In the 80s, there was a famous Protestant pastor in Manila named Ronald Remy. He was a very charismatic preacher. However, he made a stir one day when he declared publicly that he loved Jesus more than his wife.
There are two connected themes in today’s Gospel: don’t be afraid to witness to your faith in Christ – because God loves even the sparrows.
In almost all cultures, we show our hospitality by offering people food. For many of us, we see food as a way to connect, we see food as a way forge relationships.
Today the Church celebrates the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, one of the most basic tenets of our Christian belief and underlying principle of our faith. As Catholics we utter the name of the Holy Trinity many times.
May the Loving Creator Spirit, who has given life and faith to each one of us, sustain and guide us on our way through life so that each of us may truly give glory to God.
In the second reading in today’s Mass St Paul writes to the Ephesians: May he (Jesus) enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.
Imagine there are two people having this conversation, “If you really love me, then prove it!” A girl asks her boyfriend. The boyfriend responds, “Let’s go outside and let’s watch your favourite movie, ‘Godzilla’! The girl responds, “Yeah! You really love me!!! I can’t imagine you who love watching rugby, would join me watching a movie about a giant lizard!!!”
The very comforting words of Jesus in today’s Gospel give us some hope, dear friends, in our challenging world of today. The rapidly changing times and situations make us realise that nothing seems to be the same every day.
Many years ago my professor in missiology went to the Holy Land to do some studies. In his course, he got invited to watch a contest between shepherds. In this contest, the shepherds are asked to bring 10 sheep each and they are placed in a big ring enclosure and all the sheep were mixed together.
This Gospel text always brings a smile to my face. I am not sure if it is because I so enjoy reading about this episode in the resurrected life of Jesus or because it brings back so many fond memories of my days in the Seminary.
I do not know if John Paul II chose the Second Sunday after Easter to be also Divine Mercy Sunday because of the Gospel reading for this Sunday or for some other reason, but certainly the celebration of God’s Divine Mercy goes well with today’s Gospel.
Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation, ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, states, “There are Christians whose lives seems like Lent without Easter”. Are we that?
Today is Palm Sunday and the beginning of the Holy Week. This week is the highlight of our Liturgical Year as we commemorate the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, through His death and resurrection, raised us to fullness of life.
This is a very involved story with layers of meaning spread throughout the text. First of all, there is the note from the sisters, a simple enough message stating their concern for Lazarus who is sick and their implicit trust that Jesus cares, for they say, “He whom you love is ill.”
The gospel this Sunday is a long story about a man born blind who is given sight by Jesus. It is a long story because the Gospel writer tells in detail the thorough examination that the Pharisees had to make to ascertain whether Jesus had broken the Sabbath or not.