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:

Pentecost Sunday

Where often only death and decay seem present, we see also the hope-inducing presence of God blowing new energy into our lives and places. The Spirit, the living memory of the Church, reminds us that we are born from a gift and that we grow by giving. Pentecost is a continuing event that dares us. It dares us to become a community of fire that keeps the flame of passion for God and the world that God loves, burning despite dark days and nights. Pentecost is not just a celebration of the birth of the church, but a celebration of being church. We celebrate that unseen, immeasurable presence of God in our lives, our world and church that animates us towards Gospel justice and mercy that we might bring God’s life and love to our broken world.

Feast of the Ascension

We are called to remember who we are and today we are being named ‘Theophilus’ <the lover of God> a title addressed to a variety of communities. Today’s feast can cause us to wrestle with our rational side. People have become impatient and even left the church because of a focus on ‘heaven up there’ which does not speak to the everyday lives of people. What we are called to is to see the world differently where God’s love comes together with love of neighbour and all creation. Ascension is not about Christ’s absence, but his presence everywhere. We are reminded that it is not just how Jesus is present in the world but our presence. We cannot separate his presence and our witness.