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...

It is an interesting experience to read a Gospel passage, close your eyes, and say to yourself, “If I was actually there, listening to Jesus say these words, what would be my gut reaction to his words?” The temptation is to quickly say, “I would believe what he said with an open heart”, and then...

In August 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. climbed the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and gave his famous, “I have a dream” speech to 250,000 people. Today, there are very few people on the planet who have not, at least, heard of that speech, if not read it or listened to it themselves....