SUNDAY 19TH APRIL 2026: THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER.

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Supper at Emmaus or The Pilgrims at Emmaus, Rembrandt 1648, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.

Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”     Luke 24:32.

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Today’s gospel is one of the most famous events in Scripture. Do you remember the risen Jesus’ instruction to his followers? “And when they came together, he gave them this order: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised” (Acts of the Apostles 1:4). And yet here are two men, followers of the Lord, leaving Jerusalem, directly disobeying the Risen Lord’s clear order! One might ask why, as no explanation is given in Scripture, but one can hazard a guess: they were terrified that what had happened to Jesus would happen to them if they became known as his followers. But without one word of censure, the risen Jesus, unrecognizable to them for some reason, simply approached them, joined them as they walked along, and began to explain the moments in Holy Scripture which prophesied his death and resurrection – and generations of scripture scholars would give their eye teeth to have been on that walk with them! They were, of course, transfixed with what he had to say, as they remarked afterwards, so much so that they seem to have almost begged him to stay with them and dine with them. This he did, and just as he broke bread with them, he vanished from their sight (except, of course, he hadn’t: he was there in the consecrated bread he was breaking at that moment..). They, now filled with the strength and presence of God, returned immediately to Jerusalem and couldn’t wait to share their good news with the others. No longer scared, no longer mice, but men, but men who had not yet received the Holy Spirit. Their courage would not last long…

Today’s first reading is also evidence of the new, real, strength God gave them. This passage, from the book of Acts, occurred immediately after the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the terrified followers of Jesus, probably locked away in what became known as the Upper Room, or the Cenacle. None of them could bear the thought that what had happened to the Lord might well happen to them as his followers. And can you blame them? That initial excitement of seeing the Risen Lord did not readily translate into the bravery that would face death. Take one good look at the man in the Shroud of Turin to see the brutal treatment he endured, the marks of the nails, the scourging, the evidence of the crown of thorns, and on and on. This was punishment of the cruelest possible nature. It meant that the entire Christian church was locked away securely in that Upper Room, afraid to show themselves lest they too be crucified. If God’s Holy Spirit had not descended upon them, you would not be reading this, there would be no Christian presence in the world, humanity would have been left to its own fate (the Jewish people not being interested in propagating their belief in God). But God had other plans.

Today’s second reading from the First Letter of St. Peter echoes last week’s reflection on Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables. You will remember the incident with the saintly bishop who saved Jean Valjean from being thrown back into prison for stealing the bishop’s silverware. In saving him, the bishop declared he had ransomed Valjean’s soul for God, so that from now on he was of God. St. Peter says, “you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb”. We were all born to be children of God, not for some other debased ideal such as wealth or power or self-glorification. No: we are called to reflect God’s beauty and goodness in our lives, reflected in the glory of Jesus’ example of self-giving to the end. So today’s Scripture should produce in us what Jesus’ presence did to those two people running away to Emmaus: Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us? Please God, that should be the exact same reaction today, 2000 years later, with us all, not on the way to Emmaus, but to union with God in heaven!

Disputation of the Sacrament, Raphael 1510, Stanza della Segnatura, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City State.

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SUNDAY 12 APRIL 2026: THE SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER: FEAST OF DIVINE MERCY.

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The Shrine of Divine Mercy, Vilnius, Lithuania.

St. Peter writes: “Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”    1 Peter 1:8-9.

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St. Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament was a religious sister born in Poland and entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. St. Faustina barely had an education, and her family was poor, but very devout. She took her vows in 1928, and a year later she was sent to the convent of the sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Vilnius, at that time in Poland, now the capital of Lithuania. In 1931 she began to receive visions of Our Lord clothed in a white garment with red and pale white rays emanating from his heart. His message to St. Faustina concerned his desire for the image “to be venerated, first in your chapel (in Vilnius), and then throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish”. In the same 22 February 1931 message about the Divine Mercy image, Jesus told her that he wanted the Divine Mercy image to be “solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter Sunday; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy”. (It was on that day in the year 2000 that Pope St. John Paul II canonized St. Faustina). The process of contemplating and getting to know the mystery of God’s mercy helped develop within St. Faustina the attitude of child-like trust in God as well as mercy toward her neighbors. The Lord said to her: “I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart”. Clearly, mercy is at the root of this day’s celebration. and the Lord’s desire to have this on the first Sunday after Easter is significant. So what is mercy?

