Monthly Archives: May 2025

More questions but now answers

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Our gospel text for the 6th Sunday of Easter comes from a section of the “Farewell Discourse” that focuses on Jesus’ departure and discusses the disciples’ relation to Jesus and their conflict with the world. Our gospel pericope falls at the end of this section.

Verse 23 begins with, “Jesus answered and said to him.” Jesus is answering the question raised in v. 22 by Judas (not Iscariot): “Lord, how is it that you will reveal (emphanizo) yourself to us, and not to the world?” This question comes because Jesus has just said that he would love and reveal himself to those who have and keep his commandments — those who love him (v. 21: Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”).

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Pruning

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The vineyard does not just happen by itself. There is a complex dance between the vine, the branches and the vine grower. For example, did you know that a single grape-vine can produce as much as 13 feet of new branch growth in one growing season. What happens if all that new growth remains un-pruned? It would not be unusual for that un-pruned vine to have as many as 300 fruit producing buds. While that might sound great, that’s way too many buds for the plant to support. You might have lots of produce, but it will be incredibly low quality, and good for not much. It would probably just end up as fuel for the fire. You would have to prune as much as 75% of the buds and other vegetative growth so the plant can properly develop and ripen the good fruit. The goal is always good fruit.

And it is not just the buds that need to be pruned in growing season. In the late winter, some of last year’s branches need to be cut off. A branch that is more than two years old will no longer produce fruit – and so you cut it off to leave capacity for the new growth to flourish and produce fruit.

There have been many seasons in my life and the harvest of each season has been uneven. The barren seasons are the ones when I removed myself – at least to some degree – from the nourishment of the vine; when my needs outweigh the needs of the community. And yet, by the grace of God, there have been more seasons when the fruit has been plentiful. Those were, and continue to be, the seasons when I allow the grace of the vine grower to empty my garages and storage units, set down the baggage and burdens, and move away from the paths of sin. The seasons when I remembered to whom I belong – the One who said: “Remain in me, as I remain in you.”

This is more than good advice or an invitation. This is a promise, like it or not, Jesus will hold onto us as surely as the vine holds dear the branches. No matter what has been accumulated that is burdensome, troublesome, onerous, worrying, or unsettling, God is committed to nourish life and hope from the very places that seem most devoid of goodness. It is a promise that God in Jesus will bring all things to a good end.

That promise is real. So real that His only Son Jesus chose not to sit back in heaven, removed from the messiness of life, but planted himself as the true vine right in the middle of our days and nights, our joys and sorrow, and all the frailties and faults of life in this world – so that we would know of God’s unending promise to us.

Remain in Him as He remains in you.

Image credit: Pexels CC-BY-NC-ND

Questions and more Questions

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Our gospel text for the 6th Sunday of Easter comes from a section of the “Farewell Discourse” that focuses on Jesus’ departure and discusses the disciples’ relation to Jesus and their conflict with the world. Our gospel pericope falls at the end of this section.

“I will be with you only a little while longer…Where I go you cannot come. And now the questions come:

Peter (13:36–14:4): “Master, where are you going?” (13:36). Peter has sworn he will follow Jesus anywhere, yet his denials lay just ahead and in vv.37-38 Jesus predicts just that but also predicts that Peter would follow him in death: “though you will follow later” (v.36)

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Peace

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What kind of peace do you seek? Merriam-Webster defines “peace” as tranquility, quiet, freedom from disturbance, harmony and similar expressions. Today, let us take a look at what Jesus might mean when he says, “my peace I give to you.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks some of His most tender and reassuring words: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” These words are not merely poetic or comforting—they are a divine promise, spoken on the eve of His Passion, when chaos was about to unfold.

Jesus knew His disciples would be shaken. He knew fear would grip them as He went to the cross. And yet, He says: “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” Why? Because the peace He offers is not the fragile, fleeting peace the world gives. The peace of Christ is rooted not in circumstances, but in His presence and victory over sin and death.

We might ask ourselves: What kind of peace do I seek? Is it merely the absence of conflict? The comfort of routine? Or is it the deep, abiding peace that comes from knowing I am loved and held by God—even in suffering?

