In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is preparing to leave His disciples. The approach “the farewell discourses.†We read it today, as we approach the end of the Easter season, aware that Jesus left His disciples in stages. The ascension of Jesus was the final act of leaving His apostles, but since His arrest and crucifiction […]
VII Sunday of Easter – May 20, 2012 Read More »
As we grow up from childhood to adult years, we become aware of the many labels that we carry, labels that not only distinguish us from one another, but that so often divide us from one another – labels of nationality, race, religion, color and creed. The story of Jesus teaches us that the commandment
VI Sunday of Easter – May 6, 2012 – Mother’s Day Read More »
Jesus uses this imaginery of vines and bearing fruit to show how we relate to Him. There can be no fruit if we do not remain with Him, the true vine, and allow ourselves to be pruned by God, to help us bear more fruit. The key line from todays Gospel is “cut off from
V Sunday of Easter – May 6, 2012 Read More »
Jesus tells us that He is the Good Shepherd who is prepared to die for His sheep. It is quite easy to distinguish between a good and bad shepherd: the latter has no commitment and runs away as soon as danger threatens. In Jesus’ day, shepherds were commonly regarded as disreputable, isolated groups of men
Good Shepherd Sunday – April 29, 2012 Read More »
This Sunday the Gospel helps us to deepen our faith in the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and is intended to strengthen our response. We hear the ending of the Emmaus story in which the two disciples walk with downcast hearts from Jerusalem to Emmaus. A stranger, in fact Jesus whom they do
III Sunday of Easter – April 22, 2012 Read More »
Today’s Gospel, told by St. John, is a powerful telling of the appearing of the risen Jesus after the cruelty of His death on the cross. The person who appears is real. The disciples see the wounds that were made on His body; then they listen to the command that He gives to them sending
Low Sunday – April 15, 2012 Read More »
Were we to stand on Main Street and ask passers-by, “What do you think is the greatest festival in the Christian calendar?,” the majority would probably say, “Christmas.†Few, if any, would answer, “Easter.†It is like living in two worlds: the world of Main Street and the world of our Christian faith. Coming into
Resurrection of the Lord – April 8, 2012 Read More »
Today, as we listen to St. Mark’s grim Passion story, we can appreciate how loneliness must have been a bitter ingredient in our Lord’s sufferings. Even when enemies surrounded Him, He had that searing feeling of being alone in a crowd. It all began in the Garden Gethsemane, where Jesus – His closest friends fast
Palm Sunday – Cycle “Bâ€, April 1, 2012 Read More »
Today’s Gospel marks a turning point in the life of Jesus. He acknowledges this Himself with the words, “Now the hour has come.†It is as if everything in His life has been building up to this moment. Jesus says that the lives He and the disciples have lived and loved up to now will
Passion (Fifth) Sunday of Lent – Cycle “Bâ€, March 25, 2012 Read More »
The Gospel passage describes the way in which God’s total unselfishness, God’s total self-giving, is worked out by Jesus coming into the world. He came not to wreak Divine vengeance on sinners but simply to offer life. It is in freedom that we accept or reject that life. There is no coercion. If we “prefer
Fourth Sunday of Lent – Cycle “Bâ€, March 18, 2012 Read More »