Sixth Sunday of the Year

This week’s readings are not especially comforting with blessings and woes. As we reflect on them, we need to remember people who collected these texts already believed in a God of limitless compassion and justice and if we allow ourselves to be caught in it, God is utterly life-giving. We are aware of the world’s brutality which pains God’s heart and needs to touch our hearts. Jesus also opens us up to the reality where we can ignore what hurts our sisters and brothers or silence cruel and inhuman injustice. How many of us look away from the plight of Julian Assange, Bernard Collaery, First Nations people worldwide, asylum seekers, and Palestinian people. 

On the eve of what is widely celebrated as “Australia Day”, the Edmund Rice Centre has released a Statement calling for 26 January to become a day of reflection, compassion and liberation.

On 26 January 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip raised the Union Jack and proclaimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of the Australian continent.

Fifth Sunday of the Year

Today, in Luke we see ordinary and frail people making space for Jesus so as to make possible the occurrence of the unexpected and remarkable within daily life. The setting by the lake seems to be a place of central gathering with Jesus among them. An ordinary fisherman provides his boat for Jesus to use as a platform to share God’s word with Jesus first listening and then responding to the peoples’ desires and needs. Simon Peter played a key role in co-creating a space for the extraordinary to manifest itself in the ordinary.