Jeremiah 20:7-9/ Ps 63(62)/ Romans 12:1-2/ Matthew 16:21-27 We live in a time of instant gratification. If we want something we want it now. Online retailers promise same day delivery of almost anything. We want everything without the wait, without the work, without the cost. We want to arrive without making the journey. Peter in the gospel passage today was a bit like this. We know Peter loved Jesus, he confirmed it three times, but he also wanted the happy ending without th

Isaiah 22:15, 19-23/ Ps 138(137/ Romans 11:33-36/ Matthew 16:13-20 In the gospel today Jesus asked His disciples who they say that he is. There are suggestions that people think he is John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets. It is Simon, inspired by God, who speaks up and says, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' In reaction to this Jesus does not simply congratulate Simon for his answer, He gives him a new name, Peter, which means rock. It is on this

Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10/ Ps 45(44)/1 Corinthians 15:20-27/ Luke 1:39-56 In the 1940s, Pope Pius XII authorized excavations deep beneath the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Archaeologists dug through an ancient Roman cemetery, and in 1950 the Pope announced that the tomb of Saint Peter had been found, where Christian memory had always said it was. The early Christians marked the martyr’s tombs with reverence. They gathered at graves, celebrated the Eucharist o

1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a/ Ps 85(84)/ Romans 9:1-5/ Matthew 14:22-33 Consider the parent in the swimming pool, arms outstretched towards the little child standing hesitantly on the edge. The parent calls out for the child to jump in assuring them they will catch them. The child is keen but looking down at the deep water cannot step off the edge. The parent again, more softly, more reassuringly, calls for the child to look at them in the eye and jump in knowing they will be caught

Isaiah 55:1-3/ Ps 145(144)/ Romans 8:35, 37-39/ Matthew 14:13-21 In the Gospel today we find the disciples responding to Jesus that they do not have enough to comply with his request to feed the large crowd. They point out that they cannot possibly feed so many people with just five loaves of bread and two fish. The message for them and for us is that God never asks us for what we do not have, He asks for what we do have, however small and insignificant we think that might be

1 Kings 3:5-6a, 7-12/ Ps 119(118)/ Romans 8:28-30/ Matthew 13:44-52 Today we live in a time of instant answers. If we want to know something, anything at all, we simply take out our phones and ask. When I was young, things were different. We had an encyclopaedia on the bookshelf at home, along with a dictionary or two and the Bible. If those did not have the answer, we could go to the library and research the query. Today we have the whole of human knowledge in the palm of ou

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19/ Ps 86(85)/ Romans 8:26-27/ Matthew 13:24-43 Many of us may have tried to cultivate a vegetable patch in our gardens or allotments. Some of us may have become quite successful, providing fruit and vegetables for ourselves and others from our perseverance and patience. It can be a frustrating undertaking as we contend with the relentless progress of weeds that always seem to grow bigger and better without any help from us. We might have done everything righ

Isaiah 55:10-11/ Ps 65(64)/ Romans 8:18-23/ Matthew 13:1-23 Consider two people attending the same Mass on a Sunday. They hear the same readings, music, and homily. When they leave church something different has happened inside each of them. One of them is already thinking about lunch, what to do that afternoon, the emails piling up at work. By the time they reach home there is no memory of a single word of the Gospel yet alone the homily. The other person heard one line that

Zechariah 9:9-10/ Ps 145(144)/ Romans 8:9, 11-13/ Matthew 11:25-30 Think back to Palm Sunday and the image of Jesus entering Jerusalem. He did not enter the city with a flourish of kingship and splendour. He rode on a borrowed donkey. The crowds greeted their Messiah, ready to crown a great leader, only to see him approaching on a donkey, his feet almost dragging on the ground. This is what the prophet Zechariah foretold, a king, a triumphant saviour, who would come not with

