The Sunday Gospel For Men

Sunday, June 11th, 2023 - Frequent Communion

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
 
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
John 6:51-58
 
Frequent Communion
Today is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. This feast was first established in Belgium in the 1200s as a response to the debates about the True Presence and frequent reception of Holy Communion. It came from Julianna of Cornillon’s vision, where Jesus lamented the absence of a particular feast in the Church’s calendar focused on his sacramental presence on the altar. The feast was only a local celebration until one of its major supporters, Archdeacon Jacques Pantaléon, became Pope Urban IV in 1261. This feast is historically celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday (last Sunday), but in the United States of America, the feast has been moved to Sunday.
Today we will reflect on the frequent reception of the true body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. History has witnessed many different attitudes toward the reception of the Eucharist. In the early Church, all the baptized received the Eucharist; in the Middle Ages, the Church’s call to live a sinless life led to a holy fear of receiving the Eucharist, making it more distant from the laity. Most lay people received the Eucharist only three times a year at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, after going to confession and preparing themselves.
In 1910, Pope Saint Pius X promulgated a decree in which he famously lowered the age of First Communion to that age at which a child can distinguish between the Bread of the Holy Eucharist and ordinary bread. Not only did he lower the age for First Communion, but he said that after First Communion, children should “frequently approach the Holy Table, even daily if possible.” He declared that the “daily approach to Communion is open to all, old and young, and two conditions only are required: the state of grace and a right intention.” These two conditions deserve further reflection.
The State of Grace: This means that you are free from all mortal sins. If you are baptized and have validly confessed all of your mortal sins—grievous offenses against the law of God—then you are filled with the life of God—the life of grace. In this state, you ought to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.
A Right Intention: Pope Pius X said, “A right intention consists in this: that he who approaches the Holy Table should do so, not out of routine, or vain glory, or human respect, but that he wish to please God, to be more closely united with Him by charity, and to have recourse to this divine remedy for his weakness and defects.” This list is a wonderful examination of conscience before approaching the altar at Mass. Ask yourself if you are only approaching the Eucharist out of habit, or for your own glory, or human respect. Ask yourself if you want to please God, to be more closely united to Him by charity, and to have his remedy for your own human weakness and defects.
In your silent prayer today, reflect on your intentions. Pray that the Lord will purify your intent to please God, be united to him, and have a remedy for your weakness. If you are in good standing with the Catholic Church, free from all mortal sins, and have a right intention, then receive the Lord in Holy Communion with great joy.

Sunday, June 4th, 2023 - The Holy Trinity

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:16-18
 
The Holy Trinity
 
Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday, a celebration that stems from the early Church. At first, it only consisted of songs and hymns written in honor of the Holy Trinity in opposition to the fourth-century teachings of Arius. These hymns worked their way into the Mass on Sunday. We now celebrate Trinity Sunday on the first Sunday after Pentecost every year. 
 
Understanding the Holy Trinity was of the utmost importance for the early Church. One of the most precise writings about the Trinity is the Athanasian Creed:
 
Now this is the catholic faith: That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity, neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence. For the person of the Father is a distinct person, the person of the Son is another, and that of the Holy Spirit still another. But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal … Anyone then who desires to be saved should think thus about the trinity.
 
At the center of the Christian faith stands the eternal truth that the one God is three divine persons. This is a beautiful and mysterious truth.
 
As we reflect on this mystery, we pray to the Trinity. Our connection to the Trinity is in the person of Jesus Christ–*true God* and *true man*. Today’s Gospel focuses on the moment when the Father sends the Son into our human world: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” Even before Jesus became man, God was present everywhere—holding all things in existence. But as a man, Jesus bridges our nature and God’s divine nature.
 
The Son became man not only so that we could know of the Father in this life but also to free us from our sins and to win for us eternal life. Quoting Saint Athanasius, the Catechism affirms this, saying, “The Son of God became man so that we might become God” (CCC 460). When we are free from sin, and enlivened by God's grace, we partake in the life of God. We are made for eternal union with God and to partake of his nature.
 
So in your prayer today, reflect on the Holy Trinity and ask God to continue to help you to be free from sin, to grow in virtue, and become more like Him.

