Pleading ignorance seems to be an ancient device.
The Lord of the harvest continually sends each of us into His plentiful harvest to be agents of peace, healing and liberation.
The opening verse sets the tone for this Sunday’s gospel reading “…he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”
In the Scriptures vineyards are often mentioned. A vineyard is, of course, a type of garden.
Imagine the disciples of Jesus being asked the question, “Who do you say I am?” For the disciples, they thought that this might be a test.
Today’s gospel invites us to surrender ourselves at the feet of Jesus in an act of humility and repentance and to open ourselves to be immensely loved by God.
Both Elijah and Jesus are moved with compassion in the face of suffering and death.
In almost all cultures, we show our hospitality by offering people food. For many of us, we see food as a way to connect, we see food as a way to forge relationships.
Whenever we pray, we start and end our prayers with our acknowledgement of the Trinity.
A few months before my father died, he wrote a letter addressed to my mum and all the siblings. We did not know it until the funeral day. It was a short letter written with so much love and affection for the family especially his grandchildren.
Dad loved to write in cursive style and I’ve always loved to watch him take special care in writing as well as the content of what he writes. He could write on anything from old cardboards to used A4 papers, and would still looked stunning.
“The meaning of Christ’s Ascension,” writes Pope Benedict XVI, “expresses our belief that in Christ the humanity that we all share has entered into the inner life of God in a new and hitherto unheard of way. It means that we have found an everlasting place in God.” It would be a mistake to interpret the Ascension as “the temporary absence of Christ from the world.” Rather, “we go to heaven to the extent that we go to Jesus Christ and enter into him.” Heaven is a person: “Jesus himself is what we call heaven.”
“Peace be with you!” These words, spoken by Jesus not long before His life on earth would seemingly come to an end, are recorded in the Gospel of John (14:23-29). With Jesus’ death, the relatively peaceful lives of those who heard those words, His closest followers, were thrown into turmoil. Rightfully, they must have wondered what Jesus could have meant by “peace” when they experienced the opposite.
Love is a word that we always hear. Every time we hear the word love our eyes light up and somehow our heart beats just a little bit faster. However, the word love is one of the most misunderstood and one of the most abused words, in my opinion.
The FOURTH Sunday of Easter is known as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’. It is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Each year on this Sunday we reflect on the image of Jesus as the ‘Good Shepherd’.
The image of God as a shepherd is Biblical. In the OT we have references to it in the book of the Prophets Isaiah chapter 40 and Ezekiel chapter 34 who speak of Yahweh as the shepherd of Israel.
Happy Easter! The three-fold question of Jesus to Peter emphasizes the seriousness of Jesus’ inquiry. To love Jesus is not just a single response – it takes a lifetime of service.
When I was discerning this path to become a religious missionary, my initial response was a very casual “yes”. I was not sure of what it would entail until I reached the continent of Africa. There I was challenged to the very core of my being of what it means to say “yes” to Jesus’ question.