Look at the Latin for mercy: misericordia. The word combines two ideas, “miseria” meaning human misery, and “cor”, meaning of the heart. So the word could refer to the heart that feels the suffering of others. One possible definition of mercy is compassion for someone who does not deserve it. We could each one of us begin by treating ourselves like that. We are all sinful in the eyes of the Lord, no question about that. But do we treat ourselves compassionately? Or do we sometimes pull ourselves to pieces over things we should have done but did not, or pull ourselves to pieces over things we did but should not have done? Surely we should extend that virtuous gaze both to ourselves as well as to others. In other words, we should treat everyone, including ourselves, with compassion whether or not we or they deserve it. At its heart then is generosity. As Christians, we should extend to all others in our life all help necessary as best we can. The heart of Jesus, before being wounded by the soldier’s lance, forgave those who had inflicted such suffering on him, and was therefore merciful to them and to us. There was no revenge, no anger even, towards his enemies. In literature, one example of mercy is very moving. In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, our hero Jean Valjean, starving, impoverished and living rough, having just been released from prison, is taken in by local Bishop Myriel, who welcomes him, feeds him and gives him a bed for the night. Now alone, he makes off with the bishop’s silver, and gets caught. His captors recognize the silver pieces, and take them and him back to the bishop’s house. Of course the bishop recognizes his stolen property but declares that he had, in fact, given them to the impoverished man as a gift… So the captors have to leave. Bishop Myriel declares to the astounded Valjean that by this action he had bought Valjean’s soul for God! From now on, Valjean belonged, not in jail, but to God! This act of mercy transformed Valjean completely, and from then on he became the child of God he was always meant to be and went on to great and good adventures, all reflecting this new identity, Hugo’s ultimate example for us all to adopt. He modeled the bishop on an actual person, Bienvenu de Miollis, the Bishop of Digne, near Marseille, in the south of France. He was bishop there for 33 years. There is a movement in France for his beatification.

Charles-François-Melchior de Miollis, Bishop of Digne 1805-1838, undated painting, OSV News photo/Public Domain.

St. Faustina Kowalska described Divine Mercy as God’s greatest attribute, an unfathomable, inexhaustible love that acts as a refuge for sinners and is greater than human misery. She taught that this mercy is freely offered, not earned, and asks for trust from believers, aiming for complete transformation into love. She described it as an ocean of graces poured upon contrite souls, with special compassion for the greatest sinners. She said that the image, featuring red and pale white rays, represents the blood (life of souls) and water (justification) flowing from Jesus’s heart, a shield against God’s wrath. She also emphasized that faith requires action, and faith in God told her her to perform at least one act of mercy toward neighbors daily. And today (once called Low Sunday after the exuberance of Easter) is now elevated to rejoice in the generosity of the Lord, loving where loving seemed impossible, forgiveness where it seemed unimaginable. So today the Lord turns to each one of us, and tells to go do likewise. And, with God’s help and Jesus’ perseverance working in each one of us, we can!

From the 1935 movie Les Miserables, with Bishop Myriel (Cedric Hardwicke) and Jean Valjean (Frederick March)

 

 

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SUNDAY 5 APRIL 2026: THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD: THE MASS OF EASTER DAY.

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The Face of the Risen Lord? Image on the Shroud of Turin, Turin, Italy.

It is said to be the most studied artifact in history! See Shroud. 

“So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.”               John 20:3-7.

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Today we celebrate the most profound reason that we call ourselves Christian: Jesus defeated death itself. The age-old enemy of life was itself destroyed and Jesus invites each of us to join him; not that we will not die – even Jesus himself endured that heavy burden – but he brought back the tremendous hope that not all is ended at that moment. Life continues! And the life we expect to live after death will reflect the life we have lived here on earth, be it good, bad or indifferent. And as Christians we hope, pray and attempt to live a life that is good in the eyes of God. And the highly controversial picture above may be the actual proof of life after death! That ghostly image, a negative of the actual image on the Shroud of Turin, is recorded on barely visible marks on the top of ancient linen which, by one calculation, would need a momentary burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation requiring billions of watts of light energy, far exceeding the capabilities of any known UV source even today, to have made that image. Additionally, the radiation would have to produce light without generating heat, as the accompanying heat would have vaporized the cloth instantly. In other words, after years of research and hypotheses, experts are still debating what could have produced that image. But after 2000 years of men and women believing in the Resurrection, it is certainly reassuring that we might well have proof of such a unique event, And the fact that this artifact has baffled our most advanced minds in this 21st century is a great comfort. I can’t help thinking that Our Lord left behind this mystifying image with our present questioning and skeptical day and age in mind! Who knows? But there it is, challenging us to believe that where the Lord went, we might follow.

