On this, Pentecost Sunday, we come to the end of the Easter Season as we celebrate the birth of the Church and hear an exhortation of how we are to live as the Church. Different readings are prescribed for the Vigil Mass than for the Mass on Sunday and that there are options for both sets of readings. I will reflect on the readings for Sunday that I will use at the Masses I will celebrate. I don’t know which readings Fr. Waters and Fr. Reilly will use, so don’t […]
John 15:9 – 17
This Sunday, we hear a continuation from last week of Jesus’ address to the apostles at the Last Supper as presented in John’s Gospel. Whereas last week we heard Jesus provide a parable about the vine and the branches, this week, we hear Jesus speak of the Father’s love and his call to his disciples to love in the same way. As you will read in your footnotes, most scholars consider the section of 13:31 – 17:26 to be Johannine compositions, modeled on farewell discourses found in […]
John 15:1 – 8
Last Sunday, we heard Jesus speak of himself as the Good Shepherd. He used that image against the Jewish leaders, whom he, by inference, characterized as bad shepherds, mere hirelings who are in it for themselves. He, on the other hand, was the Good Shepherd who “lays down his life for his sheep.” As I mentioned last week, this is the only occasion in the Gospel of John where Jesus uses a human image as an analogy for himself.
This Sunday, we hear Jesus speak of himself in […]
John 10:11 – 18
As we do every Fourth Sunday of Easter, we hear this Sunday a beautiful, symbolic presentation of Jesus as the Good Shepherd taken from chapter 10 of the Gospel of John. As it was last year, this year it is part of his discourse against the Pharisees. The good shepherd discourse continues the theme of attack on the Pharisees that ends John 9. We will recall the account of the man born blind whom Jesus cured. In this account, we recall the baptismal imagery of Jesus using […]
Luke 24: 35 – 48
This Sunday, we hear Luke’s presentation of the risen Lord’s appearances to the apostles that corresponds to John’s account that we heard last week. Like each of the other gospels (Matthew 28:16-20, which we will hear this year on the Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday; Mark 16:14-15, which we hear only at a weekday Mass; John 20:19-23), the Gospel of Luke focuses on an important appearance of Jesus to the Twelve in which they are commissioned for their future ministry. Matthew records the appearance in […]
John 20:19 – 31
As we come to the end of the Easter Octave with the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, we hear the Johannine presentation of the risen Lord’s appearances to the apostles on both Easter Sunday (20:1 – 9; Mary Magdala, Peter and John at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning) and this Sunday, where we hear of our risen Lord’s appearance to the disciples on Easter Sunday evening. The appearance to the disciples that we hear in John’s Gospel is similar to Luke 24:36-39; Mark 16:14-18 and […]
Isaiah 50: 4 – 7
The passage that we will hear this Sunday comprises a portion of the prophet Isaiah’s third of four Servant-of-the-Lord oracles. In Isaiah 50:4-9 the Servant speaks; in Isaiah 50:10-11 God reproves the people for not following the Servant.
4 The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, That I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear;
5 And I have not rebelled, have not turned back.
I have not […]
Jeremiah 31:31 – 34
It has been some time since we have heard from Jeremiah so let’s review the who, what, when, where and to whom of this important prophetic book. Please take out your time line. You will see that Jeremiah was active as a prophet from 609 until 586BC. He was born into a priestly family in Anathoth, a town just 2 ½ miles northeast of Jerusalem. Those of you with maps in your Bible will find it just above Jerusalem; my Catholic Study Bible shows it on map […]
2 Chronicles 36: 14 – 16, 19 – 23
In our first reading this Sunday, we hear the Cliff Notes version of the Old Testament kerygma: God gives people good things, the people sin and are punished, God saves them again. Our brief text is taken from 2 Chronicles. We only hear from the Books of Chronicles once every three years in this single passage so let’s review the who, what, when, where and two whom of these two books. This book was originally given the Greek title of Paraleipomena, which […]
Exodus 20:1 – 17
Last Sunday, we heard of God’s test for Abraham after he had made a covenant with him. This follows the reading from the First Sunday of Lent, in which we heard about the covenant that God made with Noah and his descendents. This week, we hear the commandments that God gives to his people at Mt. Sinai as part of that covenant. The text of the Decalogue has evolved in two forms: Ex 20 and Dt 5:6 – 21.
1 Then God delivered all these commandments:
As you […]