Wherefore, also, we keep the eight day (i. e. the first of the week) with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead”.

St. Justin is the first Christian writer to call the day Sunday (I Apol., lxvii) in the celebrated passage in which he describes the worship offered by the early Christians on that day to God. The fact that they met together and offered public worship on Sunday necessitated a certain rest from work on that day. However, Tertullian (202) is the first writer who expressly mentions the Sunday rest: “We, however (just as tradition has taught us), on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection ought to guard not only against kneeling, but every posture and office of solicitude, deferring even our businesses lest we give any place to the devil” (”De orat.”, xxiii; cf. “Ad nation.”, I, xiii; “Apolog.”, xvi).

These and similar indications show that during the first three centuries practice and tradition had consecrated the Sunday to the public worship of God by the hearing of the Mass and the resting from work. With the opening of the fourth century positive legislation, both ecclesiastical and civil, began to make these duties more definite. The Council of Elvira (300) decreed: “If anyone in the city neglects to come to church for three Sundays, let him be excommunicated for a short time so that he may be corrected” (xxi). In the Apostolic Constitutions, which belong to the end of the fourth century, both the hearing of the Mass and the rest from work are prescribed, and the precept is attributed to the Apostles. The express teaching of Christ and St. Paul prevented the early Christians from falling into the excesses of Jewish Sabbatarianism in the observance of the Sunday, and yet we find St. Cæsarius of Arles in the sixth century teaching that the holy Doctors of the Church had decreed that the whole glory of the Jewish Sabbath had been transferred to the Sunday, and that Christians must keep the Sunday holy in the same way as the Jews had been commanded to keep holy the Sabbath Day. He especially insisted on the people hearing the whole of the Mass and not leaving the church after the Epistle and the Gospel had been read. He taught them that they should come to Vespers and spend the rest of the day in pious reading and prayer. As with the Jewish Sabbath, the observance of the Christian Sunday began with sundown on Saturday and lasted till the same time on Sunday. Until quite recent times some theologians taught that there was an obligation under pain of venial sin of assisting at vespers as well as of hearing Mass, but the opinion rests on no certain foundation and is now commonly abandoned. The common opinion maintains that, while it is highly becoming to be present at Vespers on Sunday, there is no strict obligation to be present. The method of reckoning the Sunday from sunset to sunset continued in some places down to the seventeenth century, but in general since the Middle Ages the reckoning from midnight to midnight has been followed. When the parochial system was introduced, the laity were taught that they must hear Mass and the preaching of the Word of God on Sundays in their parish church. However, toward the end of the thirteenth century, the friars began to teach that the precept of hearing Mass might be fulfilled by hearing it in their churches; and after long and severe struggles this was expressly allowed by the Holy See. Nowadays, the precept may be fulfilled by hearing Mass in any place except a strictly private oratory, and provided Mass is not celebrated on a portable altar by a privilege which is merely personal.

The obligation of rest from work on Sunday remained somewhat indefinite for several centuries. A Council of Laodicea, held toward the end of the fourth century, was content to prescribe that on the Lord’s Day the faithful were to abstain from work as far as possible. At the beginning of the sixth century St. Caesarius, as we have seen, and others; showed an inclination to apply the law of the Jewish Sabbath to the observance of the Christian Sunday. The Council held at Orleans in 538 reprobated this tendency as Jewish and non-Christian. From the eight century the law began to be formulated as it exists at the present day, and the local councils forbade servile work, public buying and selling, pleading in the law courts, and the public and solemn taking of oaths. There is a large body of civil legislation on the Sunday rest side by side with the ecclesiastical. It begins with an Edict of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, who forbade judges to sit and townspeople to work on Sunday. He made an exception in favour of agriculture. The breaking of the law of Sunday rest was punished by the Anglo-Saxon legislation in England like other crimes and misdemeanours. After the Reformation, under Puritan influence, many laws were passed in England whose effect is still visible in the stringency of the English Sabbath. Still more is this the case in Scotland. There is no federal legislation in the United States on the observance of the Sunday, but nearly all the states of the Union have statues tending to repress unnecessary labour and to restrain the liquor traffic. In other respects the legislation of the different states on this matter exhibits considerable variety. On the continent of Europe in recent years there have been several laws passed in direction of enforcing the observance of Sunday rest for the benefit of workmen.

The Christian Calendar or the Julian Calendar originated on Resurrection Day.

Divine Will

April 15, 1919 Volume 12

Both in Creation and in Redemption, God did minor things first, as preparation for the greater ones; these, like the Resurrection of Jesus, are images of the Kingdom of the Divine Will.

Luisa: I was fusing myself in the Holy Volition of my always adorable Jesus, and my intelligence was wandering together with Him in the Work of Creation, adoring and thanking the Supreme Majesty for everything and for everyone.

