When a parent dies in a family, for example, the siblings can be a great support to one another in the weeks and the months that follow. If Jesus is our gate, we must choose to enter through him. Do not be afraid. They were for taking him into the boat, but in no time it reached the shore at the place they were making for. The people in todays gospel reading heard Jesus say to them that they were looking for him for the wrong reasons. People began to see that this movement wasnt just a particular branch of Judaism. However, the Spirit can enter a human life and we know what a Spirit-filled life looks life. In raising his Son from the dead, God gave his Son back to the world that had rejected him. They began to see that there was more to what had happened than they realized; this stranger was giving them a whole new understanding of what they had come to see as an awful tragedy. If the Father is to draw us to his Son, we need to be ready both to receive from the faith of others and to give to others from our own faith. This faithfulness of the Lord is well expressed in todays gospel reading, the Lord working with them confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it. The reflections are ordered by day and the reflection is available by clicking the writer's name. and there will be only one flock, This work of Barnabas allowed the risen Lord to continue his work. Doubt no longer but believe. Thomas replied, My Lord and my God! Jesus said to him: You believe because you can see me. I have come Todays gospel reading assures us that the Lord understands a doubting, questioning, faith. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. Seven suitable people were chosen, allowing the Twelve to focus on what was important in their calling. There is something of the searcher, the seeker, in us all. The risen Lords face to face meeting with Thomas dispelled all Thomass doubts. It is to shape all of our lives. It follows that the Lord will never call us to something that would result in a diminishment of life for ourselves. When Philip saw the large hungry crowd, he almost despaired, Six months wages wouldnt buy enough to give each of them a little Andrew was just a little more hopeful. Any passage of Scripture can be used for this way of prayer but the passage should not be too long. They can lead, rather, to a deepening of our faith. In this mornings gospel reading, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. He has done and is doing everything he can to make possible this intimate relationship between him and ourselves. We all have something to receive from someone else. Yet, is spite of this resistance, the Lord insisted all the more on the need, not only to eat his flesh, but to drink his blood also. He had been prompted by the Spirit to go to the pagan home of Cornelius, a Roman centurion. We never stand still; we are always looking for more. There is a sense in which we are always trying to get to the other side, like the disciples in the boat who were trying to reach the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The more generously any one of us responds to the Lords personal call to us, the more everyone else is supported in their efforts to respond to the Lords call to them. Jesus prayer did not remove him from the struggles of his disciples. They bring us hope in our despondency and strength in our weakness. Catherine stood out as a beacon of light in a dark time in Europe and in the church. It was in response to that initiative of theirs that he joined them at table. He was succeeded by Pope Urban VI who turned out to be a disastrous Pope. We begin to have hope again. The large gates you find in our rural landscape come to mind. Many believers can be troubled by their sense that the light of Easter does not seem to have penetrated their lives sufficiently. We can all find ourselves asking a similar kind of question to Andrew, What is that between so many? We see some need or other and we recognize that our own personal resources or those of the group are not sufficient to meet the need. When it comes to faith, not all move to the same rhythm. This is a call to Eucharistic communion with the Lord. In the opening verses of his gospel, John the evangelist declared, the Word became flesh and lived among us. In this situation different people reacted in different ways. People who are going through a similar grieving experience can give great strength to each other. Many of us are concerned about break-ins at the moment. and has entrusted everything to him. He will breathe new life into us; he will give us strength in our weakness. He presents himself to the crowd as someone who can satisfy not just their physical hunger but their spiritual hunger. At baptism we were born of water and the Spirit, but we spend our lives allowing the Spirit to have his way in us, to shape and mould us. In the words of todays second reading, we can find ourselves being plagued by all sorts of trials in the season of Easter as much as in any other season. According to the gospel reading, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. His words were prophetic. When those disciples abandoned their locked room and went to Thomas with their wonderful news, We have seen the Lord, he refused to believe them. The story the stranger told the two travellers ended in the triumph of new life over death, Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory? This was the bigger story which the stranger told from the Scriptures and which complemented and completed the story of the two disciples. Then he said to them, You foolish men! they are retained.. In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks of himself as the good shepherd and he declares that there are other sheep that are not of this fold that he needs to lead as well. To whom is the prophet referring, himself or someone else? His questions arising from his reflective reading of the Scriptures were the means through which God was drawing him to his Son. Daily prayer and reflections based on the Scripture readings of the day. Do not be surprised when I say: All we can do is to surrender to the breath of the Spirit within us and around us, to allow the Spirit to direct us and to lead us. It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God; everyone who, Copyright 2020 The Jesuits | All Rights Reserved | Powered by, Easter 4th Week : Sunday 30th April, 2023, Easter 3rd Week : Saturday 29th April, 2023, Easter 3rd Week : Friday 28th April, 2023, Easter 3rd Week : Thursday 27th April, 2023. The Spirit comes from God and goes to God and God is always beyond us, beyond our understanding and our control. Those who might be up to no good prefer the cover of darkness. Keep the flock that you have gathered, preserve us in your love, now and forever. In the gospel reading this morning Jesus makes a distinction between food that cannot last and food that endures to eternal life. Listening to Gods word prepares us, disposes us, to recognize and receive the Lord who comes to us in the Sacraments. She was convinced that the wound in the body of Christ could only be healed by great sacrifice. Yes, Jesus fed their physical hunger in the wilderness, but more importantly he wants to feed their spiritual hunger, their longing for true life, the life that endures forever, eternal life. When we allow the Spirit of the Lord to shape our lives, others can see something of the life of God in and through our lives. