The Good Word

The Gospel selection for this fourth Sunday of Easter John 10 1-10 calls attention to at least these three points First Jesus identifies himself as the legitimate guide of Christians it is he who will lead them to have the deepest desire of their hearts As John s entire Gospel suggests the

I have a friend of mine who is a great lover of classical music His knowledge of it is vast He only needs to hear a few bars of most musical works and he confidently declares Mozart s Piano Concerto in A or Stravinsky s Rite of Spring He s always right Another of his superfluous but

From April 30 Second Sunday of Easter to but excluding Pentecost Sunday the Gospel readings of the Eucharist this year are all but one Luke c 24 taken from John s Gospel Given this attention to John in our Eastertide celebrations it might be of service to consider the principle by which

In most of the NT materials excluding the letters though the narrated events are set in the 30s of the first century C E the accounts themselves were produced decades later fruit of long and diverse reflection by the young Church on its experience of Jesus Think analogously if after many

The doubting Thomas story was intended to be the final story of the Johannine Gospel Chapter 21 is a later addition to the Gospel The Gospel of John had begun on the highest note the Word which was God became equivalently Jesus of Nazareth Throughout the Gospel the author means to have h

Acts 2 42-47 remains an endlessly fascinating reminder of the call of Jesus reiterated by Paul in his letters that Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ part of God 8217 s family see 8216 My Beloved Brothers and Sisters 8217 Christian Siblingship in Paul 8217 by Reidar Aasgard

Luke chose to present three stories in his Resurrection chapter 24 nbsp The middle one has to do with the two disciples who are leaving Jerusalem because they no longer believe Jesus to have been anyone but a prophet a good man but now permanently dead nbsp Two moments of the story are emphasiz

Paul s Hymn to Christ the most common title given to Philippians 2 6-11 is one of the most popular passages in the Pauline corpus with good reason and one of his most scrutinized passages as well To my mind it encapsulates Jesus Incarnation and Passion more powerfully than any other short

As Holy Week approaches we will hear of that death for others which is the assurance of salvation for all of us Indeed at the center of every liturgy is the presence of Jesus as he was in his last moments given for you poured out for you Two other thoughts tradition has found in the passio

Since there is a lot of liturgy this week with many readings I would like to comment on the figure emerging from within several places in Isaiah 40-55 notably in Palm Sunday s reading of Isa 50 4-7 but really marbled throughout that prophetic text The material shares vocabulary and motifs to