The Easter celebrations this year are very interesting and certainly very different. It’s really our first Easter Triduum without the richness and the beauty of our liturgical Services, which we normally experience as a community of faith in our parishes.

This is one of the very few occasions that we have two gospels in one Mass. And I have often said how contrasting these two are.

In John’s Gospel, this is what Jesus said to Martha as she was grieving the death of her brother Lazarus. 

The gospel story for today begins with an interesting question: the disciples ask: has the man who was born blind sinned (and thus caused his own blindness) or have his parents sinned?  Jesus answers “neither”.

Many years ago, I was watching a TV show about newly wedded husband and wives. It was a fun show about how do you know your partner. They would have questions like, “What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?” “What’s your favourite footy team?”

 The Gospel reading of today speaks of the transfiguration of the Lord. Jesus’ appearance changed on the high mountain: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white.

The desert was a symbol of deep significance for the Israelites as well as for early Christians.

Many years ago I read a Life of Jesus by the Scripture scholar Dominic Crossan.  There were many different lives of Jesus coming out at the time as the scholars tried to identify the “historical Jesus”.

When I was in my first year in the seminary, our Religious Education teacher challenged us to see who knew the Ten Commandments and who could recite them.

The Gospel reading for the 5th Sunday of ordinary time, challenges each one of us: to go out to the world; to become salt and light for the world. Jesus uses the image of salt and light, to describe the transforming impact of God’s work in our lives and how to impact other people’s lives.

Most of us want to imagine what our child will be when s/he grows up. For some of us, we may imagine that our child will become a doctor one day, or for some may s/he will become a teacher one day, or for some, maybe if s/he could become a footy player, it’s not bad at all.

The gospel text in today’s Mass reminds us of two important realities in our life of faith – God sometimes chooses people to carry out special tasks – and if they accept God’s call it can mean that they make their calling a priority in their life and leave go of some things that are no longer all that important to them. 

A few years ago I talked to my cousin from the United States over the phone and we chatted for quite a while, and, while I know that she knows me, somehow in her voice she seemed a little bit bewildered.

The feast of the Baptism of the Lord invites us to look at our own baptism in the Lord. Jesus, through his baptism in the river Jordan, begins his mission.

In this feast of the Magi, the Church celebrates the welcoming of the nations to the scene of that first holy night: Mary, Joseph, and the child Jesus. There were the shepherds in the hills around Bethlehem and then there was the adventurous, the small group who came from afar with their camels and their gifts.