Fr. Bob’s Weekly Reflections

This Feast of Pentecost is often called the birthday of the church. That is a good description, but there is a problem.  When most of us say “the church” we unconsciously think of the church as we know it now.

In our Gospel today we read the prayer of Jesus the night before He died. It is the longest prayer in the Bible.

In Graham Greene’s novel “The Power and the Glory,” the unlikely hero is a priest. He is caught by the revolutionary Mexican government and condemned to be shot.

Most of us have a natural aversion to spiders. Rather than marvel at a delicately woven web in the corner of a room, we cannot wait to destroy it.

The Good Shepherd - Carole King wrote some lyrics in a song that could be applied to our Gospel of the Good Shepherd: “Looking out on the morning rain, I used to feel so uninspired.

Bette Midler in her song, “The Rose” sings, “It’s the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance. It’s the dream afraid of waking that never takes a chance. And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.”

Many years ago there was a movie called the “Seventh Seal.” In one scene, death takes the form of a human person, and appears to a man.

Upfront, it is hard for me to resist preaching a sentimental homily about butterflies and bunnies or a family Easter Sunday that would send you home smiling.

Today we start the holiest week of the year, and the week moves from Sunday to Saturday. The mood of the gathered assembly will also move, from adulation and adoration to murder, mourning, and mayhem.

We hear in our gospel today about some people who have come to Jerusalem for the Passover. They have heard about this miracle worker Jesus.