Category: Resurrection

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Bearing the light of the risen Christ.

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Today’s first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles recounts the conversion of St Paul. I’m reflecting on Ananias, the Christian from Damascus who was told in a vision to seek out Saul of Tarsus to restore his sight. The instruction was clearly a shock to Ananias who, already knowing of Saul’s reputation, protested:

“Lord, several people have told me about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your saints in Jerusalem. He has only come here because he holds a warrant from the chief priest to arrest everybody who invokes your name.”

We’ve just heard how resolute and thorough Saul was in persecuting Christians. I imagine his name is enough to strike terror into the heart of these new Christians who are still struggling to come to terms with the resurrection. In such a time Ananias’ action would have seemed at best foolhardy if not downright reckless. Yet, despite his reservations, he accepts God’s call. He goes to Saul and says to him:

‘Brother Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’

The result is that Saul has his sight restored and, filled with the Holy Spirit, is baptised.

Ananais’ action requires courage and faith. Ananias reminds me that we too are called to be courageous in sharing our faith. We’re called to carry the love of the risen Christ to those who need it. The risen Christ calls us to share the light of his love in the darkness of our challenging times.

Often I think that call comes in a myriad of small, seemingly insignificant encounters through the day. It’s in those little things that offer a glimmer of brightness in a challenging day… a smile to a passing stranger, the offer of a seat on a bus, holding open a door for someone struggling with bags or pushchairs…A endless list of small kindnesses…


Where is the risen Christ calling you to bring his light to those around you today?

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A song of love.

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Today, I’m reflecting om this from the writing of St Augustine:

“We are told to sing to the Lord a new song. A song is a thing of joy and, if we think carefully about it, a thing of love. So those who have learned to love a new life have learned to sing a new song.”

Every Eastertide I’m touched by its tone of joy, hope and new life. In the midst of war and uncertainty across the world, it has an added poignancy. So much suffering and harshness don’t incline us to think about singing any sort of song, much less one that’s full of joy and hope. It’s tempting to brush it aside as too hard, too challenging for these dark times.

St Augustine wasn’t calling us to cover our pain with a sticking plaster, or to put on a brave face. He lived through times that were at least as challenging and as painful as ours. It’s from the midst of that suffering that he finds the courage to call us to sing this new song of joy and hope.

So I’m reflecting on what kind of new song we can sing in the midst of these troubled times. It seems to me that our new song has to have an element of lament. It has to allow us to grieve for all who are suffering in the world. It has to allow us to express the uncertainty of these times and the fear that engenders.

St Augustine points out that the reason for the joy and hope is love. So alongside our lament and uncertainty our new song has to carry something of joy and hope because it is based on love. Even in these hard and challenging times love still has the power to comfort, console and strengthen.

It can help us to bear what we thought would be unbearable and lead us through situations that seemed impossible. Whatever we have to face love, and the new life it offers, will sustain and support us, enabling us to find ways to heal our broken world with love’s new song.

What is the new song the Lord is calling you to sing this Eastertide?

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The Bread of Life.

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Today’s gospel, following on from the feeding of the 5000, focuses on the reality of our physical needs and points us beyond them. It seems to me that this speaks to the heart of our reality. As humans we have real, physical needs that can’t be pushed aside if we are to flourish. Jesus, moved by their plight, has met the physical needs of the tired and hungry crowd in the feeding of the 5000.

After he has moved on and they continue to follow him he challenges them to examine their motivation. He reminds them that they are more than physical beings, and that simply meeting their physical needs will never satisfy them completely. Tempting as that path is, it will always leave them unsatisfied. He says to them:

‘I am the bread of life. Those who comes to me will never be hungry; those who believes in me will never thirst.’

In offering them himself, the Bread of Life, he reminds them, and us, of a bigger reality and invites them to embrace it. He makes it clear that these spiritual needs, which we can be inclined to ignore, are as real and as essential as any physical need. He encourages us, to acknowledge the reality of our spiritual needs and desires, and to take them as seriously.

This calls for a balance that we don’t find easy. Having a natural tendency to over overbalance in one direction or the other Jesus calls us back to a life giving balance that we can only achieve by focussing on him.

