Jesus refuses goodbye – John 20:1-9

Easter Sunday; Notre Dame (Basilica of the Sacred Heart).  Video.

I don’t really like goodbyes.  I’m generally one of those people who tends to quietly slip away from a party, rather than going round bidding farewell to everyone I know.  And with casual acquaintances, or good friends we’ll only briefly be separated from, that’s OK (even if it verges on unconscionable for some of my more extroverted friends).  But the dearer the friend and the more remote the absence or uncertain the possibility of renewed contact, the more important the goodbye is.  And the harder it is.  So, I really don’t like those goodbyes, and still less final goodbyes, as much as I still cling to them as precious.

Jesus constantly desires closeness – Luke 22:14-23:56

Palm Sunday (Year C); Notre Dame (Lewis Hall)

How might we have responded to Jesus’ Passion at the time?  How are we responding now?  How are we responding to Christ’s suffering lived out in the suffering of our sisters and brothers and of ourselves?  How are we responding to Christ’s sacrifice, re-presented on every altar at every Mass, that we might be fed?

God sends us to the goal of glory – John 8:1-11, Isa 43:16-21, Phil 3:8-14

Lent, Yr C, Wk 5; Basilica of the Sacred Heart (ND).

The saddest thing about this gospel is that they walked away, these people with stones in their hands.  And there’s pretty stiff competition for the saddest thing about this gospel.  There’s the fact that there were going to stone a woman to death.  There’s their desire to test Jesus.  There’s the possibility that an act of adultery had been occurring, and we have to stand back and also be just as saddened, nay outraged, that we don’t know who consented to what in this encounter.  There is a lot to lament in this Gospel, about this happening retold to us, and about people and events in our lives whose memories it evokes.  But, I still contend that the saddest thing about this gospel is that they walked away, these people with stones in their hands.

God feeds us for joy – Luke 15:1-3. 11-32

Lent, Yr C, Wk 4; Holy Cross House.

Baby flamingoes are born with grey feathers.  They only become pink because their diet is rich in a natural pink dye called canthaxanthin, which is found both in brine shrimp and, somewhat paradoxically in blue-green algae.  Zoo flamingoes used to lose their acquired pinkness until zookeepers realized that they had to provide them with artificial sources of canthaxanthin.  As with flamingoes, so with us: we are what we eat.