A few days ago I posted an interesting video commentary on Sunday’s gospel. The priest in the video considered the story of “doubting Thomas” with a baseball connection. It started me thinking about faith and baseball. Maybe it is a coincidence of calendars and scheduling; maybe not. But Easter and Eastertide are always right there with the start of major league baseball season. Just saying. Continue reading
You encounter someone whose actions you judge as inconsiderate, hurtful, brusk, and dismissive. What do you do? ….hold onto that thought. We’ll come back to it.
Today’s gospel has a month of Sundays worth of content about which one could preach. But I want to focus on these few, rich, amazing words: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Continue reading
Here is a little different take on the Sunday gospel. Something to consider. Enjoy.
In the conclave after the death of the Medici Pope Leo X, Leo’s cousin, Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, was the leading figure. With Spanish and French cardinals in a deadlock, the conclave looked to an absent prelate as a compromise candidate, Adriaan Florensz Boeyens of the Netherlands, a former tutor of the HRE Charles V. On 9 January 1522 he was elected by an almost unanimous vote. He is the only Dutchman to become pope and he was the last non-Italian pope until the Polish John Paul II 455 years later. Adrian had never been to Italy and actually inquired where he could hire lodging for his stay in Rome as pope. He was sure to be dismissed and hated by the people of Rome. Continue reading
In response, Jesus told Thomas, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Thomas came to believe because he saw the risen Lord, but Jesus did not praise Thomas’ pathway to faith; rather, he pronounced a blessing upon those who have not seen the risen Jesus yet have believed in him nevertheless. These are those who hear or read the witness to Jesus borne by the disciples and confirmed by the Spirit (15:26–27). This is the second pronunciation of blessing by Jesus in the form of a beatitude in the Fourth Gospel (cf. 13:17: “If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.”) Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. The gospel is taken from John 20:19-31, the scene in the Upper Room on the evening of the Resurrection. In today’s post we briefly consider: “…do not be unbelieving, but believe” as we consider the verses popularly knows as the “Doubting Thomas verses” Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. The gospel is taken from John 20:19-31, the scene in the Upper Room on the evening of the Resurrection. In today’s post we briefly consider: 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. 23 Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Continue reading
Today’s gospel is the well know and wonderfully told account of the two travelers on their way to Emmaus on the later afternoon of that first Easter Sunday. They are on their way home with hopes dashed: the one they thought the Messiah has been executed and is now entombed with the dead. They journey with fear, uncertainty, and a whole range of other emotions and worries. Not unlike us. And Jesus journeys with them. As he does with us. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. The gospel is taken from John 20:19-31, the scene in the Upper Room on the evening of the Resurrection. In today’s post we consider the phrase, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The Fourth Gospel often speaks of Jesus being sent into the world by the Father: to do his will (6:38–39; 8:29), to speak his words (3:34; 8:28; 12:49; 14:24; 17:8), to perform his works (4:34; 5:36; 9:4) and win salvation for all who believe (3:16–17). Continue reading
In today’s gospel, we hear the familiar narrative of the encounter of Mary Magdalene and Jesus later in the morning after the Resurrection. She mistakes Jesus for a gardener. Why a gardener? John writes: “Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.” (Jn 19:41) So, it was natural that the one person who might have been working on site in the early morning, was the gardener. Continue reading
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