A long time ago, President John F. Kennedy told the nation; “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. That’s not unlike what Jesus tells his disciples, and us, today. Two disciples, James and John, ask the outlandish and outrageous favor of sitting at Jesus’ left and right hand, in glory, for all eternity! He gently reminds them that they have it all upside-down. Jesus Himself did not come seeking honor and glory, or to be served and treated like a king – nor should we. He came to wash the feet of his friends and endure the most horrific death so that we might share eternal life with Him.
READ MOREUsing our imagination as we read the gospel for today, we can see the “young” man running up to Jesus and anxious to tell Jesus that he was a faithful follower of the Covenant. Did he have to do any more to get a guaranteed pass to heaven?
READ MOREWhen I was Novice Director I would explain to my young (and not so young) charges that as Jesuits they will travel a lot and at the end of the day they may not remember if the bed was comfortable or if the meals were tasty, but they will certainly remember if they felt welcomed in a community of brothers they hardly knew.
READ MOREAt the Last Supper Jesus became the Paschal Lamb. At the time of the original Passover, the blood of the sacrificial lamb on their doorposts meant the Angel of Death would pass over the Israelites houses so that they might be freed from slavery. At the Last Supper, when Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Lamb of God and gave us his Body and Blood sacrificed on the wood of the cross, Jesus became our Paschal Lamb and freed us from Sin and everlasting Death.
READ MOREIn today’s Gospel, we hear the foundational commandment of Christianity: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). Ever since, believers have been trying to wrap their brains around this essential mystery of faith: the Holy Trinity. Many have offered images: St. Augustine proposed the idea of Giver, Receiver, and Gift. Rublev inscribed the famous icon of three angels seated at a table in conversation. St. Patrick famously offered the shamrock as the image of three-in-one, one-in-three.
READ MOREHappy Birthday! It may not be your personal birthday, but today, the Feast of Pentecost, is often considered the birthday of our Church.
Why? Because Pentecost signifies the end of Jesus’ earthly work among us, and the beginning, the birth, of the disciples’ mission and of our mission – to carry on His ministry, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to all the world. Hence, today can be considered the birthday of our Church.
READ MORETo quote biblical scholar, Dianne Bergant: “Today we stand awestruck watching Jesus ascend into the clouds of heaven, there to be enthroned at the right hand of God. Today is a day to be overwhelmed by the reality of the divinity of the one we have known in his humanity…we live between the time of his departure and the time of his return.”
READ MORENormally during the year our Sunday readings have a central theme running through the first (Old Testament) and third (Gospel) readings. That is, except the Easter Season.
Throughout the Sundays of Easter joy we are treated to a history lesson in our first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles. This is the story of how, after Jesus’s ascension, our first communities of faith began. In many ways it is hard to imagine that the same people who turned their backs on Jesus in his hour of greatest need are the same folks now fearlessly going out into the streets to preach, getting arrested and persecuted for His name.
READ MOREThe Greek verb ‘Menein’ appears 8 times in the first 8 verses of today’s Gospel passage (John 15:1-8). Why?
‘Menein’ means to remain, to stay, to abide, to live, to dwell, to be an integral part of... To continue the life of Jesus in our hearts, we must ‘remain’ in him. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. To bear fruit, we must remain, abide, stay, live, dwell, be an integral part of Jesus.
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