God is able to do his work in the world independent of humans, but He doesn’t. He is committed to working out his divine will through human covenant partnership, even when humans continually fail to uphold their end of the agreement. We humans continually mess up our end of the covenant, but God remains devoted to his decision to partner with us.
In Jesus, God becomes human to create a new humanity who is empowered to live in Jesus’ new covenant as partners with God. And so the God is committed to working out his good plans through covenant human partners. In this week’s Bible study, we are reflecting on God’s surprising plan to make up for humanity’s role in the covenant and how we can now live as renewed partners with him.
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Today has an 
Part of the blessing being a parish priest is that you are invited into some of the most intimate moments of a family’s life. There is perhaps none more intimate and intense than the moments when illness passes through uncertain diagnosis, to one which blurs into the final days of a life. It is part of a life of ministry to be into a family whose loved one’s days are numbered. It is a privilege to journey with the family are they prepare for the loss that surely and steadily this way comes. In those times, Hope can seem more tentative, more distant; perhaps hovering on the edge of disappointment. 
In the course of celebrating Mass we come to the distribution of Communion – during these times of the coronavirus pandemic. At my parish many precautions are taken as part of the distribution of Holy Communion: sanitizing hands of the minister, wearing masks, standing behind a plexiglass shield with a hand pass through – and the Bishop has asked that all the faithful please receive in the hand and not on the tongue. Still we try to be accommodating as best we can. If someone want to receive on the tongue, I will ask them to receive in the hands, but if they insist, I simply ask them to wait until the end of the line so that they are the last to receive. They can then receive on the tongue, following which I am able to again sanitize my hands. 
This morning in the parish office, someone mentioned that “James Bond had passed away.” Given there were 26 movies over 58 years and more-than-one actor who played the character, there could well be some ambiguity about who had died. Depending on your generation and affinity for the Bond movies, one might come to a different initial assumption of the recently departed. Possible assumptions include Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, George Lazenby, Davide Niven, …but my mind went immediately to Sean Connery. He was an actor that was simply memorable. For my part, other memorable roles included Indiana Jones’ father, in 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”; his Academy-Award-winning (best supporting actor) performance as Chicago cop Jim Malone in the 1987 film “The Untouchables,” and one of my favorites, William Forrester in the 2000 film “Finding Forrester.”
I don’t remember – it has been so long now – but somewhere, sometime ago, I began to start emails, letters, cards and the like with the same phrase: “May the grace and peace of Christ be with you.” It is an expression that begins many of St. Paul’s letters, in one form or another, e.g., Galatians 1:3. It is not a scripted beginning; there is a great deal of intention about it. There are times when I am in a hurry, responding to emails, that I am reminded at the end to return to the beginning and insert the greeting. It often leads to editing of the email if there is some part that does not have grace or peace about it. 
In the gospel of Luke, what is the most important city? If the number of times mentioned is the criteria, then Jerusalem is the answer, being mentioned more than 90 times in the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles. I imagine there are all kinds of “what is Luke’s favorite…” questions, but an insightful one come from Fr. Bill McConville OFM. Fr. Bill has a 
