If you would like to catch up on some recent posts, here is a place where you can easily access some posts you might have missed. I hope it helps… enjoy.
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The Paraclete
“But now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.” (John 16:5-11) Continue reading
The Ending of the Gospel of Mark
This coming Sunday in the Solemnity of the Ascension taken from the Gospel of Mark. The title might strike you as an odd entry, but the gospel of Mark has several “endings.” That probably needs some explanation. In the paragraphs that follow we will briefly discuss the different endings. Continue reading
Spirit and Persecution
The readings for today continue the account of the early Church as told in the Acts of the Apostles and continues the Farewell Discourse from the Gospel of John in which Jesus, on Holy Thursday, after the Last Supper, is still working to encourage and prepare his Apostles and disciples for what will come in the mission to the end of the earth. Jesus tells them that their mission will be powered by the Holy Spirit. He also notes that the Holy Spirit will fuel their commitment and perseverance to the mission – despite all the trials, persecutions, tribulations, and challenges they will face. Continue reading
The Solemnity
This coming Sunday in the Solemnity of the Ascension taken from the Gospel of Mark (Lectionary Cycle B). The Ascension of Jesus celebrates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. Based on the account of Acts 1:3 that the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples for 40 days after the Resurrection: “He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” After these days, we read that Jesus was taken up to heaven. Continue reading
The Chosen
Remember last Sunday’s gospel – “I am the vine, you are the branches… remain in me…bear good fruit.” Today’s gospel is part of the same conversation Jesus was having with his apostles – and if it wasn’t clear last week, today’s readings leaves no doubt: it’s about learning to love as we have never loved before. It that way we will remain in Christ, who will remain in us, and we will bear the desired good fruit. Here is a sampling of verses from today’s readings. Continue reading
The Commission as Friends
This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday of Easter. The language of friendship is immediately contextualized by language of election in v.16: It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” As Fr. Raymond Brown points out [683], this language of election does not speak of the election of the Twelve because there is no indication anywhere in the Farewell Discourse of the number and composition of the circle that is present with Jesus on this last evening. Rather, Jesus reminds the disciples (including the readers) that their place with him is the result of his initiative, not theirs; relationship with Jesus is ultimately a result of God’s grace. Continue reading
Friends, No Longer Servants
This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday of Easter. Here in John 15:15 we hear “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” Continue reading
The Greatest Love
This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday of Easter. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends – in v.13 we come to the greatest love. This verse is perhaps the most explicit statement in the Gospels of what it means to love as Jesus loves. While some might argue this is simply a restatement of the ideal of Plato and Aristotle, that classical idea is given new gravitas of Jesus’ conventional mission by which the world is redeemed. Continue reading
Pruning the Branches
The gospel today is talking about vineyards. Vineyards are like a garden – sort of. Unlike a garden where you can grow all kinds of flowers and vegetables, vineyards grow one thing: grapes – and usually for making wine. I don’t have a “green thumb” but I can successfully plant and harvest a vegetable garden. Continue reading
Keep My Commandments
This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday of Easter. There is something very practical here: If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. Many suggest that this is the practical answer of how one remains in Christ and in his Word, bears fruit, and remains in the love of Jesus. These things are not some mystical experience. It is simple obedience. It is when we keep Christ’s commandments that we abide in his love. Once again appeal is made to Christ’s own example. He kept the Father’s commandments and thus abides continually in the Father’s love. And it is not a blind following of the commands, it is to “listen through” to the deeper love that resides within and throughout the commandments. Continue reading
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