The gospel today is taken from John, the last gospel to be written, the experts assure us. The earliest is Mark, and those same experts claim that the empty tomb was where Mark laid down his pen and stopped (The other verses which follow in Mark’s gospel are additions from different authors, we are told, though are still canonical, that is to say, true). It is also supposed that the John who wrote today’s gospel is the same John as entered the tomb once Peter had gone in. In other words, he is writing directly from his memory of the event. And the careful description of the burial cloths is an intriguing element. Many claim the gospel writer is actually describing the Shroud of Turin! And who folded them up so carefully? (By the way, the smaller, second, cloth is thought by many to be the Sudarium of Oviedo). That both objects have survived for 2000 years is itself miraculous! But if true, and there are many reasons to say that, then each is direct evidence of the Resurrection for a multitude of reasons offered by scientists. Some of these have actually converted to the Faith as a result of their studies of the Shroud.

So this relic is probably the most important evidence of the most important event in human history! And today we celebrate the defeat of death, humanity’s oldest enemy. It is on this day that our Greek-speaking Christian friends say from midnight on Holy Saturday and throughout Easter Sunday, the traditional greeting: “Christos Anesti” (Χριστός Ανέστη), meaning “Christ is Risen,” to which the response is “Alithos Anesti” (Αληθώς Ανέστη), “Truly He is Risen”. This is so much more Christian than our rather lame “Happy Easter”, especially as the word “Easter” is not even Christian! But putting language aside, we know that Christianity is based on the event we celebrate today. Without it, who knows what the world would be like? Almost certainly not as good as it is now, wars and plagues notwithstanding! Tom Holland’s brilliant book “How the Christian Revolution Remade the World” (2019), is a convincing argument of the overwhelming influence of today’s event has had over the last 2000 years. All of us can truthfully say, I believe, that without the event we celebrate today, life would be far more brutal and desperate than it is now. So it is with the profoundest humility and gratitude we can all say:

Χριστός Ανέστη! Christ is Risen! Αληθώς Ανέστη! Truly He is Risen!

Or, with true Christian conviction and faith, Happy Easter!

The Resurrection, Piero della Francesca c.1465, Museo Civico, Sansepolcro, Italy.

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SUNDAY 29 MARCH 2023: PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S PASSION AND HOLY WEEK.

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Mosaic of the Races, Charioteer Marcianus in his quadriga (four-horse chariot), holding the victor’s palm branch, 4th Century CE, National Museum of Roman Art, Merida, Spain.

The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. Crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.”     Matthew 21:9.

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First, a small note.  Only the gospel of John mentions “palms”. Today’s passage from Matthew simply says branches from the trees. But it would make sense to believe that these were palm leaves, otherwise movement would be, shall we say, challenging for the lowly donkey on which Jesus was sitting (and compare that to the four stallions in the picture above).

So it is very possible that this symbol of victory and triumph was being thrown before the Lord in what could be truly labelled his victorious entry into the holy city of Jerusalem. Laurel leaves and palms, for some ancient reason, where regarded as symbolic of total victory. But, when one thinks about it, palms are extremely hardy, standing up even to hurricanes!  So they are strong, robust and fully able to carry the honorific of victory. And one is tempted to say that it was because of the raising of Lazarus from the dead just days before, was the reason for such a reception for Jesus. Anyone who could conquer death could conquer anything – or anyone. Such as the pagan, unclean, occupying Romans… 

At that time, the almost universal Jewish image of the Messiah – the Anointed One –  the Mashiach – was indeed rooted in Divine Scripture but there always seems to be an element of violence or conquest. Take a look at this list of Scriptural passages said to foretell the Jewish Messiah. He was to re-establish the Kingdom of David, and that could hardly happen peacefully, especially with the Roman Empire at its height! Despite all that, the first Holy Week began with just about everyone waiting for Jesus to make the call to arms! Which did not come. As day followed peaceful day, the high hopes of that first Palm Sunday crowd began to be slowly eliminated, so that by the time of Passover came around, the perfect date for rebirth of David’s Kingdom, no hope was left. No call to arms. (Take a look at this conjectural meeting of Jesus and Barabbas in the Temple at that time). The result was that the people felt they had been fooled! High hope turned into grim revenge and the ecstatic cries of “Hosanna to the Son of David” had turned into “Crucify him!” And all this was foreseen by Jesus, despite his followers’ rejection of such a prediction. And when it happened almost all of them vanished. From his cross Jesus presumably saw nothing but catastrophic failure and utter abandonment. Yet he still trusted in God….