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread. Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. Todays gospel reading assures us that the Lord comes to us in those difficult and threatening moments. Just as the risen Lord would not allow the disciples fear to lock him out of their lives, so he would not allow Thomas doubt to lock him out either. We know that Jesus has a unique relationship with God his Father; that relationship is characterized by a profound loving intimacy. When the Lord appeared to Thomas, he did not rebuke him. As Jesus says in Johns gospel, apart from me you can do nothing. Sometimes a conversation about a loved one who has just died can have laughter as well as sadness in it. This is a message we need to hear today. We can all learn to seek the Lord with humility, sincerity and honesty, just as Thomas did. and whoever comes to me I shall not turn him away; He had touched their hearts and they didnt want to let him go. The stranger who unexpectedly enters our lives can turn out to be a messenger of the Lord. He is always driven by God the Fathers will that all should see the Son and believe in him and so have eternal life. And this is not all: two whole days have gone by since it all happened; and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning, and when they did not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive. In todays first reading we have the dramatic story of the call of Paul. Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. The church now had two rival Popes, one in Rome and one in Avignon, a situation that was to last for several decades. We are to keep receiving from Jesus all he wishes to give us, his word, his Spirit, his love, so that, like Peter in todays first reading, we can witness to him before others. He was reconciling them to himself, displaying his faithfulness to them, in spite of how they had failed him. There are several stories in the gospels of people who go looking for Jesus. Jesus speaks both as a mystic and as one who serves those who are overburdened. If the wind is beyond our control and understanding, this is true to an even greater extent of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. He comes to recreate us through the Holy Spirit. If we open ourselves to his presence, as, eventually those two disciples did, the Lord will lift us up. We can easily miss out on that earlier stage that we find in our readings, the stage of engaging with the Scriptures, questioning them and searching for answers to our questions. He invited Thomas to touch his wounds as he had requested, and then called on him to doubt no longer but believe. Therefore in imitation of our Blessed Mother Mary and heeding the call of Jesus, her Son, to "pray always without becoming weary" Secular Carmelites will seek union with God and strive to live in the constant awareness of his presence. In various ways, calls are made upon our time, upon our gifts, upon our energies. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, the Lord knows how to wait on us. Lectio Divina is a reflection based on the daily Gospel. When Jesus declares in todays gospel reading, my yoke is easy and my burden light, he is saying that his teaching, his understanding of Gods will, is not something burdensome. One of the disciples in the gospel reading is mentioned by name, Thomas. Once the disciples show a willingness to take Jesus into the boat with them, they reach the shore. The general call of baptism to be the Lords disciple, which is addressed to us all, is then lived out in particular ways in response to the Lords very personal, daily call to each one of us. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. The life of God is a life of love given and received. You, a teacher in Israel, and you do not know these things! replied Jesus. After all, Paul knew the Lord was calling him to be the apostle to the Gentiles and here was a church with a significant number of Gentile converts. We may be especially conscious of our weakness in these anxious times. A little can go a long way when it is placed in the hands of the Lord. In Johns version of this episode, which we have just heard, he is first referred to by Andrew, Simon Peters brother, but he is referred to in a way which suggests his relative insignificance, There is a small boy here with five loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many? However, Jesus does not consider the presence of this small boy with his meagre resources to be insignificant. except the one who came down from heaven, These basic human physical needs had to be met first. He said to them, What matters are you discussing as you walk along? They stopped short, their faces downcast. Our heart sinks a bit when we realize that the days have begun to get shorter. What is true of our relationship with others is true to a greater extent of our relationship with Jesus. Therein lies our confidence and hope. An active public apostolate grew out of her contemplative life, working with the sick, the poor, prisoners and plague victims. When Philip left him, the Ethiopian went on his journey rejoicing. At that time Jesus responded: I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Obviously this transformation will have a profound effect on the way we actually live and the way we live is the test of the authenticity of our prayer. And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven: there at the right hand of God he took his place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it. She was deeply involved in what was happening in Europe and in the church in her time. Saul or Paul, while in the very act of persecuting the church, came to see the Son and believe in him and received the gift of eternal life. What do we expect from him? He wanted to