Jesus’ peace is not a promise of a smooth life. It’s a promise of His presence in the midst of life’s storms. That’s why He could say with such confidence: “I am going away and I will come back to you.” He was preparing them not only for the cross, but for the resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Notice, too, His obedience: “The world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.” Peace and obedience go hand in hand. When we surrender our will to the Father, even if it’s difficult, we receive a peace that cannot be taken away.

Today, let us invite Christ’s peace into our hearts. Not a peace that depends on everything going well, but the peace that flows from trusting in the One who has conquered the world.

May we, like Jesus, live in obedience to the Father’s will, and so be signs of His peace to a troubled world.

Amen.

Image credit: Christ’s Final Address to the Apostles | Bona Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1380 | from the Maesta Altar | Siena, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo | PD-US

An Ongoing Conversation

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Our gospel text for the 6th Sunday of Easter comes from a section of the “Farewell Discourse” that focuses on Jesus’ departure and discusses the disciples’ relation to Jesus and their conflict with the world. Our gospel pericope falls at the end of this section.

Our gospel drops us onto the end of an ongoing conversation. We need to “catch up” on the conversation that occurred  before the events of Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas the traitor has left the Last Supper, or as St. John describes it: has left the light (13:1). Jesus then turns to his closest disciples, those who have followed him for about three years. Various disciples — Peter, Thomas, Philip, Judas (not Iscariot, possibly Thaddeus) — carry the discussion forward by the questions they pose. This enables us to break down the whole conversation, hopefully to see it in content and more clearly, by dividing it according to the characters who ask the leading questions. (Neal Flannigan, John, The Collegeville Bible Commentary)

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Setting the Context

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Our gospel text for the 6th Sunday of Easter, Year C, is a portion of the much longer “Farewell Discourse” in the Gospel of John (chapters 13 thru 17).  In other words, we have but a few verses which are an integral part of a much larger passage. The setting for this gospel falls between the account of the Last Supper and the events that will unfold later resulting in the arrest of Jesus. Lets provide some context: the larger Discourse can be outlined in a number of ways, though three main parts are fairly clear:

  • The first part (13:31-14:31) focuses on Jesus’ departure and discusses the disciples’ relation to Jesus and their conflict with the world. Our gospel pericope falls at the end of this section.
  • The second part (15:1-16:33) develops these same themes, moving from the relationship of Jesus to the disciples, using the figure of the vine and the branches (15:1-17), to the conflict between the disciples and the world (15:18-16:15), and on to a promise to the disciples of joy in the future after the sorrow of this time of separation (16:16-33). 
  • In the third major part Jesus prays to his Father (17:1-26). 

Throughout, the overall theme is the Father’s presence with the disciples and the Son’s and Spirit’s roles in mediating his presence. As a way of establishing a context lets first consider a wider view of at least a portion of our passage by considering the text surrounding Jesus’ departure (13:31-14:31).

Image credit: Christ’s Final Address to the Apostles | Bona Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1380 | from the Maesta Altar | Siena, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo | PD-US

In just a few words

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There was a website called “twenty-twowords.”  The original idea was an on-going challenge of expressing yourself on some topic in 22 words or less. There were different categories, like “my life so far” or “which Star Wars character are you and why.” You have to answer each one with only 22 words. One of my favorites, in the category of “describe your greatest experience,” was, “I am in a hospital. A nurse hands me a screaming baby and I sat there, looking down, and said, ‘Hello son.”

Today’s gospel carries a message of the greatest challenge. Jesus’ response runs 33 words in English, but the effect is the same. For in these 33 words he leaves his disciples and us with as clear a summary of the Christian life as one could possibly want.: “love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

In his book Surprised By Joy, CS Lewis describes being at a very proper English tea, standing there with an overly filled cup, when, quite by accident, someone bumped into him, causing the jostled cup to spill some of its content out.  Later, when reflecting on that most ordinary of things, he noted that life is that a lot like that.  If we want to know that with which we have filled our life, we only need to be jostled by life to see what spills out. Would that I could tell you that every bump in the road reveals an outpouring of love from the teacup of my life.