So this week begins the foundational story of our faith. It begins with complete faith in the Lord at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, then the utter rejection of him by just about everyone, then the worst possible, agonizing, debasing and humiliating public death accompanied by scorn and laughter, and, finally, burial in a stranger’s tomb. And peace. But it also saw the Last Supper, the promise of the Lord to be always with us (“This is my body”), and the example for us all of humility and service recalled in the Maundy Thursday washing of the feet. And then the final empty, hollow peace, represented by the open and deserted tabernacle on the altar, for Catholics a chilling and forceful picture of a world without the Lord. But God had not given up on us all even though we deserved (deserve?) it. It reminds me of a moment when, in the Jesuit seminary where I was a novice in 1974, one day during the 30-day retreat (that all Jesuit novices must experience in order to take vows), I had a chilling, memorable, inexplicable moment. All of a sudden, I knew there was no God! There was a chilling feeling of absence, aloneness. My immediate thought was “What on earth am I doing here?” For someone who suddenly found that there was no God – god – I had no business being where I was. In the Jesuit 30-day retreat, you maintain silence, with the exception of talking to your director who guides you through the experience. Of course I told him about it, and he calmed me down, told me to wait and see… And God’s presence returned. But I have never forgotten that coldness and absence. I wonder if the Lord endured a moment like that on the cross. Heaven knows he had every reason to think so, having obeyed God his Father through everything only to be led to such agony and humiliation. But he maintained his belief, even in the agonizing cry of “My God why have you abandoned me?”  He died and was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb of a sympathetic stranger and laid to rest.

Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, Pietro Lorenzetti c.1320, Lower Church of St. Francis, Assisi, Italy.                                 

There is almost unanimous scholarly opinion that Jesus deliberately followed the prophecy of Zechariah: “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey’ (Zechariah 9:9). Probably many in the crowd would know that prophecy: it would signify the arrival of the Messiah, when all things would change. Except they didn’t…. Except they did….

The Crucifixion, iStock

And the final reflection about this week of weeks. The Last Supper was conducted by Jesus in the full knowledge of what was to happen. He knew that his followers would be horrified at all that. He knew they would think his whole ministry was a disaster, to be forgotten as soon as possible, and their memory of him to be eliminated. So they gathered for that last meal, when he did something they never forgot, despite every reason to. He took a common piece of bread – unleavened, as per the instructions governing the Passover festival – and said “Take, eat, this is my body”. That is a command, a mandate from the Lord, giving this day its “Maundy” title. Then at the end of the meal, he took what was almost certainly a poor grade of wine, and told them to “Drink – this is my blood”. It was a direct consequence of the ceremony on Mount Sinai when the 12 tribes stood around a stone altar, and pledged to follow God foever, and symbolized that by the blood of sacrified animals sprinkled over the altar, symbolizing God, and also over all of them – united to the life of God! But with us Christians, we take God literally into ourselves at Communion!

There’s the huge difference!

 

The Last Supper, Duccio c.1311, Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Siena, Italy.

 

The Crucifixion, Tintoretto 1565, Sala dell’albergo, Scuola di San Rocco, Venice, Italy.

 

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SUNDAY 22 MARCH 2026: THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT.

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The Raising of Lazarus, Unknown Artist 6th Century AD, Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuova, Ravenna, Italy.

And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”     John 11:41-44.

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And so we come to Jesus’ greatest miracle, the one which probably assured his condemnation and destruction. The Prince of Life in clearly demonstrating his control over life and death, assured his own death. It was the step too far for the powers in control, and shortly afterwards he was crucified:

They rise and needs will have my dear Lord made away
A murderer they save; the Prince of Life they slay
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes
That He His foes from thence might free.

Love Unknown, Samuel Crossman 1664, John Ireland 1918.