Sunday, May 28th, 2023 - Peace of Christ

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
John 20:19-23
 
Peace of Christ
 
We see from today’s Gospel that the disciples were still filled with fear for their lives when the resurrected Lord first appeared to them. There is no doubt that this fear was not just of the Jews who had opposed their Lord. They are said to rejoice at the Lord’s appearance only after he speaks peace to them and shows them his wounds to assure them that it is really he—and not merely a ghost. Having gone from their sight for a little while, as he had told them on the eve of his passion, he now appeared to them and began to give them the promised Holy Spirit. 
It is perhaps startling that he so quickly gets down to business with them. He has returned not merely to live among them in the same form as before. Instead, he immediately gives them his peace and reminds them that because they are connected to him, they are connected to his Father. As the Son was sent by the Father, so too are they sent by the Son—and they will have the same Holy Spirit with them so that they too can offer the forgiveness of sins. They are sent to be the mediators of the one Mediator between God and Man—the ones who will bring the good news to a broken world that heaven is now open. They will teach the world about the life-giving words of Jesus. They will bring the peace that he is so insistent on bringing to them. 
It is a marvelous scene but also a touching one. Given that all of them (save John) had completely abandoned or even denied him in his hour of greatest need, one might think that a good scolding might be the first thing he gave them. Instead, it is his peace. That they fell prey to fear did not mean that the Evil One had taken them. He had prayed that his Father would keep them from that. And his prayers were answered. Now he has returned, and he is both gentle with them as well as commanding. They were weak, but he will be their strength. They are frightened, but he will make them not afraid. They had left him, but he has not left them at all. He still wants their friendship and their service.
In your prayer today, meditate upon the times when you have abandoned or denied the Lord. How did he appear to you afterward? How did he give you peace? How did he stand you back up on your feet? If you have spiritual responsibility for others—children, students, catechumens, friends—ask the Lord to give you that same peace-giving and challenging way of bringing others to Christ and Christian maturity.   
 
 

Sunday, May 21st, 2023 - Saint Peter

After Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and eaten breakfast with them, he said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He then said to Simon Peter a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
John 21:15-19
 
Saint Peter
In Matthew 16, Jesus asks the disciples who the people were saying that he was. They responded that some said Elijah, some John the Baptist, and still others one of the prophets. Jesus then asked who they—the disciples—said he was. Peter’s response, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” lead to Jesus’ famous blessing and the founding charter of the papacy, which would be known as the office of Peter:
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16: 16-19).  
Soon after receiving this blessing and task, Peter responded to Jesus’ teaching about the suffering and death the Christ would have to undergo:
“Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men’” (Matthew 16:22-23).
The key to understanding this passage is to understand what it means to be “behind” Jesus. The most fundamental aspect of this is to be a follower of Jesus. Peter may be the rock; he is not the manager of the Christ’s affairs. To make this kind of mistake is to open oneself up to other errors. And we know that Peter made them, most importantly denying Christ three times on the brink of his trial. 
In today’s reading, Jesus is testing Peter to see whether he has regained his steadiness. What he wants to know is whether Peter loves him, a question he asks three times. And to Peter’s affirmations, the Lord tells him what his task is: to feed his lambs, tend his sheep, and feed his sheep. Jesus adds to this task the warning that Peter himself would die the kind of death to which he had objected when Jesus predicted it of himself–death on a cross.
We men who have responsibilities as shepherds of families or of others in the Church must both love and follow Jesus—not tell him about how he should follow our plans. In your prayer today, ask the Lord if you have been following him. If there have been places where you have been wandering or have been resisting the Lord’s will and trying to substitute your own, ask him to prune your will and make your love complete.  

Sunday, May 14th, 2023 - The Holy Spirit

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
John 14:15-21
 
The Holy Spirit
Today’s Gospel reading prompts us to ask, “How is it that we can have the strength to keep on being friends with Jesus once he has gone away?” After all, those post-resurrection appearances only lasted for a little less than six weeks—then he ascended into heaven. How do you keep up the friendship with a friend who has gone away?
The odd-but-true answer is that he went away in order to be closer to us. It is the Holy Spirit whose power brings us Jesus’ eucharistic presence and gives us the gifts we need to be the ambassadors of Jesus to the world. It is the Holy Spirit who is the one who convicts us of the truth and also serves as our advocate, giving us the words needed to speak to this needy, hostile world. It is that Spirit who gives us access to the mind of the Father. It is that Spirit who is, said St. Augustine, the bond of charity between the Father and the Son.
Some skeptics like to mock Christians for their belief about a “man in the sky;” they really like to mock the idea that we believe in a “ghost” who speaks to us. As the Lord said, “the world cannot accept” the Spirit because “it neither sees him nor knows him.” But we do know him even if we cannot see him. We understand him particularly when things are toughest. St. Paul writes, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). 
In your prayer today, ask the Holy Spirit to pray in you and form you more fully into the image of the Son of God.

