Gospel for the Day: John

Now that I'm doing these daily posts on the readings for the day, I can see the strange sense of timing of the sequence of readings. Christmas one day, the stoning of St. Stephen the next day and the Resurrection the day after. 


Apparently, today is the feast day of St. John, the Evangelist so the first reading and the Gospel is from his books. The Gospel for today is about the discovery by Mary Magdelene of the empty tomb and the confirmation by Peter and John. 


Mary ran to these disciples and told them that “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So the two ran to to the tomb to see for themselves. When they saw the empty tomb for themselves, John saw and believed. 


The reading for the day ends there so there are two possibilities on what exactly John believed. First he believed Mary Magdalene or second, he believed that Jesus rose from the dead. 


The verses that follow say it is the second. "For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead." Add that to the many ways in which God is hard to accept. 


The two must have gone back where they came from downhearted. It's bad enough that their friend was crucified and their Messiah failed. It's even worst that his body was stolen and never given a proper burial.