In John’s gospel, confusion reigned at the empty tomb of Jesus. Mary of Magdala thought the body had been taken. Peter could not understand what was happening. Only the “disciple whom Jesus loved” grasped the meaning of the situation. For the “beloved disciple,” it seems, the burial cloth neatly rolled in a corner merely confirmed what he or she already suspected: Christ would be raised from the dead. You can sympathize with Mary’s jumping to a conclusion or Peter’s mystification, but what about the other disciple? Do you think that love can open your heart and mind to both faith and knowledge? How?

NEW LIFE IS always something of a mystery. Take a look into the face of a newborn, and you hardly have words to express what you see. A life so delicate, unspoiled, full of possibility and grace: what worlds are contained in every new child! New life is a promise, a sign of hope, and certainly a reason to rejoice and be grateful. The whole world seems born again in the event of a new life.

Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, breathlessly panting, “They took the Master from the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.”

At a family dinner one year, we all went around the table and said what we were giving up for Lent. It was the typical litany of sacrifices that people usually make. My nephew, Patrick, who was 4 years old at the time, was also there, pushing the food he didn’t want to eat around his plate, not caring at all about our adult discussion.

Loving God, you raised your Son to your right hand. With trust in your mercy that endures forever, we make prayers in the name of Jesus, who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and always.

“You know what has happened all over Judea.” Repeatedly in the early church Christians were called upon to defend their beliefs, and some of these explanations, like Saint Peter’s speech in Acts in this weekend’s readings, sound a lot like a creed.

I . . . have faith in the cross . . . as the revelation of the “way” or “path” of transformation, as the revelation of the depth of God’s love for us, and as the proclamation of radical grace. —Marcus J. Borg, The Heart of Christianity