Where is Christ offering to nourish you this Eastertide?

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Glimpsing the glory of God

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I love a happy ending whether it’s in a book or a film. I don’t mind if the characters go through all sorts challenges as the story unfolds, but by the end of the story I want everything neatly and happily resolved. This is a basic human desire that’s fuelled by our media.

In many ways it is tempting to see Easter as a “happy ending” for Christians. There’s just enough of a grain of truth in that to make it believable. But today’s first reading, the martyrdom of St Stephen calls us to look beyond that. I’m reflecting on this from today’s first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles:

“Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God…”

This wasn’t a “happy ending” in any human sense. It happened as Stephen faced a violent death. It reminds me that the Christian story that culminates in the resurrection is about about new life and hope. In one sense that is the ultimate “happy ending” although in our limited, human understanding it will not always look like that.

The resurrection speaks of a much deeper and truer reality, an ultimately “happy ending” that is beyond human imaginings. The resurrection is a constant reminder of God’s continuing and everlasting love for us even in the situations that seem most hopeless.

It’s an invitation to respond to that love and to allow it to shape everything about us, a call to constantly embrace new life and hope. Then, like Stephen, whatever sufferings we face, we will glimpse the glory of God.

Where are you finding glimpses of God’s glory this Eastertide?

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Motivation and invitation

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Today I’m reflecting on the aftermath of the feeding of the five thousand. It’s hardly surprising that after the miracle people feel compelled to find out more about Jesus, and the crowds went looking for him and, not finding him:

“They got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus.”

As becomes clear when they eventually catch up with him, they don’t really know who or what they are looking for. But already something is drawing them to him. Maybe it’s curiosity, like the curiosity that drew Moses to the Burning Bush.

Maybe, as Jesus later challenges them, it’s because he fed them. It’s easy to be judgemental about that, but in times when people are struggling to feed themselves and their families it’s understandable, and we’d all do it.

Jesus’ response to them is very direct. He says to them:

“I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.”

He recognises that their motives are mixed and challenges them to reflect on that. Then he accepts where they are and invites them to move beyond that to a new understanding:

“Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life, the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.”

His words are an invitation to them, and us, to recognise our mixed motives and then move beyond them to a deeper understand of who Jesus is. His invitation offers us the opportunity to enter into a deeper & more meaningful relationship with him.

In challenging us to examine our motives he invites us to embrace the new life of resurrection and the hope it offers for our challenging times.

How is Christ inviting you to a deeper relationship this Eastertide?

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Discovering Christ

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Today we’re celebrating the feast of Sts Philip & James. Philip is looking for certainty and security. He has his expectations of the coming of the Messiah, and is looking for them to be fulfilled. Jesus’ comment to Thomas, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life … If you know me, you know my Father too.” isn’t quite enough for Philip. It doesn’t answer his uncertainties and he has the courage to step up and ask for what he needs:

“Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.”

I have a lot of sympathy with Philip, following Jesus led the disciples on a bumpy and uncertain path that was never what they expected. In response Jesus offers him a challenge:

“Have I been with you all this time Philip, and still you do not know me? To have seen me is to have seen the Father.”

His reply doesn’t dismiss Philip’s longing, instead he calls him to a deeper level of awareness and attentiveness. Jesus challenges Philip to pay attention with his whole being, to give himself completely to being in Jesus’ presence.

It’s a challenge for us too. Like Philip we can be so distracted by our expectations that we feel to notice that what we are seeking is already in front of us. We also have to turn away from our image of how we think things should be to focus on the present moment, where we will discover Christ is with us.

Where is Christ calling you to discover his presence in your life today?

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Working with Christ

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Reflecting on John’s account of the miracle of the loaves and fishes I’m struck by how Jesus involves the disciples in what he plans to do. I’m sure Philip thought it was crazy to be expected to feed such a large crowd.

Andrew was uncomfortably aware that the five loaves and two fish were not going to go very far with such a crowd. Yet, having trusted Jesus and followed his instructions they witnessed the miracle of everyone getting what they needed:

“Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted.”

Jesus didn’t need to involve his disciples in this. As is so often the case in John’s Gospel Jesus knows exactly what he’s going to do. Instead he chooses to invite them to work with him to meet the needs of the people, regardless of their lack of understanding.

