Easter
Love beyond walls
13 May 2012
Discipleship, Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Teaching, Year B
In the first century, the standard expression of the Jewish faiths was strongly influenced by the Pharisees, the most populous of the many forms of Jewish sects that were active at the time. Unlike other groups which were often on the fringes of Jewish society or groups such as the Sadducees which were deeply embedded…
Children of the Shepherd God
29 April 2012
Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year B
I am sure that if many parishioners ever bother to listen to the first line of the second reading today, they either choose to ignore it or doubt that it can actually be true. It is a rather extraordinary claim: ‘think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be…
Resurrected body
22 April 2012
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
One of the lovely things about the Gospel today (Luke 24:35-48) is that it deals with the nature of the resurrected body of Jesus and demonstrates that the disciples did not share the same drug-induced hypnotic experience, or simply remember the warm and fuzzy experiences of Jesus invoked by a vision of his ghost,…
A questioning journey from doubt to faith
14 April 2012
Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year B
Although in the debate on Monday night on the ABC1 TV program QandA between Richard Dawkins and Cardinal Pell, it seemed that doubt and questioning of faith was a very recent and modern phenomena, if you study the scriptures and Christian tradition carefully such doubts and questions are immediately apparent.The passage from John’s Gospel…
Resurrection Sunday
8 April 2012
Although we profess and declare that Jesus Christ is risen, and that through the resurrection, death has been defeated – sometimes it can feel like nothing much has in fact changed. Just this morning the news announced the discovery of a the dead bodies of around 100 young men killed in Syria – many showing…
Come Holy Spirit
11 June 2011
Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year A
This feast is a demonstration of the unique Christian understanding of grace and salvation. Before this day, although the disciples knew of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus and the fulfillment of the many prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures, they were still huddled together in fear – until the Spirit comes – then they…
Signs of the Spirit
28 May 2011
Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year A
As we move through the Easter season, the liturgy today moves in its focus from looking back to the events of Easter, to looking forward in anticipation of the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out upon the Church at Pentecost. All the readings today provide insights and guidance concerning the life in the Spirit…
Chosen race and royal priesthood
22 May 2011
Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year A
During Easter we have been reading from the first letter of St Peter, and we come today to what must be one of the most extraordinary declarations in scripture. Peter addresses a mixed community – young and old, men and women, gentiles and Jews, leaders and members – and to each person he reminds us…
The road from Emmaus
7 May 2011
Bible, Easter, Seasons, Teaching
This powerful resurrection story is well known and often repeated. It shows the creative power of Luke’s narrative and has intrigued saints and scholars over the centuries. One saint who has a wonderful commentary on the story is St Bede the Venerable, the famous 8th century English historian and doctor of the Church. He brings…
Peace be with you
1 May 2011
Easter, New Creation, Season of Growth, Seasons, Teaching, Year A
‘Peace be with you’ – this is the greeting that Jesus proclaims to the disciples when he appears to them – even if they are locked behind closed doors for fear of the same fate falling on them as has just happened to Jesus. But the peace that Jesus promised, and the peace that he…
Living on the third day
24 April 2011
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Welcome to the third day – the day when everything is different because of that day – which John calls the first day of the new week, when the tomb was empty. On Friday we waited in silence and we mourned and lamented. We so often live our whole lives on Friday. We are shocked…
Resurrection Day (Vigil)
23 April 2011
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
The Easter Vigil provides us with the opportunity to be immersed within the story of our salvation and the continuing work of God – from creation to redemption. So it is only appropriate that we make Alleluia our song as we celebrate the day of Resurrection and become builders of the new creation.Play MP3Recorded at…
Betrayal, lies and grace
17 April 2011
The Palm Sunday liturgy crams an amazing array of emotions into an hour – from the jubilation of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the heartbreak and desolation of betrayal, sleep, violence, cowardice, lies, false witness, racial abuse, denial, pride, anger – the reality of so much human sin on display. It is precisely into…
Roll the stone away from the stink
9 April 2011
This most powerful healing story – perhaps the ultimate miracle with the raising of a man four-days dead – begins so simply with a description of the fact that a man called Lazarus was ill. Most of our English biblical names have come to us via the Latin Vulgate translation. In the original Hebrew, Lararus…
The same power
16 May 2010
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Ascension Sunday (Year C) | Eph 1:15-23; Luke 24:46-53; Acts 1:1-11 I had my washed car yesterday – at one of those automatic car washes. When the weather is a bit warmer, I like taking it through the do-it-yourself section, so that I can play with the power hoses! It is amazing the difference that…
It seems good to the Holy Spirit
9 May 2010
Sixth Sunday in Easter (Year C). In Acts 15 we have a quite extraordinary moment in church history. At issue is how a Jewish community, gathered in worship at a Jewish synagogue around a Jewish Messiah, in the midst of a Jewish nation, keeping Jewish festivals and rituals – how does it welcome non Jews…
Everything is spiritual in the city of God
2 May 2010
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Fifth Sunday in Easter (Year C). Sometimes we get caught in the idea that there are spiritual moments in our lives (when we are in Church; praying; reading Scripture; listening to music or whenever) and all the rest is just secular and to some extent doesn’t count. But that’s not the story of the Scriptures….
