I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11-18 for the Fourth Sunday of Easter The next and last time Jesus will speak about a shepherd and sheep will be in a confrontation with his apostle Peter. We know that when Jesus was arrested Peter ran away and three times denied knowing Jesus. After Jesus rose from the dead he confronted Peter and demanded to know if Peter really... Read more
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. For the Third Sunday of Easter: Acts 3:13-15,17,19; 1 John 2:1-5a; Luke 24:35-48. Today in the Gospel, it is still Easter Sunday. Christ, in the newness of his resurrection, presents himself for the first time at a gathering of... Read more
My kingdom, though I am risen, is not yet of this world. John 6:1-15 for Friday of the Second Week of Easter. Today in the Risen Christ we are at the start of a great chapter in his teaching, namely that of his Eucharistic Flesh and Blood. Today and for seven more weekday Masses in a row, Christ gives us a Eucharistic Gospel. We open our ears and lives to it even as we celebrate, worship, take,... Read more
Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe. John 20:19-31 for the Second Sunday of Easter. Thomas was the last apostle to see the risen Christ. Thomas was one week behind the others; but Thomas appears to be the FIRST person in the Gospels to dare say of Christ: My Lord and my GOD! Ironically, the proof for Thomas that... Read more
Go to Galilee, and there you will see him. When an angel threw aside the great stone that had sealed Christ’s tomb, Christ was already gone. With new might in the Spirit, Christ alive bodily in his glory went through the solid stone. For forty days, those who were already his followers before his death: saw him, embraced his feet, spoke and walked with him, sat at table with him, watched him break bread, saw him vanish into thin... Read more
GO TO MY BROTHERS AND TELL THEM John 20:1-18 Mary Magdalene met the risen Lord outside his tomb. He gave her a message for his apostles. Go and tell my BROTHERS to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. … And say to them, I am ascending to MY Father and YOUR Father, to MY God and YOUR God. Before he died on the cross, Christ had never called his apostles his brothers. Only now—... Read more
Jesus. Now and at the hour of his death, what has changed? What is new for me as his disciple? What am I to do? From his cross he told me only one thing: “Behold, your mother.” Then, as the Gospel says: from that hour the disciple took her into his home. What is it to have her in my home and my life? At Cana in Galilee, she was the Gospel’s first witness of the misery of man... Read more
These “Stations of the Cross” have Christ speaking as Bridegroom to his Bride the Church. Their form imitates Japanese haiku: seventeen syllables in three lines of five, seven and five syllables. From the Bridegroom of the Church I. Jesus is condemned to death. I want it this way. How else can I give my all? Love condemns itself II. He takes up the cross. Bride of sin and death, with this cross I do thee wed.... Read more
Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord John 18:1 to 19:42 Elsewhere in his Gospel, Christ describes himself as the Man who is the King of Glory, King of Angels and King of All Nations. On Palm Sunday, we saw him enter Jerusalem the city of God, with the crowds acclaiming Christ as messiah, king and savior. On Easter Sunday, the Resurrection, Christ risen from the dead re-enters Jerusalem as the forever-invincible King of Life. But today... Read more
In Holy Thursday’s Covenant we sinners bind ourselves to serve and imitate the sinless Christ who binds himself as the slave, scapegoat, banquet and savior of us sinners. Exodus 12:1-8,11-14. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. John 13:1-15. In the days of Christ, his countrymen would never ask any fellow Hebrew, free or slave, to wash the feet of anyone. That job could go only to a slave from a foreign race. The Gospel today does not tell us merely... Read more
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