Jesus promises his disciples that, although he will soon be leaving them, he will not leave them ‘desolate’ — or ‘as orphans’, as another version puts it. He will send them his Spirit who will be with them always. In his mortal humanity, Jesus could only be in one place at a time and could […]
Message for the Sixth Sunday of Easter 2014 Read More »
Jesus knew his disciples were unhappy at the prospect of his leaving them. To alleviate their sorrow, he told them: ‘Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.‘ Like the disciples, we often live troubled lives. We are so absorbed by everything we have to do or cope with that
Message for the 5th Sunday of Easter Read More »
Today’s Gospel reading contains one of the verses in the Bible that every Christian should know. John 10:10 sums up the essence of the Christian life and why Jesus came: ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.‘ But what does this mean? It means that we should be
Message for Good Shepherd Sunday 2014 Read More »
The story of the encounter on the road to Emmaus is unique to Luke’s Gospel. In fact, it contains the fullest post-resurrection account of Jesus’ encounter with the disciples of all four Gospels. For Luke faith is a form of sight: seeing with fresh spiritual eyes (cf. Luke 9:45). This gift of new sight reaches
Message for the 3rd Sunday of Easter 2014 Read More »
We walk by faith and not by sight, and we can only perceive God as in a mirror, dimly (see 1 Cornthians 13:11) — in biblical times mirrors were made of polished metal, which yielded a somewhat distorted image. Even though faith brings light to our minds and hearts, we often live it out in
Message for Low Sunday 2014 Read More »
The early Church referred to baptism as ‘enlightenment’ or ‘illumination’ and the candidates for baptism as ‘those being enlightened’. The story of the cure of the man born blind and his subsequent progress from physical sight to the insight of faith is a figure of what happens to the baptized person. John writes of the
Message for the 4th Sunday of Lent 2014 Read More »
John presents us with a dramatic, even theatrical, encounter. Jesus is described in very human terms, sitting at the well, exhausted from his journey. The woman too is very human. Her appearance at the well at about noon, long after the other village women would have replenished their water supply for the day, may indicate
Message for the 3rd Sunday of Lent Read More »
Today’s Gospel theme is worry and anxiety. The Greek verb in ‘do not be anxious‘ is merimnate, used also in Philippians 4:6, ‘Have no anxiety about anything.’ God gave us life and our body, so he will give us the lesser gifts of food and clothing, and therefore anxiety is unnecessary. We are all prone
Message for Quinquagesima Sunday Read More »
Jesus loves the law and would do nothing to discredit it, but has come to complete it. Thus, he often begins by reinforcing the familiar with, ‘You have heard that it was said…‘ and moves on to, ‘But I say to you…‘ The new understanding usually expands, rather than reduces, the message of the law,
Message for Sexagesima Sunday Read More »
Anger is a very common human experience. Situations make us angry; people make us angry; we get angry with ourselves. Sometimes we know we are wrong to be angry. Much more often, we think we are right. We think the fault lies with others — they have made us angry. Or else certain situations provoke
Message for Septuagesima Sunday Read More »