Most of us have seen this scene in a movie: There’s a person who is strapped on an electric chair about to die. The police are just waiting for 3pm on the clock before pulling down the lever to deliver thousand of volts of electricity so that the prisoner who is condemned to die will be killed. And with just a few seconds before 3pm, the phone rings, the President is on the line and orders the police to give the prisoner a reprieve.

With the arrival of the Fifth Sunday of Lent, our Lenten journey is almost over. The concept of Lent as a journey, rather than a time of denial, has been frequently suggested and promoted by Pope Francis.

A few years ago a friend of mine,  a fellow priest,  shared this story with me: He and his brother were the joint heirs to their father’s estate. Several months before their father died, he called his son, the priest, saying he wanted to talk about something very important.

Suffering and tragedy are things that we don’t want to reflect on or think too much about because of the pain that it brings into our lives. If we look at the world today, there are so many natural and human made disasters.

Today we are invited to reflect upon the Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain to pray and when he was at prayer he is transfigured.

In my ministry, I have had a few families talk to me about their challenges, mostly with their children. Most often some parents come to me distraught and needing answers. Do I pretend to have the answers to their questions and challenges? No! However, being a priest I often try to let them understand their problems with their children from the biblical perspective, writes Fr Clement Baffoe SVD.

In this reflection, I would like to use two biblical illustrations that perhaps might help you as well think of your own family problems broadly? Do I intend to answer your questions? No! However, if at the end of this reflection you find some meaning or comfort, we will together raise our hands and say: thanks be to God.

One of the mid- 20^th century’s most influential people was Helen Keller. Born in the USA on 27^th June, 1880, she went blind and deaf as a young child due to an incurable disease.

A Christmas quip goes: “Don’t get so preoccupied in what the world has to sell that you miss what God has to give”.

Dear brothers and sisters, in the second and the third Sunday of Advent, the gospel talks about John the Baptist two times in row, calling us to prepare our heart, to make a straight way for the Lord.

In Australia and New Zealand, we are  familiar with the presence of people on TV using sign language. When an important announcement is made, the speaker is accompanied by an interpreter who uses sign language to speak to the deaf audience.