On Good Friday our first reading from Isaiah (Is 52:13—53:12) starts: “See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.” He is about to be tortured and killed, and he shall prosper! Our gospel reading is the full, excruciating, account from John of the process of Jesus being tortured and killed […]
Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion Read More »
I’m always intrigued by the fact that John did not include any account of the Eucharist during the Last Supper. How could he miss it out? The Eucharist was clearly central in the life of the church from the earliest days. We hear about it very specifically in Paul’s first letter to his church in
With the Feast of Pentecost we come to the end of our Easter season. As we noted last week, Luke is the only gospel writer who organizes his material to give us accounts of the Ascension and Pentecost in that discrete form. These are wonderful and powerful ways of describing how the disciples felt during
All the Gospels agree in broad terms about the death and resurrection of Jesus. However the picture after the resurrection is less clear. There are big variations between accounts in how long Jesus remained visible to the disciples, where they went, and what they did. Only Luke has the stories of the Ascension and Pentecost
The Ascension of the Lord Read More »
As we move towards the end of our Easter season, our readings remain on the three parallel tracks they have followed from the beginning. We have Luke’s account of day-to-day life in the early Church; the ecstatic vision of John of Patmos; and John the Evangelist’s reflections on the relationship between Jesus, the Father, the
Sixth Sunday of Easter Read More »
The One who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” We are familiar with a “new day”, a “new start”, even a “new life”. We use those expressions all the time. Sometimes they imply a big change, sometimes not so much. When John sees in his vision (Rev 21:1-5a) a “new
Fifth Sunday of Easter Read More »
“The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.” –– Why? Because everything was going great? From what we hear in our first Reading about Paul and Barnabas’s visit to Antioch is doesn’t sound like it (Acts 13:14, 43-52). Sure, there were people who were glad to see them, and maybe more were converted,
Fourth Sunday of Easter Read More »
Last week we heard the final chapter in John’s gospel. However there is another section which follows after this (which we hear today – Jn 21:1-19). It seems to have been added later by a different author. We might well wonder why. The main focus of this additional section is the role and responsibility of
Third Sunday of Easter Read More »
We prepared for Easter during 40 days of Lent. After Easter the church gives us 50 days to process what just happened! In our readings for this second sunday in Eastertime (Easter Sunday itself being counted as number one), we have displayed a wide range of responses to the Easter event. In the Acts of
Second Sunday of Easter Read More »
Christ has conquered death. We live in the light of the Resurrection. This is wonderful and true, but let us beware a danger lurking here. As we celebrate Christ’s victory over death, we may view the Resurrection as somehow a correction for something that went wrong – death and resurrection, like poison and antidote. Christ