The time was near Passover, and Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. His friends Martha and Mary had sent word that his friend Lazarus was sick unto death, and would he come to help them? Jesus did, but inexplicably waited a few days before going to Bethany where the three friends lived. It was therefore not too surprising that Lazarus had died several days before, and had already been laid in a tomb. Jesus ordered the stone entrance to the tomb be moved away, opening it up, no doubt, to the horrified reaction of the rapidly assembling crowd. First, Jesus prayed, raising his eyes and saying, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And the miracle happened. He commanded: “Lazarus, come forth!” and the dead man, now walking, emerged. He was bound in burial cloths, and clearly unable to move freely. Jesus ordered the burial wrappings be removed, and so Lazarus was fully restored to life. (The other two times when Jesus demonstrated this divine power, the daughter of Jairus and the son of the widow of Nain were, in comparison. very quiet, almost private events). Now Bethany (modern-day-El Aizariya – “of Lazarus”) was and is very close to Jerusalem, perhaps two miles. It was unthinkable that such an event – unheard of in all history – could be kept quiet. Word must have spread like wildfire. The event, showing he had power over death itself, unquestionably revealed him to be the long awaited Messiah. (It accounts for the rapturous greeting he received entering Jerusalem shortly after). Yes, the crowds certainly acknowledged him as the Messiah, the Son of David, spreading palm branches before him, an ancient symbol of victory and conquest. It certainly seemed like the moment of triumph in his call from God. But one thing troubled me. This was clearly the event which triggered the passion and death of the Lord, yet this miracle is mentioned only in the gospel of John (the last to be written, long after the other three). There is no mention of this event in the other three gospels. Scholars have several possible explanations, but the one which made most sense to me was this. The other three gospels were written much closer to the time of Jesus and already there was trouble between the followers of the Lord, claiming he was the Messiah, and the Jewish authorities who denied it. As this final miracle was the most spectacular and well known, the person of Lazarus might well have been in danger of persecution by the Pharisees as the cause of the trouble. Some  scholars suggest that because of this, the other three authors of the gospels refrained from even mentioning it to protect Lazarus. By the time John wrote his gospel, perhaps 70 or more years after the Ascension of the Lord, Lazarus had died a natural death and was no longer in need of protection. Certainly the proximity of this miracle and the triumphant entry into Jerusalem (next Sunday’s gospel) and its tragic consequences meant that Lazarus had to have been very famous (or infamous in the eyes of the authorities) in that locality and needed to live quietly, out of the spotlight. However, the incredible had happened, witnessed by many people. The power that Jesus had was, literally, Godlike. There was no way, after that, that this man could be anyone other than the Messiah. Hence the overwhelming greeting he received on entering Jerusalem, next week’s gospel. Meanwhile, consider this passage which examines this gospel completely, revealing all the implications and Scriptural references involved.

The Raising of Lazarus, Sebastiano del Piombo c.1519, The National Gallery, London UK.

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SUNDAY 15 MARCH 2026: THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – LAETARE SUNDAY.

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The Light of the World, William Holman Hunt c.1856, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK.

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[Jesus said,] “We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”       John 9:4-5.

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The picture above is quite famous, representing Jesus literally as the light of the world (though there are three versions: this one in Manchester, and two others, one in Keble College, Oxford, and the third in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London). Jesus is knocking on a  (our?) door hoping for admission. But look at the condition of the door itself; overgrown with weeds, and  presumably difficult to open. In addition, there is no clear handle. We have a problem. We have to decide whether to open it – from the other side – and it will take quite an effort to achieve! Hence a perfect Lenten situation. And believe it – Jesus will knock! It might be that, on the inside of that door, could be our perfect life, wrapped comfortably up in ourselves, not open to the world, but warm and cozy inside. Who would want to open it at that ungodly hour? And will Jesus knock twice? And louder? But more important, will we hear it and respond? And taking the cue from the first reading, which says, “not as we see does God see, because humanity sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart” (adapting the language a little), so perhaps that door is the door to our heart. And perhaps today, in Lent, that might well be the state that our heart is in; not perhaps bad, but maybe closed to the world. And the second reading today states boldly that “you (which is to say all of us) are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth”. But a closed door with no window in it cannot even light up the pathway, let alone the neighborhood or the world…

