Monday within Easter Octave : 5th April, 2021 April 5, 2021
Reflection on the WORD
Easter Truth: In today’s Gospel, the women were filled with great joy at the Resurrection of Jesus. However, even as the guards testified to the Truth, they were bribed to lie in the hope that the Truth be squashed. Ponder on, “Are our hearts filled with the Joy of the Truth of the Risen Christ or are we still skeptical and superficial in our faith?”
Matthew 28:8-10, 11b-13, 15
Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples. And there, coming to meet them, was Jesus. ‘Greetings,’ he said. And the women came up to him and, falling down before him clasped his feet. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee; they will see me there.’
Some of the guards went off into the city to tell the chief priests all that had happened. These held a meeting with the elders and, after some discussion, handed a considerable sum of money to the soldiers with these instructions, ‘This is what you must say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” The soldiers took the money and carried out their instructions, and to this day that is the story among the Jews.

Today's Pointers on God's Word
As you read the passage what words, phases or meanings caught your attention?
- •The guards testified to the chief priests that Jesus had risen. The chief priests were obstinate, so they bribed the guards to lie that Jesus’ body was stolen while they were asleep.
- •The chief priests’ hearts were so hardened by their greed for power that they deliberately blinded themselves from the Truth of Jesus’ Resurrection.
- •Is your heart hardened to the Truth of Jesus’ Resurrection? How do you allow this Truth to touch your life? Do you recognize the presence of the Risen Lord in His Word, the Eucharist and in His the Church?
