Reflections for April 2024

Our gospel readings for the first two weeks of Eastertime spoke of the various ways in which the early church recognized and understood the presence of Jesus in the world after his resurrection. Last week the focus shifted a little to reflect on the nature of the relationship that we have with the risen Jesus. […]

We are used to thinking of shepherds as guides, herding their sheep, leading them to pasture. This image is powerfully portrayed in that most famous psalm – The Lord is My Shepherd (Ps 23). Insofar as we have any acquaintance with the activities of shepherds (and their dogs, which of course are the cute ones),

This week we get to Luke’s account of events after the resurrection.  It is similarly brief as was John’s that we heard last week, and completely different in content. Like John, Luke has two endings for his gospel story – the second is in the book we call the Acts of the Apostles. That one

The end of John’s gospel is unusual in many ways. Firstly there are two clearly distinct endings (in Chapters 20 and 21) which must have been brought together from separate materials at some early point in the compilation of the gospel as it has come down to us. It is also notable that the accounts