Jesus performed a miracle in this gospel, empowering a man born blind to see for the first time. Remember that being the Son of God, Jesus possessed omnipotence, all power, which he never – ever – used for himself but only for others. Remember the insults he endured on the cross? “If you’re the Son of God, come down from that cross!” (Matthew 27:40, Mark 15:29-32, and Luke 23:35-39). Could he? Yes. Did he? No. His supreme power was for the exclusive benefit of others, never himself. And in today’s gospel he cured a blind man. It was surely the clearest sign that the Messiah had arrived – who could cure a man born blind?  Yet the powers- that-be did NOT want to know about it. As the gospel says today, “for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue” – shunned in other words. One wonders what it would have taken to convince the Jewish leaders; but I suspect what they really wanted was a military conquering warrior who would expel the Romans and re-establish the kingdom of David. And today’s first reading is none other than the revealing of King David to the prophet Samuel. The scene is a little, forgive me, comical. Jesse, to whom the prophet Samuel was sent by God, had seven sons. Six were each presented to the prophet, with God whispering “no” to Samuel as each appeared. Then Samual’s question, “do you have any more?”  Er, yes, and David was brought in, the One, the youngest, out in the field tending the sheep… (from which Jesus possibly received the image of the Good Shepherd, so strong in Christian scripture and even adopted by Jesus himself, John 10-18). “Yes” said God to Samuel “this is the one.” And the House of David was, as it were, born that moment. That is exactly what the Pharisees should have said that day about Jesus – He is the One! That would been in direct contrast to today’s gospel event. Instead of the instant recognition of the Messiah being present, responsible for an event unknown in history (sight restored to one born blind) there was instead hostility to Jesus in their midst. Instead there was a huge effort to disown his miraculous cure as it took place on the Sabbath... Hence he, Jesus, must be a sinner as no “work” might take place on that day; “we know that this man is a sinner” as they said. The “work” in this case was clearly rather strange, with Jesus making a sort of paste from earth and his spittle, and placing it on the man’s sightless eyes. But this was “work” in the opinion of the powers-that-be. And it was that attitude which was to lead him to the cross. So the contrast was between the unwavering belief shown by Samuel following God’s wishes by choosing David (which could have seen Samuel arguing with God as David was the youngest, the least experienced and fit more to be a shepherd than a king!) and the Pharisees who saw nothing in Jesus’ miraculous event unparalleled in history, and, instead, accusing the Lord of being a  sinner! As Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains”. They see, but did not believe or accept the evidence of their own eyes. They denied it, so their sin remained. Had they simply accepted the evidence of  the miracle, there would have been joy rather than denial, glorying God rather than condemning the Prince of Peace.

Pope Francis as The Good Shepherd!

 

And with that image let us remember that this Sunday’s old traditional name was – and is – Laetare Sunday, the name of which is taken from the entrance antiphon for today’s Mass: “Laetare, Jerusalem: et conventum facite, omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia…” or, in English, “Be glad, Jerusalem: gather together all you that love her: rejoice and be glad…” (and I copied that from my Roman Missal for the 4th Sunday of Lent, which I bought in 1962, just as everything changed…). We are now in the middle of the Lenten season, and the church allows a little celebration as such, hence the more joyful rose vestments the priest is permitted to wear today: Gaudete cum laetitia!

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SUNDAY 8 MARCH 2026: THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT.

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The Samaritan Woman, St. Paul’s Icons.

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.”       John 4:25-26.

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Today’s gospel occurs fairly closely to the beginning of John’s gospel. and for some reason Jesus reveals his identity to (a) a woman, (b) a Samaritan, whom Jews looked down on as, basically, heretics, and (c) a social inferior. She was the first one to be told he was the Messiah, so this is a significant event on many levels. One might well wonder what was happening on that day. We are told it was “about noon”, which is to say it was approaching the hottest time of the day. Water is heavy, yet this woman was there to haul the water up, on her own, and carry it back to her village and her home. Strange. Anyone else would have done that first thing in the morning when it was cooler, to begin the day. So perhaps she had been ostracized for some reason. She was also someone who could hold her own, even to a male, and Jewish, stranger, so clearly she could take care of herself. Jesus, of course, noted all that and yet continued to converse with her (which, socially speaking, was a no-no on several levels for a Jewish man). I can’t help thinking that he really liked this woman who thought for herself, acted as she felt was right and was generally, well, not submitting to the usual role as a woman back then. So attractive was she that over the years, especially in the Orthodox world, she was given a name, Photini (“enlightened one”), became a follower of Jesus, converted her five sisters and two sons (!) as well as many others, and preached in Carthage and Rome before being martyred under the Emperor Nero, none of which is written down anywhere. So there! But one thing is fairly certain; Jesus and she met at Jacob’s Well, which still exists today:

Jacob’s Well, Greek Orthodox Church, Balata, Palestinian Authority.

