Reflections
2021
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
We start the journey with Jesus which leads from his baptism in the wilds of the Jordan Valley to Jerusalem and his death and everything that follows from that. We hear how he started by gathering a small…
The Baptism of the Lord
Today, with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the final feast of the Christmas season, we transition from our celebration of Christmas and our focus on the childhood of Jesus to his adult life.…
The Epiphany of the Lord
For Isaiah Jerusalem was the center of the world, God's world. That was where the camels would bring the gift-bearers with their gold and frankincense. Matthew uses the same image to place the infant Jesus at…
2020
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
We celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family immediately after Christmas. This seems entirely natural to us, but this feast is a very recent innovation! It was only introduced in 1921, and moved to its current…
Christmas
The writers of the Gospels faced a unique challenge when they sat down to write their accounts of the life of Jesus. How do you communicate the significance of the event they had experienced, for all of…
Fourth Sunday of Advent
In the final week of our Advent, so close to Christmas, we hear how Mary said yes to God's plan. We also hear how King David muses about how he has a plan for God... "Since I've been so successful, maybe I…
Third Sunday of Advent
"Rejoice always!" "Rejoice always" says Paul. Not just on Sundays, or weddings, or when we feel things are going well. Paul has a tendency to say what he means. "Rejoice always" is not "Rejoice when you feel…
Second Sunday of Advent
"Ev'ry valley shall be exalted, and ev'ry mountain and hill made low ..." Isaiah's words as set to music by George Frederic Handel in his masterpiece The Messiah. For many of us these words are as closely…
First Sunday of Advent
St Paul tells us to wait, St Mark tells us to watch. But for what exactly? Even Isaiah gets it wrong: "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you, while you…
The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
It's the last day of the year - the Church's year that is. Next week we start Advent, the build up to Christmas, a new cycle of birth, growth, death, and rebirth. The fact the Church calendar is so out of sync…
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
So this week we have the parable of the talents, familiar territory, and one of those cringeworthy passages about the perfect wife, dripping in patriarchal condescension. So maybe best to just move on quickly…
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
The early church expected that Jesus would return pretty soon, if not next week then next month or certainly next year. The sense of excitement and urgency in the period immediately following Jesus' death and…
Solemnity of All Saints
This week we celebrate the feast of All Saints. This is a special feast in two ways. First, it is sufficiently important that it outranks Sunday. Most feast-days if they fall on a Sunday get pushed aside. The…
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This week the Pharisees continue their attempts to trip up Jesus. We've skipped his debate with the Sadducees about life after death, and now we hear a different line of attack from the political trap over…
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This week we have references in two of our readings to major historical figures outside of the bible. The first is Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, and ruler of the largest empire in the world up to that time…
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
For the last few weeks we have had a clear link between our First Reading (from the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel) and Jesus's teaching - with a focus on the difference between our view of justice and God’s.…
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sour grapes, or sweet fruit? Today's readings make it clear that God has expectations of His people - and throughout history those have not always been met. Sometimes they have been missed by a mile. That's…
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Enough with this justice thing! Seems like we just can't get away from it. There is a certain truth in that. God doesn't let us get away with things, and the track record of humankind in this regard is not…
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Let's be clear upfront - in today's reading Jesus isn't recommending HR policy, or advising on labor relations! The Lectionary actually adds a preamble telling us this is a parable. That first sentence isn't…
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This week our readings continue the theme of how to respond to others who do us wrong. This one really doesn't seem to call for any interpretation - what is there to add? We can note that Jesus really isn't…