Epiphany 2021

There are different ways of seeing this feast of the Epiphany such as being about a long journey, Jesus as a guiding light, or welcoming peoples of all nations. It also raises the question as to who do we follow. Is it the depraved power of King Herod and its abuses or the life-giving power of Jesus? In Herod, and contemporary leaders such as Donald Trump, and George Bush before him, we see brutality and paranoia where violence is justified against so-called ‘bad people’. 

Feast of the Holy Family 

Luke, the story teller, tells the story of a God who loves each one of us so much and so enters fully into our world: dwelling among us, dining, rejoicing, crying, bleeding and triumphing with us. We hear today how Jesus is introduced to his parents’ faith community where private family intimacy is expanded into the larger Jewish world, and all of society. It is the story of a new creation - of a whole new family that we belong to. We know it will not end happily because the shadow of the cross already lies across the infant, as Simeon prophesies. It began badly for the children slaughtered at the time. And God cries with the distraught mothers.

Reflections on the readings for Christmas 2020

Archbishop Oscar Romero used to say, ‘Some truth can only be seen through eyes that have cried.’  Though many of us may not be familiar with the names of siblings Antony, 13, Angelina, 12 and Sienna Abdullah, 9, and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, who were killed on their way to buy ice-cream. In February 2019, their parents seem to have experienced what Romero wrote. The families of these children have launched an annual forgiveness day as a way of remembering them. Their words of forgiveness have powerfully turned hurt and pain and lost into forgiveness for the sake of healing.