Season of Growth

We continue to read from the Gospel of Matthew (22:15-21) as we accompany Jesus during his final days in Jerusalem. He has made his triumphant entry into the city with a crowd of pilgrims, then he pulled the stunt in the temple, overthrowing the tables of the money changers. There was a question about his…

Weeping and grinding of teeth. Many are called but few are chosen. This is certainly a strange parable (or is it two parables?) of Jesus. It is told, like the two other parables that we have heard the last two weeks, not to the disciples or followers of Jesus, but to the Jewish religious leaders…

At the beginning of Matthew 21, Jesus and his disciples arrived in Jerusalem making their triumphant entry – in the event that we commemorate each year on Palm Sunday. He makes his way to the temple and when he sees that this House of Prayer for all the nations has become a marketplace, he sets…

“A Father had two sons…” It is such an evocative line. We will all know and have experience of the natural conflict that exists within families. The line probably activates the Parable in Luke 15:11-32 of the Merciful Father / Prodigal Son. It may also remind us of some of the ‘great’ sons and their…

The story that Jesus tells today is challenging (Matthew 20:1-16). It disturbs us, especially as children of capitalism and the sense of justice that we have developed. Surely the workers who were out in the vineyard all day long (and a 12-hour day is described) deserve to be paid more than the workers who only…

Today we conclude the 18th chapter of Matthew. This fourth block of teaching centres around life in the community. It began with the question of who is the greatest in this new covenant community and culminates in this over-the-top story of abundant grace and mercy. Peter the impetuous again provides the fodder for the teaching…

When we arrive at our Gospel today, we have jumped over a chapter and a half of the story from where we left it last week. We haven’t moved far geographically (from the northern reaches of Israel in Caesarea Philippi to the northern side of the lake), but we continue on this inexorable journey to…

The Gospel today continues directly on from the one we listened to last week. The setting is still the very north of Israel – although the population was now much more pagan and gentile than Jewish. Jesus has taken the disciples away from the crowds to prepare them for the final journey to Jerusalem. He…

But you – who do you say I am? To make sense of any passage in scripture it is necessary not only to read the actual text closely and carefully, we also need to read and pray the text within its context. Where does the passage fit within the flow of the narrative – as…

Wow. This is a strange Gospel. A challenging Gospel. We can be left with the question – what the? Why does Jesus respond to this woman who acknowledges him as the Lord and Son of David with such indifference and hostility? How would you feel if you brought a loved-one before Jesus who you knew…

When we read or hear this Gospel scene from Matthew 14:22-33, it can be tempting to focus only on the mighty sign of both Jesus and then Peter walking on the water. This miracle has become almost a trope and a mere meme. The Netflix series from earlier this year, Messiah reaches something of a…

To fully appreciate the story of Zacchaeus you do need to understand how despised he would have been within the society of Jericho – itself already on the outside of acceptable Jewish society, given its reputation as a city of sin and its history of standing opposed to the kingdom of God. There were three…

The parable that lies at the heart of our Gospel this week, from Luke chapter 18, seems at first glance to be describing a religious event. In reality, like the parable that begins chapter 18 which we heard last Sunday – the one about the widow and the corrupt judge – this parable also is…

Although St Paul tells his young disciple Timothy that “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, refuting error, guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be holy” (2 Tim 3:16) it is hard to see how that can be applied to our first reading today, taken from Exodus 17:8-13. Like so…

When was the last time that you were so truly grateful for something that happened in your life that you had to shout out aloud in thanksgiving. I remember as a kid growing up on the farm, we would often help dad when he went to burn off in the steep gullies that were difficult…

Societies have always been constructed around complicated systems of honour and appearance. Some people are part of the ‘in crowd’; others are not. This week I caught up with two families that each have fourteen-year-old daughters who were born only a few days apart – so they have grown up like sisters. Before they go…

In the forty or so parables that Jesus tells in the first three Gospels there are lots of twists and surprises along the way – but perhaps none is quite as perplexing as the one that we find in the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the unjust steward. It is…

When I was in USA a few months ago, I visited the Great Smoky Mountains national park in Eastern Tennessee. It is a beautiful place, and the most visited of the national parks in America, attracting millions of visitors each year. And most of those visitors first go to the main entrance and visitors station…

The gospel that we just heard is one of those that makes you really wonder who Jesus is? What kind of person says something as outrageous as ‘If any man comes to me without hating (miseo) his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does…

The vision that the letter to the Hebrews paints today is certainly expansive. It is an image of the new creation where everyone is welcome and treated as a first-born son and citizen. After attending a forum at the University of Wollongong this week (in 2013) on Refugees, it became even more apparent how far…

When I was a student at Sydney University, there was one question that I was regularly asked – are you saved? Sometimes it was in the form of the “if you died tonight, where would you end up – in heaven or hell?” Perhaps this was because as an Economics student I had more time…

One of the things that never fails to amaze me – and this is a little embarrassing to admit! – is when you have been literally under the weather for a while: the sky is grey and overcast, perhaps it has rained a bit, with fog and mist thrown in and the weather is really…

The opening line of our Gospel today provides an essential description of the Christian message for us – if only we could receive it and live it. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased the Father to give you the Kingdom.” So often we live caught up in a false notion that…

There is a sense of urgency in the Gospel today as Jesus sends out this group of seventy(-two) disciples to prepare the way for him as he continues to make his pilgrimage journey to Jerusalem. He had already sent out the twelve apostles on mission at the beginning of the previous chapter (Luke 9:1); only…

The Gospel of Luke begins and ends in Jerusalem. Until the Gospel today (from Luke 9:51-62) all the action has taken place with Jesus ministering around the area where he grew up – Galilee – in places such as Capernaum, the lake, Nain and Mount Tabor. But there is a decisive shift at the beginning of…

When I read this Gospel, from Luke chapter 7, verses 36-50, of the anointing of Jesus by a sinful woman, two very vivid images come to mind, evoked by two songs. The first is the old song ‘Beautiful to Me’ by Don Francisco, which in his style is a powerful retelling of this story, told…

Jeremiah is one of the most favourite prophets in part because he is so transparent about his call and its consequences. He certainly didn’t go out of his way to be a prophet. You couldn’t really blame him. At the time of his call, during the reign of King Josiah, the southern kingdom of Judah…

The scene that is presented to us today from the book of Nehemiah is much more significant than it perhaps at first appears. The people of Israel have recently returned from the devastating period of exile in Babylon, which began with the complete destruction of the city of Jerusalem and its temple in 586 BCE,…

When you come to reflect on the baptism of Jesus, the first thing that you need to take account of is how odd an event it must have been. The primary significance of the baptism that John was offering was a washing from sin and a ritual of repentance. It was in direct competition to…

The liturgy through the season of Advent provides events and characters to meditate upon. We are joined by Hebrew Testament prophets in our journey who express the hopes and longings of the generations of people for the Messiah to come. In the weekday Masses, Isaiah provides the main voice, but in our Sunday Masses, we…