Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
Acts 2:36–41; Psalm 33; John 20:11–18
We often imagine a better world. More just. More peaceful. More human.
But something in us knows: the world is not like that.
The first reading speaks with clarity.
Peter does not accuse from a distance. He speaks to the crowd— and through them, to all of us.
“You are responsible.”
It is not only history. It is also truth about the human heart.
Violence, injustice, brokenness— they are not somewhere else. They pass through us.
Yet Peter does not stop there.
He offers a way forward: repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit.
Not denial. Not excuses. Not explanations. But transformation.
Then a new vision becomes possible: “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”
Not because the world has changed— but because the heart has.
But how can the heart be changed?
The Gospel brings us into a garden.
Mary stands outside the tomb, weeping. Loss is still real. Love is still searching.
She sees angels— and then Jesus.
But she does not recognize him.
She thinks he is the gardener.
And she is not entirely wrong.
The story of our relationship with God began in a garden. Eden.
Now it begins again.
A new garden. A new creation.
Jesus, the gardener, stands where death had been.
The cross— once a sign of defeat— has become the tree of life.
Grace is stronger than sin. Life is stronger than death.
Then one word changes everything:
“Mary.”
She is known. She is called. She sees.
“I have seen the Lord.”
This is the turning point.
From blindness to recognition. From grief to joy. From loss to mission.
And so the story of the Bible moves like this:
from a garden to a garden, from creation to new creation.
And we are inside this story.
Not as spectators, but as participants.
We know our failures. We know the weight we carry.
But we also know the invitation:
turn back, receive life, begin again.
Then, slowly, we begin to see differently.
Not a perfect world— but a world held by grace.
And we can say, with quiet conviction:
“The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”
Why?
Because we have seen the risen Lord.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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