God’s graciousness toward us should prompt us to be generous toward others. What we receive as life-enhancing gifts, we must share with those in need, those to whom life has not been kind. As we have been favoured by the healing touch of God, so we must extend that same loving touch to others. The love of Christ impels us to be openhanded as we approach those in need. Following Jesus’ lead, we must not only give to them, we must also allow them to take from us. At times this will require that we share material resources; at other times it might mean that our energy will be drained in our service of them. In all of this, Jesus has set the example for us to follow.
Job’s new insights enlightened his understanding of creation, of the Creator, and of himself, a finite creature. Several of the disciples were seasoned fishermen. They knew that sea quite well. Living close to Jesus, they knew him too. Now they saw him in a different light. In both cases, faith opened their eyes. Like the disciples, we begin to realise that this man who shares in all of our human vulnerability is able to direct the power of the Creator. We need eyes of faith to recognise the power of God at work in the events of our lives. Like Job, faith moves us from viewing God as a deity who is so distant from us that the circumstances of our lives appear to be irrelevant, to realising that everything is ultimately in God’s hands and everything follows the course on which God has set it. For our part, all we can or need do is entrust ourselves to this loving God who cares if even a sparrow falls to the ground.
In many ways, parables are brain-teasers. Jesus states that the reign of God is like seed that takes root and grows and produces in secret places within human reality. In fact it is usually found in places where one would least expect to find it – among the poor and despised, in the hearts of those who suffer, in the lives of the persecuted. The potential of the reign of God is often contained in what appears to be inconsequential. Yet it thrives in its own mysterious ways. The parables of Jesus forced his hearers to stretch their imaginations and to make connections that they might not ordinarily make. The presumption was that those who followed Jesus were always willing or able to do this.
Throughout the Gospel of Mark, the author explores the question of who people believe Jesus to be. Whilst his disciples have a less than perfect understanding of the question, ‘Who do you say I am?’, those whose faith reveals the truth of Jesus are quickly sworn to secrecy. In today’s gospel, the misunderstanding of Jesus’ family and the misunderstanding of the Scribes show their incomplete grasp of who Jesus is. Whilst the language about Satan, evil and unclean spirits is unfamiliar language today, the gospel writer uses this imagery to further his point that Jesus is the Messiah, the one who saves the world.
This feast celebrates the incomparable love of Christ. He offered himself for the expiation of our sins; he spread a banquet table for us at which we are able to eat the bread of companionship and share the blood of the new covenant. How shall we make a return to the Lord for all the good that we have received? The only appropriate response to God’s graciousness is thanksgiving (eucharistía). We have been chosen; we have been delivered; we have a witness in heaven; and now we have been given the bread of eternal life and the blood of salvation. What return can we give? A life of gratitude lived in the presence of God; a life of union with all those who eat the same bread and drink from the same cup; a life of faithful expectation, waiting for the coming of the reign of God in all its fullness.
Trinity Sunday celebrates the core Christian conviction that God is a communion of relational love. In today’s Gospel, Jesus commands his disciples to make disciples of all peoples and to baptize in the name of the Trinity. Jesus is named Emmanuel, “God with us” and with Jesus’ final assurance, “know that I am with you always”, we find ourselves gathered into the very life of God. Furthermore, St. Paul reminds us in today’s second reading that God is not a distant God, but rather a God whose Spirit draws us, as “joint heirs with Christ”, into God’s own life of love and relationship. Trinity Sunday is the day we set aside to celebrate the mystery of God and the nearness of God who invites us into the dynamic cycle of life and love, a cycle that reaches out beyond the human community and embraces the entire cosmos. As we make the sign of the cross, a symbolic action with a two millennia history, we might become more and more attentive to the wonder of the divine life that dwells in us and in whom we are privileged to dwell.
The word Pentecost comes from the Greek for fiftieth day. Pentecost Sunday ends the season of Easter and comes as a Sabbath day after seven weeks of seven days. In Christian tradition, Pentecost is celebrated as the arrival of the Spirit, promised by Jesus, that animated the disciples to proclaim His Gospel to all nations. In John’s Gospel, the Spirit is called ‘The Advocate’ or ‘The Paraclete,’ and the role of the Spirit is to teach and remind the disciples of Jesus’ words. These are functions that happen within a community where people gather to share stories, to ask questions, to try to find meaning in the events of their lives. Jesus promises that when Christians gather for this purpose they will not be alone. Jesus promises that he, and the God he calls ‘Father’, will make their home with us, and the Spirit will be there to guide and enlighten us.
Mother’s Day Prayer
Almighty God, you compare your love of all people with the love of a mother for her children. Look with kindness on our mothers, give them joy in all they do for us their children, and comfort them in moments of difficulty or sorrow. Listen to their prayers and bless them in all their endeavours. May they share everlasting happiness in your kingdom. We ask this grace and blessing through Christ our Lord. Amen.
This chapter of John’s Gospel comes at the conclusion of Jesus’ farewell discourse delivered to the disciples at the Last Supper. This entire chapter is a prayer by Jesus, commending himself to the Father and expressing his care and concern for his disciples. Several important themes appear in this prayer. First, Jesus’ prayer reaffirms the complete union between himself and the Father. We are reminded that Christ is the source of Christian unity and that it is through Christ that we are united with one another and with God Our Father. Reading this prayer of Jesus during the Easter Season, through the lens of his Resurrection, we know that the light of Christ has overcome the darkness of sin and death in our world. In the opening line of this prayer, we hear Jesus pray that his disciples will be kept in the name that he was given by God. We know that salvation is given to us in the name of Jesus, and that his name—“God saves”—announces his mission on our behalf.
The gospel reading reminds us that as baptised Christians we are not just intimately interlinked but that the source of our unity is the Risen Christ. As limbs and leaves and sap of the same vine, we simply cannot survive in isolation. The vine image is an image of life and growth, of colour and vibrancy. It holds the promise of a life-sustaining grape harvest that is ultimately transformed into wine, the biblical symbol for joy. The Johannine Jesus makes the claim: “I am the true vine/vineyard” and God is the “vine grower”. He goes further: “I am the vine/vineyard and you are the branches”. The potency of this image resides in the fact that a vine without branches is inconceivable. It draws us into the mystery of the mutual interchange of life between us and the risen Christ, into the mystery of God. It also invites us to acknowledge our interconnection with the whole of the Earth community, to nurture the wonderful biodiversity of our planet, and to accept the inevitability of “pruning” if we are to “bear fruit” and “become disciples”.