Reflections

This year in our cycle of Lenten readings we hear often about beginnings. We heard first about the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. We heard of the beginning of human existence in a world as we know it, with its separation from God. We hear this week about another of the beginnings central to the story of the people of Israel – the story of Abram (Genesis 12:1-4a). God tells Abram to launch into a new future, a future that he has to take entirely on trust: “Go forth from the land of…

Continue Reading Second Sunday of Lent

We have started our Lenten journey through the desert towards death, and resurrection. Today we listen to one of the best known stories in the bible (Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7). We hear about Adam and Eve, how they fell from grace, out of the intimate presence of God, to a state of shame and separation from God.  This story must be up there with the Christmas story as one of those known by so many people, even those with no involvement in, or even interest in, Judaism or Christianity. It has been depicted…

Continue Reading First Sunday of Lent

I doubt many of us are tempted to stand on the street corner tooting a trumpet and calling attention to our piety. So the warnings that Jesus gives in our Gospel reading today, for the beginning of Lent (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18), they don’t really apply to us, do they.  In terms of correcting our behavior that may indeed be true. But I doubt the disciples of Jesus at that time were much tempted in that way either. So why is he saying all this to them, and not to the scribes and…

Continue Reading Ash Wednesday