Pentecost celebrates the fullness of the Spirit and the great gathering of nations. It brings the Easter season to its conclusion. The Risen Lord has been exalted to his rightful place…
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The feast of the Ascension is really a kind of liminal moment in the Easter season. It is a time between times, a moment when we have left one place in our journey but have not yet arrived at a second…
We live in hope because we have been blessed with the opportunity of participating in the exaltation of Jesus…
The gospel readings for the Sundays just before the feast of Pentecost are all taken from Jesus’ last discourse in the Gospel of John. In them, Jesus prepares his followers for his death and resurrection and his ultimate exaltation. This Sunday Jesus says that it is through his death that he goes to God. However, it is as he is raised up in crucifixion that he is exalted. The author of the epistle declares him ‘chosen and precious in the sight of God’ but it is as the stone that was rejected that he is so honoured. If we ever wonder how the exaltation of Jesus will effect us, we have Jesus’ own words of explanation. He promises to go ahead of us and make arrangements for us to share in his exaltation in the house of the one he calls Father. All we need do is follow him. Today’s readings suggest that the exaltation of Jesus is most dramatically manifested in the character of the community of those called by his name. It is revealed in the way Christians settle their differences so that all parties are treated fairly. Jesus is the cornerstone upon which this community is built, and the community mirrors his influence in its life. Christians also participate in the exaltation of Jesus by spreading the good news to others. In Acts we see how the witness of life and the preaching of the word of God increased the number of believers.
© Dianne Bergant CSA, https:///www.liturgyhelp.com/calendar/date/2026May03/0/RefDiBer
This is ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’ and a particular focus taken today is leadership. Which voices do we follow? Why do we follow these voices and not others? Authentic leadership is rooted in authority, and authentic authority is the ability to author or bring life to birth…
The Easter mystagogical instruction continues. Today we reflect on life as a journey. This theme expresses well the fact that life is not static, but is a movement from one point to another…
The themes for the second Sunday of Easter set the tone for the entire Easter season. They are all directed toward mystagogical instruction…
Easter is the season of mystagogical catechesis, that instruction that unpacks the hidden mystery of the experience of the sacraments of initiation received or renewed at Easter…
As we prepare to enter the sacred time of Holy Week, we look again at the significance of Christ in our lives…
As a metaphor, death can stand for many things…
Humans see and judge by appearances, but God looks into the heart…
All people thirst for meaning, but of what does that meaning consist? The people in the desert thirsted for water, but they misunderstood their thirst. The woman of Samaria thirsted. Her conversation with Jesus showed that she thirsted for understanding and insight as well as water…
The blessings upon which we meditate today are undeserved gifts from God. They were not earned. The graciousness of God transforms us in such a way as to effect new beginnings…
The readings for the First Sunday of Lent act as a kind of overture to the entire season. They enable us to engage in a double confession: a confession of sin and the repentance which follows…
We live in a world where appearances frequently matter more than they should. Contrary to this predominating tendency, Jesus teaches us that what we do flows from who and what we are…
To follow Jesus does not mean merely that one travels with him from place to place. It means that one learns from him, that one follows his manner of life and his way of thinking…
Discipleship is not something that we take upon ourselves. We are called to it. Some people are very conscious of this call. They are aware of it in their aspirations and dreams; they recognise it in the events of their lives…
Ours is an historical religion. It not only unfolds within the joys and disappointments of time and place, but it is rooted in actual events that took place in the lives of real people…
For the early church, this gospel incident provided something of a puzzle. Why would Jesus, the sinless One, submit to baptism by John? Why be immersed in the waters of the River Jordan…
Unlike the writers of the horoscope columns in our newspapers, these Wise Men were scholar astrologers, probably from Syria or Iraq. They believed that the stars controlled the destiny of human beings…