Nineteenth Sunday of the Year

In John’s Gospel, Jesus confronts his listeners with the stark truth of why he has come, and what is needed to benefit from what he offers them. Today, Jesus is speaking about a personal God, a God among them, a God who can be touched and moved by the sight of people in distress. He claimed that he was the human face of God – God’s mercy and goodness. The ‘I am’ refers to God. Who does ‘this son of Joseph’ think he is?  People were not open to his identifying with this God and being sent by God. His, ‘I am the bread that came down from Heaven’ angered them. This had implications for them and for us. Can we be touched and moved by people in distress? His teaching by and large fell on deaf ears because what he was saying seemed too good to be true.

On Wednesday 19th of June, during Refugee Week 2024, Senator Fatima Payman joined the ERC for a discussion about her upbringing, her work in parliament, and her experience as a migrant in Australia.

18^th Sunday of the Year

The readings reveal God’s unconditional love – a love without conditions even when people grumble, fail and complain as in the first readings. God is constantly seeking to connect with us – something not always easy to accept and which needs to be extended to others. To do this may mean looking beyond what is before us.  Jesus says we need to look beyond what fills our bellies to see the love with which it was given.