Sunday, May 7th, 2023 - Heavenly Dwelling

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” 
John 14:1-12
 
Heavenly Dwelling
The Christian life is a pilgrimage. We are journeying toward our final destination—heaven. This life cannot and does not last forever. We cannot live forever on this earth or in these bodies, for both this earth and our bodies will pass away. This life in these bodies tests us and prepares us for eternity. The test is in how we respond to God’s revelation in Jesus, for Jesus is the way to the Father and to the Father’s house. Life can be a blessing only with God for without him all life—even, or perhaps especially, everlasting life—is hellish.
That is why our Lord’s words are so comforting. We have the way to heaven in Jesus because he is one with the Father. The Father has loved him, and he has given that love to all those whom the Father has given him so that they might live their lives in Jesus. “It is no longer I that live,” says St. Paul, but “Christ lives in me.” He lives in us, and we live our lives in him. As long as we continue to live in that love, we will keep living and find our permanent resting place after this life. 
In the Father’s house, Jesus tells the disciples, are many dwelling places—or, in other translations, “mansions.” The Father’s house is the destination of our pilgrimage. And the mansions or dwelling places tell us some important things. 
First, they are dwelling places—plural. Unlike some philosophical or religious conceptions of our final destination, heaven is a place of variety. It is a place where though we are fully alive in God, this does not erase our individuality. Instead, it gives it to us. We are not assimilated to the Borg or melted into the “One” or the “World Soul.” Jesus promises that he loves us as persons—and persons we will remain, reflecting in our own unique way the glory of God forever. 
Second, they are dwelling places—places to remain. “Mansion” is a good term if you know a little Latin. The word “mansion” comes from “manere”, which translates to remain. In this life, we have no abiding city, for we are ultimately citizens of the heavenly city. That is our destination, our permanent address. And the determining factor in whether we get there is whether we stick close to the way—Jesus—in this journey. 
In your prayer today, meditate a little upon times when you have not felt fully yourself or fully at home. Perhaps now is one of those times. Then ask the Holy Spirit to keep before your eyes the way that is Jesus and the goal that is the Father’s house.

Sunday, April 30th, 2023 - The Sheep Gate

Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
John 10:1-10
The Sheep Gate
Today’s Gospel may seem to be an odd shift from the images of the previous weeks’ Gospels; as you heard, Jesus goes from speaking of himself as the true bread to speaking of himself as a shepherd and a gate. But as Pope Benedict XVI observed, both images concern what we live on—where we get our life. Jesus is speaking to us over and over again about where we find our life in such images as bread, wine, vine, and shepherd. The true shepherd, the Lord tells us, is the one who gives life to the sheep.
The image of Jesus as a gate is perhaps a bit odder and less lifelike to us. Yet it is important, for it makes clear that the way to the Father and abundant life is through him alone: “Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” As the gate, Jesus is the way to heaven. As the bread, Jesus is the sustenance from heaven. As the shepherd, Jesus is the king of heaven.
The image of the gate here also tells us who true shepherds must be. They must be those who have entered the gate themselves. Those who will lead others and feed them must be those who follow Jesus and who gain their lives from him. We can see from John’s comment that the Pharisees do not quite understand what Jesus is saying to them—that they are not true shepherds because they reject him. But the Pharisees are not the only targets of this gate analogy.
Men who have families are designated shepherds—so, too, are any men in other positions of authority, such as in the workplace. In all cases, they will only be true shepherds if they enter the gate of Christ. Do you have a position in which you are a shepherd of some sort?
In your prayer today, ask the Lord to guide you so that you can be a true shepherd who feeds the sheep and tends to the lambs placed in your care. Your success hinges on these followers being able to hear the voice of the true shepherd in you. And hearing that voice is dependent upon your entering fully into the gate who is Jesus. Pray today that those entrusted to you might hear Christ’s voice in and through yours.  