He shows them, and us, a model of discipleship based on collaboration and sharing. He wants his kingdom to be a collaborative one where people share their gifts and talents freely with others. He wants no one to be without, and no one to be overburdened by having to meet every need by themselves.

In our own challenging and often brutal times he invites us to work with him and with those around us to continue building his kingdom today. He challenges us to use our limited and often meagre resources so that no one is left without the basic necessities of life.

Where is the risen Christ calling you to work collaboratively with him today?

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Out of the shadows.

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Nicodemus a shadowy but persistent figure in the gospels. A respected member of the Jewish community he is also dream to Jesus and his teaching, visiting him under the cover of darkness to learn more. Today’s gospel is part of the lengthy conversation John reports him having with Jesus.

There’s a great deal to ponder in both his relationship with Jesus and their conversation, I find him both challenging and intriguing. Today I’m reflecting on these words from the gospel:

“Those who live by the truth come out into the light so that it may be plainly seen that what they do is done in God.”

It’s easy to hear this as simply as Jesus’ challenge to Nicodemus, a call to reflect on why he feels unable to be more open about his interest in Jesus and his teaching. While that is probably true, his words have a challenge for us too. We live in times when transparency is much valued, but, at least in public life, seems to be rarely practised. Truth has become so relative that it’s often hard to discern where it exists.

In such times we are called to hear Jesus’ challenge to Nicodemus as applying equally to ourselves. In times when truth and transparency often seem absent, he calls us to reflect on the things we prefer to keep hidden in our lives and to bring them into the open so that they can be clearly seen in the light of his love.

What is Christ calling you to bring into the light of his love?

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Action & contemplation.

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Today we celebrate the feast of St Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church. A third order Dominican she was a woman of both action and prayer. She took a public role in the life of the church, speaking out against schism, promoting unity and advocating for clerical reform. These words from her dialogue on Divine Revelation touched me:

“By your light you enlighten our minds… In this light I know you and I picture you to myself as the supreme good, the good beyond all good… Beauty beyond all beauty, wisdom beyond all wisdom. You are the food of angels, who gave yourself to us in the fire of your love.”

Her public activity was nourished and sustained by the prayer that kept her connected to the God who is the supreme good. It was because she drew her strength from the fire of God’s love that she gained the courage to speak truth to those in authority.

She speaks to me especially powerfully at this time, when our world seems so consumed by cruelty and suffering. In such times it can be hard to see the goodness, beauty and wisdom of God in our lives. It’s easy to get discouraged, to feel swamped by sufferings we can’t alleviate. We can be drawn to despair which stops us from acting at all or we can rush in, attempting to fix everything, ending up burnt out and exhausted.

St Catherine’s example suggests an alternative. We could begin by building up a prayer life that connects us to the fire of God’s love in a way that nourishes and sustains us in all of our actions and all that we are called to face.

How does the fire of God’s love nourish you in all that you face in life?

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Transformation

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I’m struck by what the contrast there is between the Acts of the Apostles and the Easter gospels. In the Easter Gospels, even as the resurrection is proclaimed to them the disciples are afraid and traumatised. They hide away, fearing for their lives and struggling to belief the accounts of the resurrection appearances that they’re hearing.

What feels like a short time later they present a very different reality. After Peter and John are released from prison they join the rest of the community and we hear that:

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim the word of God boldly.”

It’s a startling change that speaks to the power of the risen Christ to shape and change lives. After all their struggles and uncertainties their encounter with the Risen Christ and his Holy Spirit has brought them to a new place. I’m guessing that’s something they could never have imagined or hoped for. Certainly in the days after the crucifixion it must have seemed an impossibility.

They have been created anew. Having encountered the risen Christ, they are able to find the courage and passion to share their stories. They are able to speak out boldly in their challenging times, sharing the word of God and proclaiming the resurrection.

We too live in challenging and uncertain times. The risen Christ invites us to allow him to transform our lives so that we, like the disciples can find ways of sharing the good news of resurrection in ways that touch hearts and minds today.

Where is the risen Christ calling you to proclaim his word this Eastertide?