be with them, as they were. Like the disciples, we can feel hopeless before certain situations. So slow to believe the full message of the prophets! According to Luke, the public ministry of Jesus wasnt the time for the Samaritans to respond to the gospel (contrary to the gospel of John!) This practise offers a short time of concentration and reflection on the Gospel of the day. Mark also emphasizes that being a disciple of this Jesus, living by his values, will often mean travelling the same way of the cross. Having come to know Jesus somewhat, he continues to draw us to himself. - 7:15 pm Orientation. Unlike the pilgrims who walk with a sense of joyful anticipation, they walk in a despondent state, their faces downcast. Mark wrote the first of the four gospels. Our calling is to surrender to this Spirit in our lives, to allow ourselves to be born of this Spirit, to be born from above, in the words of Jesus to Nicodemus. Jesus exclaimed, I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. The proclamation of the word leads to baptism and then in the gospel reading Jesus speaks in language that is clearly Eucharistic, the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world. Gods work will not ultimately be derailed. The evangelist is perhaps indicating to us that serious doubt and great faith can reside in one and the same person. The church in Jerusalem needed to check out this new and unforeseen development, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. There are forces in the world that seek to undermine that relationship and even destroy it. Difficult times for the church can often be moments of renewal, of new and unexpected growth. The gospel reading invites us to pay attention to why we are searching for him. They had locked themselves in to lock others out, especially those who had been responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. Our website places 3rd party cookies from other 3rd party services which aren't Analytical, Social media or Advertising. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. The presence of a gate does not automatically mean that people will use it. When Peter preached the gospel to the crowd in Jerusalem, their response was to ask Peter, What must we do? They understood that the gospel they had heard placed an onus on them to do something, to make choices they had never made before and follow through on those choices. It was St Irenaeus, one of the early theologians of the church, who said that the glory of God is the human person fully alive. Gates can be understood as both barring the way and opening up a way. He is coming from Jerusalem and is reading from the text of the prophet Isaiah, without really understanding what he is reading. We have deeper, spiritual hungers and thirsts as well that we need to attend to if we are to live a truly balanced life and be at peace within ourselves. Supplied by the Madonna Magazine. We spend our lives growing in our openness to the Spirit. Their being locked behind closed doors out of fear was the mood of Good Friday. The risen Lord is present in the crucible of doubt, drawing us to himself, calling out to us as he called to Thomas, Doubt no longer but believe. We are to be constantly asking ourselves, What is the Lord saying to us? We take a tentative step in his direction and the Lord calls on us to take a more generous step. Mark never knew Jesus personally; he was not an eyewitness. No one has gone up to heaven I am the bread of life. How much time should be given to each stage depends very much on whether it is used individually or in a group. Although Paul had seen the risen Lord in a unique sense, he didnt consider the members of the church to whom he wrote, including ourselves, to be any less privileged than himself. Because we do not yet see him face to face, our faith is always a faith that hopes. Noticing that there was one small boy with five barley loaves and two fish, he asked, What is that between so many? However, the way Jesus spoke in response to the problem was much more inspirational. These cookies may track your personal data. unless a man is born from above, Yet, the life that the Lord talks about there is not just a future reality, life beyond death; it is also a present reality. That is the calling of each one of us. Going out about nine o'clock, Elsewhere Paul suggests that a Spirit-filled life is also a prayerful life. People like Barnabas who are in tune with the working of the Spirit among us are an invaluable asset as we try to discern where the Lord is leading us. unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, We were born of the Spirit at the time of our baptism. He then travelled all the way to Tarsus to encourage Paul to come to Antioch and to work among the believers there. The light which shone from the risen Lord and from the preaching of the Easter gospel could not be extinguished by the powers of darkness. ACVB Today's Readings My wife, Elise, is a throw back. The Jewish Sanhedrin were worried about the growing popularity of the disciples of Jesus. An essential element of following Jesus is listening to his voice. Even though we are an Easter people, we never stop being a Good Friday people, at least on this side of eternity. The conclusion of the letter, which is the conclusion of todays first reading, sends greetings from your sister in Babylon. Just as we can be like the fearful disciples, so we can often be like the sceptical Thomas. The Lord calls each of us to be a good shepherd in some shape or form. The language Jesus had used about eating his flesh was shocking. Having recreated them through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord could then send them out as ambassadors of his reconciling love, those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven. Indeed, Jesus said that unless we become like little children we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. The other evangelists took their lead from Mark. Even though we might only have seen him through the media, or at most from a distance, we knew he was there and we were in some way reassured by his presence as the focal point of the churchs unity. According the Acts of the Apostles, the name Barnabas means son of encouragement. In the words of todays second reading, we can find ourselves being plagued by all sorts of trials in the season of Easter as much as in any other season. We dont draw life from ourselves but from the Lord. However, in raising Jesus from the dead God was announcing that human rejection of Gods love did not have the last word.
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