Reflections
2020
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ever since Cain declared “Am I my brother’s keeper?”, it’s been clear that the answer is yes. God does hold us responsible for looking after those around us. The extent of that responsibility is a bigger…
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus gives us a daunting challenge: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." Denying ourselves and taking up a cross sounds pretty tough. Coupled with Jeremiah's…
Feast of St Augustine
In the readings for today's feast commemorating Saint Augustine, or San Agustin if you prefer the Spanish, there are two discussions about wisdom - which appear, at first, to point in different directions.…
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus' famous play on words "You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church" (Peter and rock are the same word in Aramaic) has always been seen as the basis for papal authority. It's not very clear what…
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Prejudice and discrimination between different groups of people is as old as human history. There was plenty of it in the history of the Israelites. Isaiah stands out as a prophet recognizing the universality…
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Last week we had a large scale miracle - the feeding of thousands. This week we have a miracle at the opposite end of the scale - only a few disciples are involved. Miracles in some way show the power of…
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Today we hear Paul's strident affirmation that there is no power in heaven or earth that can separate us from the love of God. Christ's power is total and…
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This week we come to the end of Matthew’s long list of parables describing the Kingdom. Up to this point the coming of the Kingdom is described “from the outside” as something that happens, and for us the…
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
I suspect everyone struggles at some time with the question of how a good God allows bad things to happen. And more specifically why bad people get away with it. For some this is an insurmountable barrier to…
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings start with an upbeat view from Isaiah (Is 55:10-11). God’s word will wash over everything, like the rain. And like the rain that Word brings growth and nourishment. And it won’t stop until…
Pentecost
Today, at the end of our Easter season, we hear two very different accounts of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles gives us the full Hollywood treatment, with…
Ascension
As we come toward the end of our Easter season, the final Sunday before Pentecost we celebrate the Ascension - we remember the occasion on which Jesus finally left this earth and ascended to heaven. Or do we?…
Easter Week 6
We have many relationships in our lives - with family, friends, colleagues at work; and with maybe a hairdresser, a tax preparer, a doctor. Most of us I suspect don’t have a close or ongoing relationship with…
Easter Week 5
(This week is a little more technical than previously. I hope you still find it helpful.) In John’s gospel, his account of events after the Resurrection is very brief. He includes the empty tomb and the…
Easter Week 4
The disciples received the Holy Spirit and started their new life with the Risen Lord. And how did they behave? One might expect them to keep their heads down and avoid getting into trouble. That’s certainly…
Easter Week 3
We know how each of the Gospels differs from the others, in often quite major ways. Each of the evangelists tells of salvation from their own perspective and for their anticipated audience, with their own…
Easter Week 2
We are used to hearing about the gift of faith and the gift of new life, that are given to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus. This idea of “gift” is one of the many metaphors that Paul and others use…
Easter
Easter happened silently. There was no sound. No one realized anything was happening, no one at all, except for the One who had just united heaven and earth. There were no angels sounding trumpets around the…
Good Friday
Emptiness. The Good Friday service is always the strangest in the year. It’s the only day of the year when mass is not celebrated. The church is empty; empty of all decoration, empty of nearly all music except…
Holy Thursday
Many centuries ago, about 3500 years, some families gathered together one evening. They were about to start a journey. They had only the vaguest idea where they were going. They were poor and oppressed where…