Every nation, tribe, people and tongue
25 April 2010
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Fourth Sunday in Easter (Year C) – Commemoration of Anzac Day. In the reading from the book of Revelation, John the Divine has this vision of an immense crowd – impossible to count – of people from every nation, tribe, people and language who have all been through the persecution / tribulation and have had…
Called to follow in the light of the Son
18 April 2010
Easter 3C – John 21 In this final chapter to John’s Gospel – probably written later than the rest of the Gospel – John provides a magnificent summary of the Christian life. He starts with the disciples returning to Galilee and with Peter in the lead, they head back to their old way of life…
Finding mercy and faith in the heart of Jesus
11 April 2010
E2C – Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) In Acts we are given the strange detail that people were bringing their sick to lay them on the streets near where St Peter would walk, knowing that if even his shadow should touch them they might be healed. The power of his amazing shadow! Surely…
Why Resurrection Matters
5 April 2010
http://www.robbell.com/ – Rob Bell presents a great new video on the difference that Resurrection makes and why it matters for us… all in 4 minutes. Well worth a watch! Jesus is standing in front of the temple in Jerusalemthe massive gleaming brick and stone and gold house of Godand he says destroy this templeand I’ll…
What resurrection means for the world (Easter Sunday)
4 April 2010
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
We celebrate that moment in human history when the stone was rolled away. A sign and symbol of the separation that exists between life and death. A grave-robber had come – but it was God the Father who had acted in human history to defeat death. Death is our greatest fear and worry – human…
Death and new life in Luke (Easter Vigil)
3 April 2010
Luke 24:1-12 Hey! I’ll let you in on a little secret. Are you ready? (whispering) Dead people – well, they usually stay dead. We didn’t need the insights and advances of medical science in the past couple hundred years for humans to know that. The scriptures make it clear that no one who was following…
Namaste – Holy Thursday
1 April 2010
Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C
Jesus was an endlessly fascinating character and a simply amazing human being. Across his whole life he never failed to love and bring life to the people that he mixed and shared with, as he taught and healed and forgave sins. In more recent years we were inspired by the example of Blessed Teresa of…
Chosen by Christ
16 May 2009
Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year B
6th Sunday of Easter (Year B)In the Gospel (John 15:9-17) Jesus beautifully illustrates one of the key distinctions of Christianity – that it is not about our striving to find God, but about his choice of us to be his disciples and to live under the commandment to love. I discovered this personally some twenty…
Connected to the Vine
9 May 2009
Happy Mothers’ Day! 5th Sunday of EasterThe image of Jesus as the vine giving life to the branches offers great possibilities to reflect on the place of our individual lives in the midst of much deeper realities. It also allows us to understand how we are connected with the whole church, especially as we pray…
Being led into the broad and good lands
3 May 2009
Easter 4B (John 10: 11-18) In the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd many people have taken great comfort over the centuries. Yet if we examine the image closely within the context of the broader scriptural story, we can see a deep challenge by the Lord to trust in his leadership and care as…
The resurrection body
26 April 2009
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Easter 3 (Year B) In Luke’s Gospel (24:35-48) we see the disciples gathered together, sharing stories of their encounters with the risen Lord – but still without the foggiest idea what it all means. One wonders whether we have a much better idea, even after 20 centuries of theological and spiritual reflection. Jesus seems to…
The journey of faith in John’s Gospel
19 April 2009
2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) – John 20:19-31In the magnificent 20th chapter of John’s Gospel, we see the culmination of the whole gospel – as Thomas eventually comes to declare his faith in the risen Lord he is able to state fully the statement of faith that was declared in the prologue -…
Easter Sunday
13 April 2009
The first Easter day marked a massive change in world history – no longer would death have the final say. We are called to share in this work as well by being his people and to work to bring about new creation around us by opening ourselves to the kingdom of God and the power…