She was also not shaken by Jesus knowing that she had had five husbands, and the man she was currently living with was not one of them! Now note – Jesus continued to talk with her and did not walk away disgusted. And she was not put off in the least by all this, simply stating that “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet”, and then embarking on a defense of the Samaritan tradition, noting that the Samaritans believed the Temple was on Mount Gerizim, not in Jerusalem at all! Jesus then stated his version of the truth, so they were, in effect, having a theological argument about fundamental truths! It was at that point that he revealed his identity to her, the first person in the Christian Scripture to hear it. She left him then, and rushed into the village to call everyone out to meet the Messiah. She was, in effect, now a missionary for the Lord… It was at that moment also that his disciples returned from the village having bought some provisions, to be astounded at the sight they beheld, several taboos being violated in one go! And not only that: the woman returned with many people from the village who also then become convinced that Jesus was, indeed, the Messiah. She was an evangelist! In fact, she is an excellent example of what the Lord also expects of us! Do we talk of knowing the Lord, the one who can guide us day by day (remembering St. Richard once again), the one who can guide us in every decision we make? That well may be the message we can take from today’s gospel. The opposite can be seen in today’s first reading. The people wandering in the desert under Moses expressed lack of faith in the Lord, complaining about their lot and doubting if they would ever get out of their mess. God heard them, that’s for sure, but was not pleased with their lack of faith. Massah and Meribah were forever linked to wavering faith and God’s resulting anger. It is something we can avoid, no matter the circumstances we may be in. Our faith must be rock solid amid the most challenging circumstances; after all, what else is there to hang on to if all else seems to be collapsing around us? Our Samaritan woman, who seems to have little going for her, given that she was being shunned by her neighbors, yet was still open to to the Good News from the lips of the Savior. We don’t know, but the local tradition says she reformed, and became a follower of the Lord. So there is always hope, and there will always be that. And in addition, just like the woman, we should never be afraid of questioning God, being sure of our faith which should always be able to stand up to scrutiny. God is always there beside us, always open to question and ready to reply – in God’s own way! Hence we should always be aware on many levels for the divine reply. It will be there – somewhere!

The Servant’s Chronicles’s Post

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SUNDAY 1 MARCH 2026: THE SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT.

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The Transfiguration, Leandro Miguel Velasco 2007, Incarnation Dome of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC, USA.

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And (Jesus) was transfigured before [Peter, James and John]; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.      Matthew 17:2-3.

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At the end of this remarkable event, Jesus told Peter, James and John, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead” (verse 9). They could not comprehend neither the event, nor the words “Son of Man has been raised from the dead” but it is clear they remembered everything, written down years later. It seems to parallel Jesus’ baptism, the first revelation of the Blessed Trinity, but with two divine presences this time, God the Father and God the Son (both identified by what the Voice said) rather than three. The Holy Spirit might have been present in the dazzling light though… The disciples saw two towering figures from the Hebrew Scriptures appearing with Jesus. Moses, he who had actually encountered God, both in the burning bush episode and when he received the Tablets of the Law, the 10 Commandments, from God on Mount Sinai (and note that he holds the two Tablets of the Law in the picture above, the first three commands with reference to God, and the remaining seven to us, the children of God). And Elijah, who had also experienced God’s presence on Mount Horeb (some say it is another name for Mount Sinai) and, most famously, was taken into heaven in his chariot of fire!

Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire, Giuseppe Angeli c.1740, Samuel H. Kress Collection, The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA.

But almost universally the scholars say the two figures with Jesus embody the Law of God and the Prophets of God. It also displays the continuity of the Law and the Prophets leading inexorably to the Messiah standing between them. The man kneeling and watching Elijah ascend to heaven is his disciple and successor, Elisha.