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Love and the Missionary Imperative

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This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter in Liturgical Year C. The gospel is taken from John 13:31-35. Previously This love command seems to focus on relations within the new community rather than toward outsiders, a focus that has led many to view John as a narrow sectarian with no concern for outsiders. Such a view, however, misses the larger picture. John is quite clear that this divine love, in which the disciples are to share, is for the whole world (3:16; 4:42; 17:9). Indeed, their love for one another is part of God’s missionary strategy, for such love is an essential part of the unity they are to share with one another and with God; it is by this oneness of the disciples in the Father and the Son that the world will believe that the Father sent the Son (17:21). Jesus’ attention here in the farewell discourse, as well as John’s attention in his epistles, is on the crucial stage of promoting the love between disciples. The community is to continue to manifest God as Jesus has done, thereby shining as a light that continues to bring salvation and condemnation (cf. chaps. 15-16). Without this love their message of what God has done in Christ would be hollow.

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Voyager

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NASA launched the Voyager 1 Spacecraft in Sept 1977. It is now 15 billion miles from Earth and still sending data. Voyager 1 owns the distinction of being the first spacecraft to travel beyond the solar system and reach interstellar space – doing so in 2012. It is currently zipping through space at around 38,000 mph (17 kilometers per second), according to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That’s Washington DC to Los Angeles in 3.6 minutes

The Voyager missions took advantage of a special alignment of the outer planets that happens just once every 176 years. This alignment allows spacecraft to gravitationally “slingshot” from one planet to the next, making the most efficient use of their limited fuel. Recognizing that the Voyagers would eventually fly to interstellar space, NASA authorized the production of two Golden Records to be placed on board the spacecraft. Sounds ranging from whale calls to the music of Chuck Berry were placed on board, as well as spoken greetings in 55 languages.

Voyager 1 was the first (there is also a Voyager 2 spacecraft) to race by Jupiter and Saturn. The images Voyager 1 sent back have been used in schoolbooks and by many media outlets for a generation. To NASA’s surprise, in March 1979 Voyager 1 spotted a thin ring circling Jupiter planet. It found two new moons as well — Thebe and Metis. Additionally, Voyager 1 sent back detailed pictures of Jupiter’s big Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) as well as Amalthea…. at this point you might be asking how many moons Jupiter has… 80 discovered so far.

Like the Pioneer spacecraft before it, Voyager’s look at Jupiter’s moons revealed them to be active worlds of their own. And Voyager 1 made some intriguing discoveries about these natural satellites. For example, Io’s many volcanoes and mottled yellow-brown-orange surface showed that, like planets, moons can have active interiors. Additionally, Voyager 1 sent back photos of Europa showing a relatively smooth surface broken up by lines, hinting at ice and maybe even an ocean underneath. (Subsequent observations and analyses have revealed that Europa likely harbors a huge subsurface ocean of liquid water, which may even be able to support Earth-like life.)

One of most famous images sent back by Voyager 1 is the “Pale Blue Dot” image. It is a photograph of Earth taken Feb. 14, 1990, by NASA’s Voyager 1 at a distance of 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers) from the Sun. The image inspired the title of scientist Carl Sagan’s book, “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space,” in which he wrote: “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.”

Thought you’d like to know Voyager 1 is still “on the job.” Almost 48 years. Nice.

Sources: NASA and Space.com (Elizabeth Howell)

The Commandment to Love

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This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter in Liturgical Year C. The gospel is taken from John 13:31-35. Previously Jesus indicated that He would be with them only a short time longer.

34 I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. 35 This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” This is the first of two instances (13:34; 15:12) in which Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another, but only on this occasion did he refer to it as a ‘new’ command. What is new about this commandment? It can refer to something that didn’t exist before. But the command to love one another is not recent. It is found in the Torah (Lev 19:18; Dt 6:4). It can refer to something that existed previously, but was not fully known or understood; e.g., a “new” understanding. I think that it is in this sense that this commandment is “new”.

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