Gospel Reflection for Sunday July 30th 2023 In my many years as a Secondary School teacher I often had the opportunity to discuss with parents their child’s future, both academically and socially. Overwhelmingly, their number one priority for their child was that he/she would be ‘happy’ in life. Their second priority was always that they...

Occasionally I read a Gospel that makes me uncomfortable. Sometimes the reason is obvious to me – a question Jesus asks, the response someone gives, how someone acts, a particular challenge Jesus sets before us. Other times the reason for my discomfort is not as clear – a kind of vague unease as if there...

If anybody tells you that this is an easy Gospel to understand, then they have spent many, many years studying scripture or they are telling fibs! Like everything in John’s Gospel, there is almost one hundred years of reflection, prayer, and conversation behind everything that is written. That is not to say that John’s Gospel...

It is the height of arrogance, I know, but you will understand what I mean when I say that I have always felt just a little bit sorry for the Holy Spirit. Of the three persons of the Trinity it is the Holy Spirit who is least known and least talked about. Sure, at Pentecost,...

There must have been many times in Jesus’ life when he wondered why he had chosen these particular twelve people to be his Apostles. Apart from the fact that one of them betrayed him to the Roman authorities, leading to his death, and the man he had chosen as leader, and called his ‘rock’, denied...

Of all the animals that walked off the Ark two by two with Noah leading them, I bet the humble sheep never realised that they would be subjected for the rest of history to the most malicious form of social profiling. Just because they are white, woolly, and cuddly we label them stupid – almost...

The Resurrection account of the two disciples on their way to Emmaus is, without doubt, one of the best remembered and frequently recounted stories in the Gospels. That is as it should be, because it is written with a sensitivity and compassion that reaches out to us, drawing us along on a gentle journey towards...

“And so… it begins again…” This is, I will admit, the way I usually feel as Holy Week begins each year. Yes, I know it all works out well in the end, and yes, I know the Gospels were written in light of the Resurrection, but the rest of the week leading up to Easter...

Matthew begins today’s Gospel telling us that Jesus was “led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Interestingly, Mark begins his account of the temptations of Jesus using a different verb. In Mark, “Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the desert…” Mark’s word is stronger and more urgent,...

Last week’s Gospel stretched good will to its breaking point when Jesus told us that, not only must we not kill, but we must not even harbor angry thoughts against a person who hurts or betrays us. That’s a lot to ask, and we might well say to ourselves, “after this, it has to get...