Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” (Jn 10:1-3) This week is the Fourth Sunday in Easter, and it is traditionally known as “Good Shepherd Sunday” because of the Gospel reading today in which Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd. We’re all familiar with the images: Jesus standing, staff in hand, with the lamb across his shoulders.  We have a beautiful stained-glass image of this in the stairway leading up to the choir loft.  In fact, it’s the screensaver on my phone!  Or perhaps we … [Read more...]

As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.  And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him.” (Lk 24:28-31a) Back in 2004, when I was working in Rome, Pope Saint John Paul II announced a special “Year of the Eucharist, and issued the Apostolic Letter, Mane Nobiscum Domine, declaring the special year and outlining its purpose. The Latin title Mane nobiscum Domine translates “remain with us, Lord,” and recalls the words in today’s Gospel spoken by the disciples on the road … [Read more...]

Peter proceeded to speak and said: “You know what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached,  how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.  We are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness, … [Read more...]

It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”; and when he had said this he breathed his last. (Lk. 23:44-46) “Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion” begins Holy Week. If it has been a while since you have experienced all of the services of Holy Week, consider doing so this year.  Commemorating the events of the Lord’s Suffering and Death help us to have a greater understanding of the importance of the Resurrection and Easter Sunday.  Jesus had to suffer and die before he rose! On Holy Thursday we will celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7:00 p.m., which commemorates the … [Read more...]

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” (Jn. 11:21-27) At a recent school Mass, I spoke to the students about fear.  I mentioned that I had been afraid of the dark when I was younger, and that I was still scared of snakes now that I am older.  And I asked them … [Read more...]

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.”(Jn. 9:39-41) The Gospel this Sunday is about the cure of the “man born blind.”  Jesus did so by making clay out of dirt and saliva, by putting the clay on the man’s eyes, and then by instructing the man to wash in the Pool at Siloam.  The closing words of this Sunday’s Gospel passage sum up the meaning of the cure of the man born blind.  It’s not just a miracle cure of a physical illness.  It’s about opening the eyes of … [Read more...]

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;  the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”(Jn. 4:13-14) Most of us don’t know what it means to be literally “dying of thirst.”  We may have used the expression before, but it might just have been a hot July afternoon.  I would venture to say that there are very few of us who have gone entire day without something to drink, let alone a week.  But to people living in the desert at the time of Jesus, water was something precious.  Since rainstorms were few and far in between, water had to be found by digging or collected for storage in cisterns.  The idea of a “running stream” was something that … [Read more...]

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.  (Lk 4:1-2a) That little verse above is the reason behind the holy Season of Lent.  And all I can say is thank God for Lent! I always look forward to Lent.  And this year is no exception.  Now that Lent is here, I’m happy to create my own little desert of calm by the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  It’s the perfect remedy for the last two weeks of Mardi Gras:  noise, feasting and excess. One of the good disciplines of Lent is “giving something up.”  When I was in seminary, I remember my rector giving up cigars during Lent.  And then one Friday in Lent, I walked by his room and smelled cigar smoke.  The next day I … [Read more...]

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt. 5:43-48) “Nobody’s perfect.”  It’s a common excuse when we make a mistake.  We might like the perfect date, or the perfect sunset, or the perfect evening, but we don’t like applying the word to ourselves because, well, … [Read more...]

Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 5:19) I rarely listen to music around the rectory or in the car, but when I go to my family farm in Alabama, I listen to a lot of country music.  It started many years ago when it was the only thing I could pick up on the radio in my beat-up 1980 Suburban.  And now I listen to country because it seems to go well with riding around in the woods.  Although I generally enjoy the melodies of country songs, what I particularly like are the lyrics.  They’re easy to understand in country music, and they usually have some kind of good, wholesome … [Read more...]