In todays gospel reading, Gamaliel a leading member of the Jewish Sanhedrin shows a similar openness. Now Jesus was challenging him to live by the Spirit. Because we do not yet see him face to face, our faith is always a faith that hopes. Paul once persecuted the Lord, but after his experience near Damascus, he went on to draw life from the Lord as he gather with other members of the church at the Eucharist. In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks out of an experience of resistance on the part of some to what he says and does. Now as they talked this over, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side; but something prevented them from recognising him. In other words, it is in giving that we receive; it is in giving life that we receive life. God is always drawing us towards his Son and if we come to Jesus, Gods Son, it is because we have responded to the drawing of God the Father. Yet, we can put a damper on the Lords work, a bit like Philip and Andrew, or we can create a space for the Lord to work, like the small boy. For a three year period she devoted herself to prayer and seclusion. We all have a role to play in calling forth the gifts of others by recognizing situations that would be ideally suited to them and by creating space for them in which to work. At baptism we were born of water and the Spirit, but we spend our lives allowing the Spirit to have his way in us, to shape and mould us. Daily Homilies. Having recreated them through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord could then send them out as ambassadors of his reconciling love, those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven. However, shortly after his return to Rome, Gregory died. ACVB Today's Readings My wife, Elise, is a throw back. Do not be afraid. Jesus goes on to state that he gives himself to us as food and drink so that we might draw life from him. Jesus invites us to imagine a shepherd who will stop at nothing to prevent any would-be thief from stealing even one sheep from his flock. Philip answered him, Two hundred days wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many? Jesus said, Have the people recline. Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. She also wrote her great work, the Dialogues, describing the contents of her mystical conversations with Christ. God sent his Son that the world might be saved through him. how are you going to believe me when I speak to you about heavenly things? Both share the same role, that of looking after and caring for the sheep. He certainly helped to create, with Mary, the religious environment in the home which allowed Jesus to grow in his relationship with God. Sometimes, we seem to hear that call more loudly than at other times. I am the gate. In the passage of Johns gospel that follows our gospel reading, Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd. Our reflections on the daily reading at Mass for this coming week have now been uploaded to our website: http://www.carmelites.ie/readingsreflect.html 99 10 Comments Share The words of Jesus to Nicodemus in this mornings gospel reading are one of the strongest and most positive statements in the New Testament about God. In the gospel reading, Jesus declares, whoever eats me will draw life from me. Jesus is portrayed as a young beardless man with a sheep draped around his shoulders. The Eucharist is a very special expression of our communion with him and of his with us, but our communion with him is to extend beyond the Eucharist. Mark has a special place among the evangelists because he was the first person to write a gospel. It may seem as small as the two barley loaves and five fish, but the Lord can work powerfully through our efforts, small as they may seem to us. When a stranger joined them and asked them what they were discussing, we are told that their faces were downcast. and be sure of finding pasture. A little later in that same chapter of Johns gospel it is said of Jesus that he gives the Spirit without measure. We can never underestimate the ways that the Lord can touch the lives of people today, if we allow him to work through what we have, even if what we have seems very insignificant at times. These cookies may track your personal data. That stage is more appropriate to adulthood. The rapid expansion of new means of communication in recent decades can mean that we are on call more often. In response, he looks to us for something of the same openness to being drawn displayed by the Ethiopian in our first reading. This is the will of my Father, that all who see the Son may have eternal life. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. As the gospel reading says, their faces were downcast. We spend our lives learning to receive like little children. Indeed, according to the gospel reading, Jesus goes on to satisfy the hunger of the crowd with the five loaves and two fish of this small boy. In one of his encyclicals, Faith and Reason, the late Pope John Paul II stated that the church remains profoundly convinced that faith and reason mutually support each other they offer each other a purifying critique and a stimulus to pursue the search for a deeper understanding. He laid down very clear conditions before he would join this community of Easter faith, Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe. In this mornings gospel reading, Jesus declares, I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Clearly the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd that we find in todays gospel reading spoke to Christians from the earliest days of the church. These basic human physical needs had to be met first. The Lord will always take the initiative towards us but he will never force himself upon us. Our reflections on the daily readings for Mass are published one day in advance to accommodate our readers who live in different time zones throughout the world. May 2, 2023 Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter Saint Athanasius, Bishop and DoctorMemorial, Monday, May 1, 2023 Optional Memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker, April 30, 2023 Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year A)Good Shepherd Sunday, April 29, 2023 Saturday of the Third Week of Easter Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, April 28, 2023 Friday of the Third Week of Easter Saint Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr Saint Louis Grignon de Montfort, Priest, April 27, 2023 Thursday of the Third Week of Easter, April 26, 2023 Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter, Tuesday, April 25, 2023 Feast of Saint Mark, April 24, 2023 Monday of the Third Week of Easter, April 23, 2023 Third Sunday of Easter (Year A). If we were walking along with a friend, we would tend to be suspicious of any stranger who joined us and asked us what we were discussing as we walked along. The gospel reading suggests that we respond by listening to his voice and allowing his word to make its home in us. We are very security conscious in these times. He empowers us to live out his teaching. he who believes in me will never thirst. The light which shone from the risen Lord and from the preaching of the Easter gospel could not be extinguished by the powers of darkness. In the world of Jesus, there were no sheepdogs to help the shepherd in his work with the sheep. Like the Lord, we carry our own wounds, some of them arising out of the crisis we are all going through, but, just as the Lords wounds were transformed by his rising from the dead, the risen Lord can transform our wounds too, recreating them as channels of new life for others. The good news is that even when we turn from the light and chose darkness, the light shines in the darkness and, if there is even the smallest opening in us to the light, the darkness will not overcome the light of Gods loving presence. They feared that what was done to Jesus could be done to them. Gates are just there to be passed through; they dont as a rule call out to us; if we pass through a gate it is because we have decided to do so. In this mornings gospel reading, the Jews ask the question, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Far from pulling back in response to that dismissive question, Jesus goes on to speak of the need not only to eat his flesh but to drink his blood as well. Here indeed is a light that darkness cannot overcome, a love that human sin cannot extinguish. Parents are called upon by their children and then, as parents get older, it is the children who often get called upon by their parents. We can always ask the Lord to do what he can with the little that we have and if we do that we may discover, like the disciples, that something wonderful happens. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.. That is what Jesus was asking of Nicodemus when he called upon him to be born of water and the Spirit. In the gospel reading Jesus makes a comparison between the wind and the Holy Spirit. His call comes to us in all kinds of ways. Jesus often used images drawn from the life of the people to talk about himself and his message. When Cleopas had finished telling the stranger their story, the stranger began to tell a different story about the person and the events that were at the centre of Cleopass story. Those who attempted to extinguish Gods light shining in Jesus only succeeded in making that light of love shine all the more brightly. He continues to speak to us in and through the Scriptures, inviting us to see our own personal journey in the light of Gods loving journey towards us. The authors were the Nuns of the monasteries that were members of the Saint Teresa Association in 1990. Someone from the nationalist community would tell the story in one way; someone from the unionist community would tell the story in a very different way. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe. Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God! Jesus said to him, Have you come to believe because you have seen me? God sent his Son into the world so that through him the world might be saved. The disciples had abandoned the Lord on Good Friday, with the exception of the beloved disciple. Where could food be found to feed such a crowd? The one whom they had been following, and in whom they had put so much hope, had been crucified by the Romans.