Sunday, April 23rd, 2023 - Finding Christ

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
Luke 24:13-35
 
 
Finding Christ
This Gospel teaches us how Christ reveals himself both in the scriptures and in the breaking of the bread. It is interesting to notice how Jesus chose to reveal himself to the disciples after the Resurrection. He approaches two of the disciples who do not understand his death and are leaving Jerusalem. Then, he asks them what they are talking about, and when he hears their half-understood explanation of his Passion, he begins to explain the mysteries of the scriptures to them.
Jesus gives these two disciples an exclusive, all-day, first-person Bible study showing how all the scriptures bore witness to him and to what he had to do in his Passion. He does this all without saying, “Hey, it’s me!” Instead, he speaks with them until they reach the village. By this point, they are so interested in what he has to say that they ask him to remain with them. It is then that he finally reveals himself.
He revealed himself while they were at table when “he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.” As he did this, they recognized who he was. Isn’t it interesting that after spending all day with Jesus—talking about Jesus—these disciples didn’t recognize him until he broke and blessed the bread?
After the Resurrection, Jesus reveals himself to us in a new way. Now, like these two disciples, we come to know him through the explanation of the scriptures, but most clearly, we know him in the Eucharist. In the breaking of the bread, Jesus is truly present. His body, blood, soul, and divinity are present in every particle of the consecrated host.
In your prayer today, ask the Lord to be present to you. Listen to the priest as he expounds on the sacred scriptures in his homily, and look for Jesus when the priest takes the bread, says the blessing, breaks the bread, and gives it to the faithful.

Sunday, April 16th, 2023 - Spiritual Vision

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
John 20:19–31
 
Spiritual Vision
Thomas is not present for the first appearance of the risen Christ to the apostles, so his unbelief lasts longer than the others. What Thomas suffered from is a problem all too common to Christians in the modern world. We think we want scientific evidence when what we actually need the most is spiritual vision.
Think back on the other accounts of Jesus’s appearances, such as when he showed up along the road to Emmaus. He tells those he encounters that, based on the scriptures, they should have known he was to rise (see Luke 24:13-35). In other words, their spiritual knowledge would have prepared them to believe.
Thomas doesn’t have that knowledge here. And though Christ wants his followers always to have that kind of spiritual perception, he still works to awaken it within others when it is dormant. He lets Thomas see and touch his wounds even as he notes in a gentle rebuke: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
In your prayer today, meditate on how you are cultivating your spiritual vision. Are you really prepared to believe in the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ? Are you busy pointing out others who have been slow to believe? Ask the Lord to work on yourself so that you will believe and see.
The Easter Gospel readings point you to the scriptures, the sacraments, prayer, and company with others whose faith or love are greater than yours. When these all come together, you will be prepared to believe the Lord even before he gives the proof. 

Sunday, April 9th, 2023 - The Resurrection

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.
John 20:1–9
 
The Resurrection
When the apostles hear the good news of the Resurrection from Mary Magdalene, Peter and John race to the tomb. As theologians have told us, John runs faster because he represents love in the Church. Whereas Peter comes more slowly as he represents authority in the Church and, as such, John allows Peter to enter the tomb first. This story, along with its symbolism, gives us several things to think about—both as we celebrate Easter today and get ready to live out this season with renewed boldness, announcing the good news to others in word and deed.
Our first point of reflection is that the authority in the Church is very important. John’s allowing of Peter to enter first is a sign of how, in our leadership roles, we should want to be in harmony with those above us. Concerning the Church’s authority, St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote to the Magnesians around 110 AD:
Take care to do all things in harmony with God, with the bishop presiding in the place of God, and with the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles, and with the deacons, who are most dear to me, entrusted with the business of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father from the beginning and is at last made manifest.
Ignatius used the musical term “harmony” to describe what our relationship to the Church’s hierarchy ought to be. Another useful description of this relationship is the image of the Body of Christ that St. Paul used (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). Either way, you see that what you do for Christ is not your action alone; rather, it is part of a bigger group which is led by an authority. And in your own domestic church—your home—this reminds you what your authority is. It is not simply about “being first” or “making decisions”; rather, it’s about making sure the business of Jesus Christ is done.
Our second point of meditation is that although love must give way to authority, it is the thing that will make us travel the fastest. We can become so caught up in questions about authority that we lose focus on the business of Jesus: communicating his love to others so that they may experience it and then, in turn, communicate it to more people. There is no doubt that we have a crisis of authority in many ways among both Christians and the world at large. But it goes hand in hand with a crisis of love. Love, we are told in the first book of Peter, “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Love also drives people to act much faster than appeals to authority.
In your prayer today, meditate on the authorities you report to as well as the authority God has given you. How have you responded to proper authority? Begrudgingly? Disrespectfully? How have you exercised it? With gentleness? With strength? And how have you shown the love that drives people to accept authority and accept the truth about Jesus? In your time of silent prayer, think of ways in which you may have failed to accept and distribute these twin gifts of authority and love that God bestows on Christians.