Gospel Reflections for Challenging Times

  Tuesday – 5th Week of Easter Gospel – John 14:27-31 Peace and Quiet Mass at Mt. Tabor One of the most difficult things I ever had to do was teaching high school boys how to meditate!   It was difficult but rewarding, required a lot of patience to get them to slow down, quiet down – not something teenagers are accustomed to do.   And then all it took to destroy the moment was for one kid to sneeze and the entire class, one by one, would respond with ‘God bless you.” (more for effect than compassion!). We always talk about how much we want peace and quiet and yet, when we get it, too often we get impatient and uncomfortable with it.   We tell ourselves we ought to be doing something or we let ourselves get distracted.   We seem to be uneasy when all is calm and quiet; we just can’t handle silence.       But too often, we seem to define peace as the ‘lack’ or ‘absence’ of something else.   Peace is the absence of war, t...

  Monday 5 th Week of Easter Gospel – John 14:21-26 Simple Gifts Dear Dad “Dear Dad, I love going to school with you.   It’s a blast!   You are the best dad, best teacher and best friend in the world.   I’m glad we had class together and got to see what everyone else was walking about – how wonderful you are.   I Love You, Jaime” My daughter wrote that note to me back when she was a Sophomore in high school.   And I have kept it safely in my wallet ever since.   Needless to say, the notepaper is barely holding together but that makes no difference to me.   No matter the condition of the paper, the relationship it speaks of continues today.   It is a constant reminder of a love between father and daughter, a love that has endured and flourished over the years.   It is also a reminder that you don’t always need grand gestures or expensive presents to express your love for someone.   Sometimes, many times, it’s the ...

  5th Sunday of Easter Gospel – John 15: 1-8 Pruning Farming along the West Bank Over the past few years (although certainly not this past year), my wife and I have been able to dine at some pretty amazing restaurants, some of them Top Chef and even a few Michelin starred!   The difficult part of each of those experiences had to be the decision of what to order.   The menu sounded so wonderful that we almost wanted to order one of everything.   And that certainly wasn’t practical or economical.   So we made choices!   It reminds me of the meals we enjoyed when we were on pilgrimage in the Holy Land.   Trust me; we did not go hungry.   The hotels we stayed at provided a lavish (and that is a very tame description) banquet.   Tables upon tables devoted to salads, main entrée, sides, breads, and desserts – each with their own station/section in a huge dining room.   It was mouth-watering and overwhelming!   And as much as we...

  Saturday – 4 th Week of Easter Gospel – John 14:7-14 I Just Don’t Know St. Jerome’s Cave, Church of St. Catherine, Bethlehem We hear a lot about “knowing” in today’s Gospel.   “If you know me, you also know the Father.”   “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? It’s a relatively simple word but too often misunderstood. We pass someone on the street and we tell our spouse “I know that guy”.   Really?   How well do you know him?   You mean you recognize him?   You know his name?   His likes and dislikes?   His favorite food or sports team?   His hobbies?   What do you mean “you know him?” Most languages have more than one word for the concept of “knowing”.   Latin has ‘scio’ and ‘cognosco’.   French has “savoir” and “connaitre”.   And they mean something completely different.   It’s the difference between being familiar with something and really unde...