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.

The scripture stories of Easter reflect our proper orientation to this feast. These are narratives of discovery and insight, commissioning and departure. Most of all they are stories about witnessing.

“After the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene is the most important woman in the New Testament,” says Dominican Father Thomas Michelet, in an interview in National Geographic (March 2012).

YOU’D THINK that Christians would have figured out by now a way to celebrate the central mystery of their faith—Christ’s Resurrection—on the same day every year. But this issue has been a source of contention almost from the start.

We call on the name of our risen Lord, who forgives our sins.

God, Peter reminds his audience, gave Jesus the Spirit and was with him. While this power allowed Christ to heal and do good, he was still put to death.

Even better than Sunday, we think of it as “The Lord’s Day.” Each Sunday is a “little Easter” when Christians worldwide celebrate the Paschal Mystery.

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