Fr. Bob’s Weekly Reflections

Today in the Gospel we read that the disciples of Jesus were hiding. They were hiding in fear behind closed and locked doors. They were shutting out the rest of the world which was hostile, persecuting and terrifying. They felt better huddled together, in isolation and planning what to do next, and where to go.

In our Gospel today we read the prayer of Jesus the night before he died. It is the longest prayer in the Bible. He says, “Father, most Holy, protect them which You have given Me. I gave them Your word and the world has hated them for it. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to guard them from the evil one. As You have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

I heard a mother tell her child that God lived far away, beyond the clouds. She said she did not want the child to think of God as close by, ever watching and keeping score.

In 1996 a car accident tore open the head of a 21-year-old Chicago boy named Peter. Peter was gravely injured, in a deep coma with sustained brain damage.

The gardener who spoke softly to the grieving Mary Magdalen in the garden. The stranger who walked with the despairing Disciples on the road to Emmaus. The appearance that startled the fearful Apostles hiding behind closed doors in the upper room.

This is an extremely rich Gospel. It helps to remember that it was written in a time of trauma for the Church. It opens with the Disciples at sea. They are confused, they are lost, they are empty.

Each year the Church celebrates Doubting Thomas Day. It is a rough day for the Apostle. Not only does the poor fellow miss out on Jesus’ first appearance to His Disciples, but he tells them that they must have dreamed it, and the only way he will believe Jesus has risen is to put his fingers into the wounds of Calvary.

When Judas arrived at the Garden of Olives to arrest Jesus, Jesus asked him, “Why are you here?”

Two men are facing each other. One is only 10 hours away from death; the other just told a group gathered around a fire that he did not know the man who was going to His death.

Many years ago I was asked to visit a patient in a psychiatric hospital. When I arrived, the patient was with a nurse so I had to wait.

Just recently I heard a song by Elton John. The lyrics went like this: “What have I got to do to make you love me?

Most of us have heard of the term “freeloader.” It refers to a person who takes and takes, but makes little or no effort to put back.

There was a young boy named Rocky Dennis. You may have heard about him, his life was once loosely depicted in the film, Mask.

For many of us, Lent is the season of gloom and giving up, of ashes and lashes. When it is gray outside, and purple inside.

The words a person chooses to speak are a window through which to see and know their heart. According to statisticians, the average man speaks...