The apostles had already expressed their faith in Jesus as the Messiah when he asked them who they believed him to be. Because people were waiting for a Messiah who would overthrow the Romans, Jesus warned them not to tell people that he was the Messiah, because they would want to make him the centre […]
Tyre and Sidon were two cities on the coast in the south of the country called Phoenicia. The word Canaanite stresses the paganism of the woman, because the Canaanite were the ancient pagan inhabitants of Palestine, from whom the Israelites conquered the land, and who were the main enemies of the Jews and their religion. […]
Moses provided miraculous food for the Israelites in the desert, God provided food for Elijah to strengthen him for his journey to Mount Horeb; Elisha miraculously fed a hundred men. Now in today’s Gospel Jesus miraculously feeds a large number of people. All these were signs of the Eucharistic food that Jesus would give to […]
In the time of our Lord there were banks where people could deposit their money for safe keeping, but they were not for ordinary people. Ordinary people used the ground as the safe place to keep money or some other thing which they valued very highly. Like the man who buried his talent-a large sum […]
Second meeting of Moses with God on Mount Sinai after the Jews had come out of Egypt. Chapter 32 describes the first meeting of Moses with God, and the writing on tablets of stone of the Laws which God wanted the Israelites to keep in order that they might be his true people. It describes […]
This gospel was read already as part of the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Easter. On that occasion we stressed the giving of the Spirit to the apostles specially for the forgiveness of sins. Today we can stress the giving of the Spirit to them for their mission, their sending, because Jesus said […]
Although there is no mention in this reading of the Ascension of Jesus, the reading give us the last words of Jesus to his followers. We hear him say, what Paul says in the second reading, that because he has risen from death he has authority over everything in the universe. It is by virtue […]
Jesus asks the apostles to show their love for him by being faithful to his teaching: obedience, readiness to do what the other person wants, and putting the other person’s interests first is the true test of love. By his obedience Jesus showed his love for the Father; by our obedience we show our love […]
Certainly on this Sunday we turn our thoughts away from the resurrection and towards the ascension of Jesus, his return to the Father; and that is why we read on the coming Sundays from the farewell address of Jesus to his apostles written by St. John in the setting of the Last Supper (Jn. Chap. […]
These first ten verses of chapter 10 are addressed to the Pharisees and are a direct continuation from chapter 9. The Pharisees claimed to be the leaders of God’s people, yet Jesus had just cured a blind man and they tried to deny the miracle, then called the miracle-worker a sinner and then cast out […]
The story expresses the journey of the two disciples from unbelief to faith in the risen Lord. It gives us an insight into their minds and hearts; they had accepted Jesus as a prophet, put their hopes in him, loved him and admired him and they were disappointed and depressed because now he was dead; […]
Although the four gospel writers tell the story of the resurrection in different ways they have many points in common. It seems clear that some women, led by Mary Magdalen went to the tomb early on Sunday morning. They wanted to anoint the dead body properly. They had done something on the Friday afternoon, but […]
