First Sunday of Lent

Archbishop Oscar Romero once said there are two plans in history: God’s plan and an idolatrous plan. This dichotomy clearly appears also in the first reading. God says to the people of Israel: ‘I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live’ (Deuteronomy 30:19). The temptations of Jesus raise two questions for us: ‘Who are we?’ and ‘What are we to do?’ We are confronted by the same question Jesus faced: do we meet ‘my’ physical needs, ‘my’ level of power and place and ‘my’ access or right to special favours from God.

Eighth Sunday of the Year

We have a rich array of themes that lead us into the Lenten season of conversion and renewal. Luke today contains three separate sayings by Jesus on mercy: the blind leading the blind, the splinter in a companion’s eye, and a good tree and its fruits.

Seventh Sunday of the Year

Last week Jesus contradicted a culture that values the rich and powerful. Jesus turns our thinking upside down. Today’s gospel is connected to that of last week. The realisation that Jesus’ teaching can turn our thinking upside down and is diametrically opposed to conventional cultural values should guide us in how we read contemporary news, and about world events, and respond. Everything is the opposite of what our culture claims! Pax Christi Australia will have completed (February 19) a conference on the theme <Where does Australia’s Security Lie?> in a world where 1.4 million people die each year due to violence and 2 billion live in countries mired in fragility and destructive conflict.

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. 

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.