And my Jesus, all affability, told me: “My daughter, in creating the Heavens, first I made the stars as minor spheres; then I created the Sun as the major sphere, providing It with so much light as to eclipse all the stars, as though hiding them within Itself, and I constituted It king of the stars and of all nature. It is my usual way to make minor things first, as preparation for greater ones - these, being the crowning of the minor things. While being my reporter, the Sun also conceals the souls who will form their sanctity in my Will; the Saints who lived in the mirror of my Humanity, as if in the shadow of my Will, will be the stars; the former souls, although coming later in time, will be the Suns.

I maintained this order also in Redemption. My birth was without glamour, rather, it was neglected; my childhood was without splendor of great things before men; my life in Nazareth was so hidden that I lived as if ignored by all; I adapted Myself to do the smallest and most common things of human life. During my public life there were a few great things, but still - who knew my Divinity? Nobody, not even all the Apostles. I passed through the crowds like any other man, so much so, that anyone could approach Me, talk to Me, and if necessary, even despise Me.”

And I, interrupting Jesus, said: ‘Jesus, my Love, how happy those times were, and even happier those people who, just by wanting it, could come close to You, talk to You, and be with You!’

And Jesus: “Ah, my daughter, only my Will brings true happiness. Only my Will encloses all goods within the soul, and making Itself crown around the soul, constitutes her queen of true happiness. Only these souls will be the queens of my Throne, because they start from my Will. This is so true, in fact, that those people were not happy. Many saw Me but did not know Me, because my Will did not reside within them as center of life. Therefore, even if they saw Me, they remained unhappy. Only those who received the good of receiving the seed of my Will in their hearts disposed themselves to receive the good of seeing Me resurrected.

Now, the portent of my Redemption was the Resurrection, which, more than bright Sun, crowned my Humanity, making even my most tiny acts shine, giving them such splendor and marvel as to astonish Heaven and earth. The Resurrection will be the beginning, the foundation and the fulfillment of all goods - crown and glory of all the Blessed. My Resurrection is the true Sun which worthily glorifies my Humanity; It is the Sun of the Catholic Religion; It is the glory of every Christian. Without Resurrection, it would have been as though heavens with no Sun, no heat and no life.

Now, my Resurrection is the symbol of the souls who will form the Sanctity in my Will. The Saints of the past centuries symbolize my Humanity. Although resigned, they did not have continuous act in my Will; therefore, they did not receive the mark of the Sun of my Resurrection, but the mark of the works of my Humanity before my Resurrection. Therefore, they will be many; almost like stars, they will form a beautiful ornament to the Heaven of my Humanity. But the Saints of the living in my Will, who will symbolize my Resurrected Humanity, will be few. In fact, many throngs and crowds of people saw my Humanity, but few saw my Resurrected Humanity - only the believers, those who were most disposed, and, I could say, only those who contained the seed of my Will. In fact, if they did not have that seed, they would have lacked the necessary sight to be able to see my Resurrected and glorious Humanity, and therefore be spectators of my ascent into Heaven.

Now, if my Resurrection symbolizes the Saints of the living in my Will - and this with reason, since every act, word, step, etc. done in my Will is a divine resurrection which the soul receives; it is a mark of glory that she receives; it is to leave herself in order to enter the Divinity, and to love, work and think, hiding herself in the bright Sun of my Volition - what is the wonder, if the soul remains fully risen and identified with the very Sun of my Glory, and symbolizes my Resurrected Humanity? But few are those who dispose themselves to this, because even in sanctity souls want something for their own good; while the Sanctity of living in my Will has nothing of its own - everything is of God. It takes too much for souls to dispose themselves to this - to strip themselves of their own goods. Therefore, they will not be many.

You are not in the number of the many, but of the few. Therefore, be always attentive to the call, and to your continuous flight.

From “The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will
Day Twenty-Eight

My pierced Mama, your little child, knowing that you are alone, without your beloved Good, Jesus, wants to cling to you to keep you company in your most bitter desolation. Without Jesus, all things change into sorrow for you. The memory of his harrowing pains, the sweet sound of His voice which still resounds in your ear, the charming gaze of dear Jesus, now sweet, now sad, now swollen with tears, but which always enraptured your maternal hear - not having them with you any more, they are like sharp swords which pierce your maternal heart through, side to side.

Desolate Mama, your dear child wants to give you relief and compassion for each pain. Even more, I would like to be Jesus, to be able to give you all the love, the comforts, the reliefs, and the compassion, which Jesus Himself would have given you in your state of bitter desolation. Sweet Jesus gave me to you as your child; therefore, put me in His place in your maternal heart, and I will be all for my Mama; I will dry your tears, and I will always keep you company.

