Whom are you looking for? - 07-04-2026
Tuesday of Easter week
First Reading
Acts 2,36-41.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter said to the Jewish people,
"Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified."
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
"What are we to do, my brothers?"
Peter (said) to them, "Repent and be baptized,
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.
For the promise is made to you and to your children
and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call."
He testified with many other arguments,
and was exhorting them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."
Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand persons were added that day.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 33(32),4-5.18-19.20.22.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield,
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
Gospel
John 20,11-18.
Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head
and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
She said to them, "They have taken my Lord,
and I don't know where they laid him."
When she had said this, she turned around
and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener
and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him, and I will take him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
"Rabbouni," which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers
and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples,
"I have seen the Lord," and what he told her.
YOUCAT Reflection
106 Are there proofs for the Resurrection of Jesus?
There are no proofs for the Resurrection of Jesus in the scientific sense. There are, however, very strong individual and collective testimonies by a large number of contemporaries of those events in Jerusalem.
The oldest written testimony to the Resurrection is a letter that St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians around twenty years after Christ's death, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15,3–6). Paul is recording here a living tradition that was present in the original Christian community two or three years after Jesus' death and Resurrection, when he himself became a Christian—on the basis of his own staggering encounter with the risen Lord. The disciples took the fact of the empty tomb (Lk 24,2–3)
as the first indication of the reality of the Resurrection. Women, of all people, discovered it—according to the law of that time they were not able to testify. Although we read about the apostle John that he "saw and believed" (Jn 20,8b) already at the empty tomb, full assurance that Jesus was alive came about only after a series of appearances. The many encounters with the risen Lord ended with Christ's Ascension into heaven. Nevertheless, there were afterward and there are even today encounters with the living Lord, Jesus Christ lives.