Coming to recognise the Lord
A fascinating side of the Easter stories is how they convey a sense of gradual recognition of the risen Jesus, by his closest friends and followers. John’s vivid portrayal of Mary Magdalene challenging the gardener to hand back the body of Jesus conveys some sense of their stupor and confusion. At first, all they hoped for was to be able to show honour to his mortal remains. But when he calls Mary by her name
Different understandings of the resurrection
Our New Testament writers attempt in varied ways to describe the miracle and mystery of our Lord’s dying and rising. As Peter’s sermon at Pentecost was addressed to Jews from different countries but all sharing a Jewish identity, he sets Jesus within the framework of Jewish history…
On Easter morning, the stone was rolled away from the mouth of the tomb. Could I think of my heart as a tomb awaiting a resurrection? Can I identify anything akin to a stone that is holding me back from enjoying the fullness of life? It could be an addiction, a compulsion or some hidden and dark secret that I have never shared with anyone. We can be as sick as our secrets. But as pope Francis declares, “We are called to be people of joyful hope, not doomsday prophets!”
Evocative signs
This is our Passover, the night of nights and the feast of feasts. Let us celebrate and rejoice, therefore! To help our feelings catch up with our convictions, on this holy night we use fire and darkness and water, readings and songs to mark and to evoke the great events of our salvation. We bring to the feast whatever is “dark” in our own lives, whatever is in need of light and healing…
Calvary sets in consoling relief the experience of all who suffer – whether the nightmare of physical pain or the emotional trauma of significant loss or the prospect of imminent death. The human Jesus, struggling to come to terms with the reality of his predicament, echoes every human experience of suffering and of loss…
St John implies that we are united with Jesus by letting him wash our feet, accepting his great act of loving service. Having accepted the gift we must embrace it as a value to practice in our lives. What Jesus does for us in his Passion shows us how to live. In some real sense, we must live like Jesus, “for” God and others…
The motives of Judas
This is “Spy Wednesday”, so called from the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, one of his own chose inner circle of Twelve. Poor Judas was doubtless talented, probably very astute, and had in his youth some spark of idealism; and yet when it came to the test he proved treacherous, unreliable, profoundly untrustworthy. The Gospels offer a few clues…
Contrasting responses to Jesus
Today’s gospel portrays very different responses to Jesus on the part of his disciples as he enters into the final days of his earthly life. The disciple Jesus loved is described as “reclining next to Jesus’, literally, “close to the heart of Jesus.” In the very first chapter of his gospel, the evangelist described Jesus as “close to the heart of the Father”..
In memory of her
The impulsive, loving gesture done for Jesus by his close friend Mary of Bethany, is so inspirational that it’s a wonder the Church has not made more of it in our liturgy. Mary may not yet have seen Jesus in the full light of prophecy, as “a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners who sit in darkness” (1st Reading), or indeed as the world’s only Saviour, but she knew and loved him as a man of God, a fearless preacher…
Opening Comment (for Mass without Procession or Solemn Entrance) Today’s liturgy gives a preview of the events we will celebrate between Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. These events are also the focus of this and every Sunday celebration. We ask for God’s help in understanding their significance. Alternative…
Today the church invites us to identify with those who saw Jesus with the eyes of faith and love, who recognized the light of God in the darkness of Jesus’ passion and death. When we look upon the passion and death of Jesus with such eyes, we see a divine love that is stronger than sin, a divine light that shines in all our darknesses, a divine power that brings new life out of all our deaths, a divine poverty that enriches us at the deepest level of our being.
Cynical but pragmatic
Pragmatism is a quality that is often admired in political leaders. Today’s gospel has an example of a rather deadly form of political pragmatism, when the high priest Caiaphas declares to his colleagues, “it is better for one man to die for the people, than for the whole nation to be destroyed.” Jesus was threatening the status quo, therefore he should be eliminated. ..
Prepared to be unpopular
In last Monday’s gospel some hard-liners brought a woman into Jesus’ presence, claiming that according to the Jewish Law she ought to be stoned. Today’s gospel has them fetching stones to throw at Jesus himself. In response Jesus asks a very probing question…
Abraham’s Legacy: Think Big
The promises to Abraham reach into the future, possibly even to many centuries beyond our present age. In his vocational encounter with God, the patriarch had foretaste of a time when all the nations of the world will be united as though they were blood-relatives, all linked as the offspring of one selected forefather.
Representing us all
There are some specific details in today’s gospel: Galilee, Nazareth, Joseph of the house of David, Mary. It happens a very particular place, Nazareth in Galilee, and to a very particular couple in that place, Joseph who was betrothed to Mary. It was that particular couple in that particular place at a particular moment in time whom God chose in a special way for the sake of all of humanity…
The Serpent and the Cross
The symbol of Israel’s sin, the saraph serpent (the Hebrew word saraph means burning), which threatened them with its poisonous bite, is transformed into an instrument of salvation. Moses made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, so that all who look upon it with an honest admission of guilt and sincere sorrow for their offenses, will be forgiven..
The first stone
Some people are very devoted to condemning. The religious leaders bring a woman to Jesus expecting him to condemn her, because, as they say, “Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this.” Earlier in his gospel, John has a very striking saying on the lips of Jesus, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world…
In just over ten days time, the Easter Triduum will begin, at sunset on Holy Thursday. Today we pray for all the adults and children who will be baptised at Easter. And we ask that we may be fit and ready to renew our own baptismal promises.
Into the Valley of Death
One focus during Lent is to to reflect on our own death and to see our way through it. Whoever enters the valley of death does not walk alone. Jesus is with us because he’s been there before and knows what it is like. Moreover he promises us that just as he rose from the dead so will we. We will live again — in a new way, like a plant springing from the sown seed!
Nicodemus speaks out:
Nicodemus was a Pharisee who sought out Jesus under cover of darkness so as not to be seen consulting him. There he is again in today’s gospel, only this time he speaks out openly, challenging his fellow-Pharisees and the other Jewish leaders to give Jesus a fair hearing, and not to prejudge him. His peers have closed mind…
