Monday, April 13, 2020 - Monday in the Easter Octave - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 28, 8-15 - This is the day which the Lord has made, may it be a day of feast and joy for us!

Following yesterday's Gospel, this passage puts us before our attitude towards our missions. The women who came to the tomb were "filled with both fear and great joy". In the same way, we too, when faced with a mission, feel a certain fear: fear of the unknown, fear of not being up to the task. At the same time, there is joy: the joy of being chosen, the joy of knowing that we can be trusted... These women, once the fear was overcome, "ran to bring the news to the disciples". And how do we carry out our mission? Are we quick to fulfill it? Or are we one of those who drag our feet, putting off until tomorrow what could be done today?

Then it is said that Jesus is always ahead of us. Until now, He appears to us, He greets us, He accompanies us through our contemporaries, but often obscured by our vanity and lust for futile reasons. Would we know Him "to take hold of His feet and bow down before Him"? He, the only Risen God, to whom death no longer has any hold.

Finally, irresponsible and incredulous, it is easy for us to make false accusations and spread false news to free ourselves from our failures: "This is what you will say: His disciples came and stole the body at night while we slept". Guards, having to keep watch, fall asleep and, worse, allow themselves to be corrupted to stifle the truth. Let us, through the victory of Christ, be victorious over our sins and vices.