Jesus, through the Gospel this 6^th Sunday of ordinary time, reminds us to live out our Christian life in the light of the moral values inspired and grounded on love, because God is love.

Imagine this scene in a movie we may have seen in the not so distant past. A condemned criminal sitting on an electric chair in the last minutes of his life, an executioner just waiting for the signal to pull the lever to activate the electric chair, a police officer looking at the clock waiting nervously until the clock strikes 3pm, the time of the execution, another police officer waiting for the phone to ring.

We have come to the end of the Church’s liturgical calendar, Year C. This Sunday is the second last Sunday of our liturgical year. As we approach the end of the Church year, it’s not surprised that through the scripture we reflect on, the Church invites us to contemplate the final end of things. 

There’s no doubt that people have many kinds of questions about heaven or resurrection and what it will be like. The Gospel this Sunday confronts us with the theme of resurrection and life after death.

There are some really beautiful, powerful words and images offered us in this morning’s readings: how God sees the vast, immense universe around us, and all that exists in it.

The parable about the pharisee and the tax collector, like all of Jesus’ stories, makes his listeners stop and think…  Here Jesus talks about two men, both of whom are honest. But there is a problem with one of them.

Jesus and his close followers are on their way to Jerusalem, and as he goes he instructs them. It is not a question of conversion, for that has already taken place. It is a more a question of growth in understanding of what Jesus is about and commitment to that.

I joined the Catholic Church when I was 15 years old. As a baby, I had been baptised in the Anglican Church, and my mother was a very devout Anglican all her life, as had been her parents.

There was this story of an old but sick man who won a huge prize from lotto. The relatives were afraid that if they broke this news, he might have a heart attack and die.

When seeing his chosen people turning away from Him and worshipping the golden calf made of their hands, God was full of wrath, dressing down Moses, “Your people whom you brought out of Egypt…” sounding like God is disowning his people.