Easter Day - The Resurrection of the Lord Year B. By Tobe Eze.

1.       Growing old is not growing up, try to join the two. Grow old and equally grow up. Tobe Eze.

I SINCERELY WISH ALL MY FRIENDS A BLESSING FILLED EASTER. I SAY A BIG HAPPY EASTER TO YOU ALL.

Easter Day - The Resurrection of the Lord Year B.

FIRST READING
Acts 10:34a, 37—43

SECOND READING
Colossians 3:1—4

GOSPEL
John 20:1—9

THEME: BE A WITNESS OF HIS RESURRECTION.

A certain family was living in an abject poverty but they were faithful to God. The first son dropped out of secondary school in order to make money and help the family. He went to the city to learn business (boi). There are five children in the family. After serving his Master (Oga), he was settled very well and he started his own business. The whole family had faith in him to move them to the next level of life. He was actually doing very great in the business. The last son who happens to be the fourth child went to live with him. Unfortunately, after his secondary school, the senior brother on his way coming back from a business trip had accident and broke his spinal cord. He was taken from this hospital to another, after all said and done, they sold everything and went back to the village. In the village one day, a group of NGO' S came. They organized a scholarship exam there and the younger son passed the exam. He was sent abroad (USA) to study any course of his choice. After everything, he became the breadwinner of the family.

He made the family to have name, fame and all they have till today. Why this story? Continue Reading.............................

The Jews was expecting the Messiah that will come, to be a Messiah that will be thrown down from heaven and a Messiah that will have so much power that nothing created on this earth can approach him just like the family above was expecting the first son to wipe away their poverty but things turned the other way round. The accident of the first son can be placed vis a vis with the death of Jesus. Without the accident of the first son, the last son would not have gotten the scholarship that gave the family name and fame. The scholarship that made them what they are. Without the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation of the Jews who were expecting a different Messiah would not have come true. Our own salvation would not have come if he did not die.

The first reading is an eye opener to us that we have to be his witnesses especially to his resurrection. We have to proclaim him to the farthest part of the earth. Jesus shows himself to only those who are his witnesses as Peter said in the first reading, “This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead”.

In the second reading, we are admonished to look unto God who is above. How do we do that? It is by bearing witness to him. How do we bear the witness? It is by looking unto love, charity, humility and many other virtues our Lord Jesus has given us examples about them and leaving pride, envy, jealously, wickedness, stealing, materialism, murder and many other vices we embrace in life.

The gospel is giving us example of how our Lord’s witnesses should do. Mary Magdalene could not rest because of the zeal to bear witness to the truth. Peter and the other apostle left all without fear and ran to the tomb in order to bear witness to the truth. We should also be restless whenever the truth is facing challenges. We should bear fruit that will last in the witnesses we bear to the truth through our ways of life.

If we become witnesses like our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters in the faith, what they did, we shall do more than that and where they are, we shall all go. Jesus as a grain died in order to bear us as fruits that will last. Do not take yourself away from this greatest joy he has purchased for us through his death and resurrection. (Romans 6:4 and 5) We die with him in baptism and we shall rise with him in his resurrection if we continue to be his witnesses as he asks us in the Bible. (Acts 1:8). He has made way for us just as the first son made way for the last son, let us also excel like the last son in the story above and we shall enjoy forever. Whoever proclaims me before men, I will proclaim him before my father. And whoever denies me before men, I will deny him before my father (Matthew 10:32-33). Let us today be witnesses of his resurrection to the whole world and he will glorify us all in his kingdom. THANKS AND HAPPY EASTER.