2Timothy 2:15

The Holy Eucharist is a meal.  On one level, it’s a simple meal of bread and wine.  But with prayers and the Holy Spirit, with faith, it is the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.  It can take us back—back perhaps to our very first communion.  It can bring back memories of other churches, other altars, other fellow-believers.  But it is more than that.  This is what makes a Catholic…

In the Gospel of John, we hear a clear statement: “  God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16). That is to say, in the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, God has acted by the power of the Holy Spirit to save the world.  This is, in many ways, just…

After the initial experience of the Holy Spirit,  we read further in the  book of Acts, Peter begins his Pentecost sermon: “In the last days, God declares, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your and daughters will prophesy.” These words, spoken just 50 days after the tragedy of Good Friday and the bewilderment of Easter Sunday, changed the tone for the earliest followers of the Jesus…

Strikingly, today’s Gospel reading doesn’t include the Ascension. We learn of it instead from the Acts reading. “When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Today is the celebration of the feast of the Ascension. The book of Acts tells us that after Jesus’s resurrection, he spent forty days with the apostles. Then, after ordering them…

This week’s readings prepare us for Ascension Sunday next week, as they instruct Christians on how to live in the world while we wait for Christ’s return.   In John’s account, Jesus speaks these words to his disciples just after the Last Supper, before he is betrayed and arrested, brought to trial, and put to death.   Tucked into these  words is a short phrase that catches my attention.  Jesus…

One of the more common readings we hear at funerals is that portion of the gospel we just heard: “ Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me.” If the congregation at a funeral recalls that the deceased lived a long life,  shared love and kindness with others, then the words of Jesus sound consoling: an acknowledgment of present sorrow and a solemn promise of comfort…

Jesus often refers to his followers as sheep. Likely Jesus is picking up here on the familiar imagery of the twenty-third psalm, which describes God as a shepherd who guides us all the days of our lives.  Jesus teaches that sheep know the shepherd’s voice when they hear it. Do we know the Good Shepherd’s voice when we hear it?  Among the many, many competing voices in our world, one of the…

Today we get to hear the last of the resurrection appearances appointed for the Easter season.  It’s one of several stories of the appearances of Jesus to various disciples after his resurrection. It is their testimony, passed on through the centuries, which inspires and instructs us about Jesus and his teachings about God and the meaning of life that he opened up and revealed for the whole…

Everything depends on the Resurrection, which is why there is no other Feast in the Church’s calendar which is celebrated with such solemnity.   As we see in this week’s gospel passage Thomas was not with the others when Christ appeared on Easter night and refused to accept their testimony. In the original Greek of John’s gospel, the word “believe” is pisteuō (pist-yoo’-o), and it appears about…

“ It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark.”  Jesus’s disciples had scattered on Thursday night for fear of arrest. Then came the news on Friday of Jesus’s trial, torture, and death. By Saturday, the first followers of Jesus were hiding in the upper room in Jerusalem where they had celebrated the Passover with Jesus just Thursday evening. They are terrified of the might of…

As Christians all throughout the world gather on this night,  we hear the words: This is the night, when once you led our forebears, Israel’s children, from slavery in Egypt and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea. This is the night that even now, throughout the world, sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices and from the gloom of sin,leading them to grace and joining them to his…

On that first Saturday, those who are keeping vigil after the most terrible loss imaginable do not have a strong belief in resurrection. After Jesus was taken down from the cross and furtively wrapped in borrowed linen and placed in Joseph’s unused tomb, those who had loved him were left without hope. The men who had lived with him during his public ministry, frightened and cowed, went into…

The passion narratives in the gospels contain many voices. In today’s gospel, we primarily hear the voices of Jesus, Peter, and Pilate    But we also hear the voices of crowds. These crowds are made up of unnamed, everyday people who assembled to watch—and engage with—the story of Jesus’s passion as it unfolded. And, just as this gospel reaches across time and space,  we are also woven into the…

On Maundy (Holy) Thursday, we are called to examine more closely the choice to love exercised by Jesus. Consider two foundational questions: Can we accept the love of Jesus in the way that Jesus extends himself to us? Flowing from that question is a second: Are we willing to continuously extend our love in Jesus’s way—both as it is modelled in the foot washing and commanded via the “mandatum”…

Today we are celebrating Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The text describes how the gathered crowd waved palm branches to welcome him and shouted: Hosanna!  Hosanna is a specific form of ancient Jewish prayer to God, asking for immediate salvation. The traditional Hoshana (Hosanna) prayers, recited during the Jewish festival of Sukkot, include a series of petitions for salvation,…

Five weeks ago, we began with the temptation of Jesus. We heard that Jesus was subjected to tests and trials, just as we are, yet without sinning. The following week, the gospel called for a decision.  After his transfiguration, and with the assurance of being God’s beloved Son, Jesus faced a difficult choice to journey to Jerusalem. Over the next two weeks, we encountered two unique faith…

As Jesus walks, he encounters a blind man. The disciples, operating under the assumption expressed in Exodus that “The sins of the father are visited upon the children,” ask Jesus whether this man’s blindness is the result of his sins or the sins of his parents. Jesus tells the disciples, “Neither. This man is blind so that God’s glory can be revealed.” Then Jesus reveals God’s glory by healing…