Today’s first reading goes back even further than Elijah and Moses, back to Abram (even before God renamed him Abraham). This was back to the original promise, to make Abram’s successors into a “great nation”. And remember there are three Abrahamic peoples: the Jewish people, the Muslims and us Christians. It might even seem to suggest that God looks on us three almost as “a great nation” and that all others will find blessing in us all… In which case we should all try to outdo ourselves in putting God’s law, love of God, neighbor and self, into fullest action! How about that for a Lenten thought!

But we Christians are called back to our own mission in life by today’s second reading. Here we are reminded of the “grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began, but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”. And we are part and parcel of that “light through the gospel”. It has to be through each one of us that Jesus is clearly seen, in our words and actions. And so we end up in Lent once more. This is the ultimate time of the year when we examine our own lives, actions, words. Do we try and make everything we do and say a reflection of the Lord living in us? Not that we should be sanctimonious, because that smacks of being “holier than thou” which is NOT the idea! Just simple generosity on every true level is what we are called to. And once more, we are not alone in this. If we allow it, the Lord’s strength is within us to help and guide us. We just have to ask and apply….

The Transfiguration, Lattanzia Gambara c.1570, Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Parma, Italy.

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Today, 1st March, is St. David of Wales’ feast day, my patron and confirmation saint. I was born in Newport in Wales and although brought up in London, have always considered myself Welsh. David was a tough leader, nicknamed WaterMan as he forbade beer in his monasteries… He was one of only two UK patron saints who actually lived there (Patrick 0f Ireland was the other – possibly Welsh himself; George of England and Andrew of Scotland never set foot in old Britannia). 

St. David pray for us!

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SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2026: THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT.

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The Baptism of  Christ, Andrea del Verrocchio & Leonardo da Vinci c.1475, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

“At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.”        Matthew 4:1-2.

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Sometimes the root meaning of words are guides to their true meaning. Lent, unhappily, is not one. The German for Lent, for example, is  fastenzeit, meaning the time of fasting, clearly more applicable to the season! The German for spring is lenz… from which we get the old English word Lent, meaning the time of year, spring (in the northern hemisphere). Other languages tend to reflect the 40 days of Lent in one way or another. As the Latin for 40 is quadragesima, perhaps one can appreciate the way our English-speaking forefathers named the season! It reflects the time Jesus spent in the desert immediately following the double revelation to him at his baptism: that he was the Son of God and the long-awaited Messiah, a word meaning Anointed. As Son of God he had divine power; and he had a mission: to fulfill all the revelations in Scripture (the Old Testament) concerning the Messiah. That would overwhelm anyone! Jesus needed time and distance to come to some understanding of what it all meant. 40 days in the wilderness provided both.

So the idea is that we all symbolically follow the Lord into the wilderness also. Why? Because we too are called to be Christ, the Anointed One, to the world (our vocation) and we all became children of God (our identity), both of these at our baptism. And this is the season to see if we are fulfilling both of these in our lives, our Christian vocation in whatever field our God-given gifts lead us, and acting appropriately as a child of God with others (and ourselves) throughout our lives.

Our first reading today is particularly famous, the first temptation in the Garden of Eden. Satan was playing on the human weakness of wanting more. Adam and Eve had everything they needed: each other, food in abundance, no need to work, and, most importantly, freedom. They had been given one prohibition, not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then the temptation: Eat that fruit and you too will be a god! You will decide what is right and what is wrong, and no-one else; you will have all power to do whatever you will. All power to you…. And so it was done. And the immediate result was the opposite – shame, embarrassment, alienation of self as they were ashamed to be naked. Instead of the promised freedom, they became imprisoned by their own bodies! Note also that when God confronted Adam with this breaking of the law, Adam blamed Eve – two further alienations, one from God (as he hid from God) and one from each other. Further condemnation followed: pain in childbirth, working hard to make a living (alienation of man and nature), and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It was pride which brought Satan/Lucifer down (Isaiah 14:12-15); it was pride which destroyed the peace and plenty of Eden. Now take that thought to today’s gospel of Jesus in the wilderness and apply it to his actions there…..

So it might be an idea for each of us to consider if there are seeds of pride in us, quietly eating away at the roots of our way to heaven/Eden. No-one is immune. If it can bring down the principal angel in heaven, then we are sitting ducks! It must have been a real challenge for Jesus to deal with the devil and his temptations in the desert offering everything on a platter, if only he would bow down…..

The Temptation of Christ, Duccio c.1311, The Frick Collection, New York City, New York, USA.

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