11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

For centuries, people in some of India’s mountainous regions, have constructed ‘living bridges’ from the aerial roots of rubber trees which are trained to grow across ravines and rivers. A tangle of roots is develop that are strong enough to support a person and resilient in floods. As the bridges only grow as fast as the tree, to building such a living bridge takes more than a lifetime. This task is passed down from generation to generation with children completing the parents’ work.

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

A theme Pope Francis often returns to is solidarity – a global solidarity, rich and poor, derived from recognising that we are children of God.  This is clearly linked to the eucharist and the church which build and reinforce this recognition to draw people together. This recognition includes the responsibility to live in in solidarity with rich and poor - and caring for each other. As Jesus give us the bread, his body, we also experience ‘God's solidarity’ with humanity. Jesus shares our journey, and becomes bread for the journey in our service, sharing and giving – ‘what little we have, what little we are, if shared, becomes wealth, because the power of God, which is love, descends into our poverty to transform it. (Pope Francis). 

Trinity Sunday

Today’s feast really is simple. Although some people may want to engage in some intellectual dogmatic discourse, we are invited into a down-to-earth reflection on God as well as ourselves as disciples. In Jesus, God is not only ‘for us’ but ‘with us’ and ‘within us.’  This feast of relationship and connection challenges every attempt to individualism and thus avoid care and responsibility. God is not solitary or unrelated but active and continually connecting with us. Ronald Rolheiser says: