Pentecost is traditionally called the “birthday of the Church.” Something definitely came to birth on that first Pentecost. What can we say about the Holy Spirit, especially as it relates to how we try to live our faith?
One of the things the Spirit did at Pentecost, and has not stopped doing ever since, is create intimacy. I remember being at Mass 30 years ago at the L’Arche community where I was spending a summer. The …
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I don’t expect you to remember it, but last Sunday’s gospel was the gospel writer John’s version of the Last Supper. However, in John’s gospel there is no Last Supper per se but, instead there is the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and giving them a long farewell speech. In that long speech, he says something that sounds like double talk. He says, “I am going away, and I am coming to you” all in the one sentence. It sounds like …
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I suppose it is safe to say, or cliché to say, that the message of Jesus, the message of the prophets before him, and the message of the entire Bible, comes down to love. If it had to come down to one thing, love would be it. St. Paul tells us that when everything else falls apart, fades, and is no more, only three things will remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love. Jesus himself says that …
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You’ve all heard the expression that good things often come in small packages. Well, this gospel passage is short, but it packs a punch. The first line of today’s gospel has Jesus saying, “My sheep know my voice.” You would think the next line should be, “They know me and they follow me.” But, it doesn’t say that. Instead, it says, “I know them, and they follow me.” Gospel writer John is saying that even if we don’t know the Shepherd very well—which is …
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All three Scripture readings deal with something Catholics in particular, and Christians in general, have struggled with—this whole idea of worthiness versus unworthiness. And much of it has implications for the way of come to Lord’s Table. If you’re like me, you feel good about working hard and saying to yourself, “I deserve this thing, because I’ve worked hard for it.” The flip side of the coin is, “I don’t deserve this thing, because I don’t feel I’ve done enough to earn …
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This familiar Easter story, of what we traditionally call the story of Doubting Thomas, is unique to John’s gospel; you don’t find it in the other three gospels. It’s a story of both Jesus’ appearance to the apostles as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit – the Pentecost experience. John does not place Pentecost 50 days after Easter. For him, both the Resurrection and Pentecost happen on Easter Sunday, one before dawn and the other, in the evening.
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The four versions of the resurrection story—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John’s version—all have these three things in common: the tomb is empty, the resurrection took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, and Mary Magdalene was the one who made the greatest discovery of all time!
We could add a fourth thing that all four gospel writers report on—angels. Some versions have one angel, others—like Luke’s version which we just heard–have two. One way or …
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Every year, and I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember, I force myself to read a book about the Holocaust. It’s a force, like I said, but a necessary force. I need to be reminded that that shameful and cruel event really did happen. I need to be reminded how cruelty and violence are always an inch below the surface in brutal dictators and in myself. Beyond the depressing parts of these Holocaust stories, my …
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We have something in our Roman Catholic faith called the “hierarchy of truths.” In other words, while we believe many things to be true, some just carry more importance than others. In a hierarchy, the most important stuff is found at the top, and the less important stuff is found further down the ladder. I actually prefer a dartboard to a hierarchy. The bullseye of the dartboard is the absolute truth of all truths—that Jesus Christ is risen. If …
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he Passion, as we heard in that first gospel reading, begins with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem not on a throne surrounded by dignitaries, but on a beast of burden surrounded by peasants looking for hope. This is the tipoff that we are dealing with a very different king. I would like to look at a passage from the beginning of the Passion and a passage from the end of the Passion. Both passages tell us how this very different …
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