Reflections for Easter

For Easter we use a very large number of scripture readings. There are 9 possible for the Vigil Mass and a whole different set for each of the daytime masses. For Pentecost there are almost as many, but we usually hear just 3 as on a “regular” Sunday. You might feel that Easter gives us […]

Jesus’s Easter story ends with the Ascension. At least it does in Luke’s telling. As with the beginning of the Easter story, the Resurrection, each of the evangelists takes a different approach on how to describe these events. Mark has a brief reference to Jesus “being taken up to heaven”, Matthew and John have no

The beginning of the Easter story is very personal and individual. Each of Jesus’s close companions, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Thomas, has to discover, or rediscover, the risen Lord in their own way. As the ripples spread, this process becomes less of an individual quest – people are coming to Jesus in larger groups. It’s necessary

As the Easter story moves forward, we hear how the church is now needing structures and organization beyond simply following the original disciples. Paul and Barnabas are appointing “elders” for their new groups of believers, using a framework familiar in Jewish life anywhere away from Jerusalem and its temple rituals.  But there is more to

The Easter stories we have heard so far are stories of joy, stories of discovery, of discovery of something that was thought lost, discovery of something even better than what went before. This week we hear how there is also a dark side to these stories. Or, if not exactly dark, that there are challenges

This week we continue with readings illustrating three very different types of Easter experience.  For John of Patmos his mystical experience now extends from the personal and individual that he started with, to encompass “everything in the universe” (Revelation 5:11-14). This is a common feature of mysticism in all religious traditions, combining the intensely personal

Last week we reflected on how we are “an Easter people” and what that means. Now as we enter into our 50 day long celebration of Easter we might ask an even more basic question – what is Easter? This might seem a strange question – isn’t the answer obvious? It’s the celebration of Christ’s

“We are an Easter People”. This idea can be traced to St Augustine, but was brought into modern consciousness when Pope John Paul II used it in an address on a visit to Australia in 1986. There is also a deep theology around the idea that the defining characteristic of the early church was an

It’s natural to think that the Feast of Ascension is about what happened to Jesus at the end of his time on earth. But that isn’t really where the focus lies. The Feast of the Ascension isn’t so much about what happened to Jesus, rather it’s about what happened to the disciples. Mark, as usual,