Lesson of the Desolate Queen and Mother:

Dearest child, thank you for your company; but if you want your company to be sweet and dear to me, and bearer of relief to my pierced heart, I want to find in you the Divine Will, operating and dominating – and, that you do not surrender even one breath of life to your will. Then will I exchange you with my Son Jesus, because, His Will being in you, in It I will feel Jesus in your heart. Oh, how happy I will be to find in you the first fruit of His pains and of His death. In finding my beloved Jesus in my child, my pains will change into joys, and my sorrows into conquests.

Now, listen to me, child of my sorrows. As my dear Son breathed His last, He descended into Limbo, triumphant bearer of glory and happiness to that prison in which were all the Patriarchs and the Prophets, the first father Adam, dear Saint Joseph, my holy parents, and all those who had been saved by virtue of the foreseen merits of the future Redeemer. I was inseparable from my Son, and not even death could take Him away from me. So, in the ardor of my sorrows I followed Him into Limbo, and was spectator of the feast and thanksgiving which that great crowd of people gave for my Son, who had suffered so much, and whose first step had been toward them, to beatify them and to bring them with Himself into celestial glory. So, at His death began the conquests and the glory for Jesus and for all those who loved them.

This, dear child, is symbol of how the conquests, the glory and the joy begin in the divine order - even in the midst of the greatest sorrows - when the creature makes her will die through union with the Divine Will. So, even though the eyes of my soul followed my Son and I never lost sight of Him, at the same time, during those three days in which He was buried, I felt such yearning to see Him risen, that in the ardor of my love I kept repeating: “Rise, my Glory! Rise, my Life!” My desires were ardent, my sighs, of fire - to the point of feeling consumed.

Now, in this yearning, I saw my dear Son, accompanied by that great crowd of people, leaving Limbo and going back to the sepulcher. It was the dawn of the third day, and just as all nature cried over Him, now it rejoiced; so much so, that the sun anticipated its course to be present at the act in which my Son was rising. But – oh wonder! Before rising again He showed that crowd of people His Most holy Humanity - bleeding, wounded, disfigured; the way it had been reduced for love of them and for all. All were moved, and admired the excesses of love and the great portent of Redemption.

Now, my child, oh, how I wish you to be present in the act of the Resurrection of my Son! He was all Majesty. From His Divinity, united to His soul, He unleashed enchanting seas of light and beauty, such as to fill Heaven and earth. Then, triumphantly, making use of His power, He commanded His dead humanity to receive His soul again, and to rise, triumphantly and gloriously, to immortal life. What a solemn act! My dear Jesus triumphed over death, saying: “Death, you will be death no longer, but life!”

With this act of triumph, He placed the seal on the fact that He was Man and God; and with His Resurrection, He confirmed His doctrine, His miracles, the life of the Sacraments, and the whole life of the Church. And not only this: He obtained triumph over the human wills, weakened and almost extinguished to true good, to let triumph over them the life of that Divine Will which was to bring the fullness of Sanctity and of all goods to the creatures. And at the same time, by virtue of His Resurrection, He sowed the seed of resurrection to eternal glory into the bodies. My child, the Resurrection of my Son encloses everything, and is the most solemn act that he did for love of creatures.

Now, listen to me, my child; I want to speak to you as a Mother who loves her child very much. I want to tell you what it means to do the Divine Will and to live of It; the example is given to you by my Son and by myself. Our life was strewn with pains, with poverty, with humiliations, to the point of seeing my beloved Son die of pains; but in all this, ran the Divine Will. It was the life of our pains, and we felt triumphant, and conquerors to the extent of changing even death into life; so much so, that, in seeing Its great good, we voluntarily exposed ourselves to sufferings, because, since the Divine Will was in us, no one could impose himself on It, or on us. Suffering was in our power, and we called upon it as nourishment and triumph of the Redemption - such as to be able to bring all good to the entire world.

Now, dear child, if your life and your pains have the Divine Will as their center, be certain that sweet Jesus will use you and your pains to give help, light and grace to the whole universe. Therefore, pluck up courage; the Divine Will can do great things where It reigns. In all circumstances, reflect yourself in me and in your sweet Jesus, and move forward.

The soul:

Holy Mama, if you help me and keep me sheltered under your mantle, being my celestial sentry, I am certain that I will convert all my pains into Will of God; and I will follow you, step by step, along the unending ways of the Supreme Fiat, because I know that your charming love of a Mother and your power will win over my will, keep it in your power and exchange it with the Divine Will. Therefore, my Mama, I entrust myself to you, and I abandon myself into your arms.

Little Sacrifice:

Today, to honor me, your will say seven times: “Not my will, but yours be done”, offering me my sorrows to ask for the grace always to do the Divine Will.

Ejaculatory Prayer:

My Mama, for the sake of the Resurrection of your Son, make me rise again in the Will of God.