Acts 12:1-11/ Ps 34(33)/2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18/ Matthew 16:13-19 Consider a parish council meeting where two members just cannot see eye to eye. One is practical, plain-spoken and has been around the parish for many years, knows everyone, but is not one for theology. The other is a sharp, university-educated newcomer who can quote scripture and church documents chapter and verse. They clash, disagree, sometimes openly, in front of everyone. You might expect one of them to sto

Jeremiah 20:10-13/ Ps 69(68)/ Romans 5:12-15/ Matthew 10:26-33 We are here today, I would suggest, because our faith means something to us. It is important that we follow Jesus and the guidance he gave us. This can come at a cost sometimes. We might want to be somewhere else, doing something different. We can find ourselves in awkward situations because of what we believe and how we know we should live. We might be out with friends, on a break at work, when the talk turns to

Exodus 19:2-6a/ Ps 100(99)/ Romans 5:6-11/ Matthew 9:36-10:8 In the 1850s, in the slums of London, there was a young man who could not help feeling compassion for the poor that he saw all around him, the people rejected by society, outcasts because of the way they lived. He felt compelled to do something to help, not waiting for them to come to church but going out to find them. Together with his wife Catherine, William Booth started what we know today as The Salvation Army.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a/ Ps 147/ 1 Corinthians 10:16-17/ John 6:51-58 When we think about our families, we sometimes see that they may have become scattered far from home. Children grow up, move away, form their own relationships and families. There can be family splits and disagreements, deep hurts that are hard to heal. Relatives who have not spoken in ages. Every so often there comes an opportunity for a family to gather, it might be at Christmas, a family wedding, fune

Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9/ Dan 3:52. 53. 54. 55. 56/2 Corinthians 13:11-14/ John 3:16-18 Imagine trying to explain the colour blue to someone who has been blind from birth. You could describe the wavelength of light, compare it to the feeling of cool water, read them every poem ever written about the sky and the sea. In the end they still would not really know what blue is. This is a little like trying to describe the Most Holy Trinity, trying to understand a reality that is far be

Acts 2:1-11/ Ps 104(103)/1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13/ John 20:19-23 Some years ago, I was privileged to accompany a group of young people who travelled to Poland for World Youth Day with Pope Benedict XVI. One of the tours arranged for the groups attending was a visit to the Auschwitz extermination camp. Here we learned the story of Father Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who was a detainee there. A prisoner had escaped and the camp commandant had ordered the deaths of

Acts 1:12-14/ Ps 27(26)/ 1 Peter 4:13-16/ John 17:1-11a Most of us know only too well what it is like to be delayed at the airport. The flight is delayed, no information, no departure time, and no explanation. The frustration can be seen all around, people are restless, pacing up and down, even getting angry with staff, or they just give up and try to sleep on the seats. We feel trapped, with no control over when we might get going. We know this feeling of waiting, with littl

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17/ Ps 66(65) 1 Peter 3:15-18/ John 14:15-21 Imagine being in the work staff room having a break, when a colleague says, "I noticed you go to Mass. Can I ask you something? Why do you believe all that?" This comes out of the blue, no warning, no time to prepare. What would we say? We might mumble something about it being a family tradition, try to change the subject, wish for a moment that the ground would swallow us up. Without judging I would suggest this wou

Acts 6:1-7/ Ps 33(32)/1 Peter 2:4-9/ John 14:1-12 Today the corner or foundation stone is often just a plaque on the wall. In ancient times the cornerstone was critical to the construction of a building. All subsequent stones were aligned on that first stone. If the laying of that first stone was faulty, the entire building could eventually crack, divide, and collapse. That is the context in which we should hear Saint Peter's words in the second reading today. He challenges u

Acts 2:14a, 36-41/ Ps 23(22)/ 1 Peter 2:20b-25/ John 10:1-10 Imagine the terror that set in on Holy Thursday when Jesus had been arrested. His closest friends, the ones who had spent three years with Him, eating with Him, and watching Him perform miracles, fled to the locked upper room. Peter, the man who had just sworn he would die for Jesus, was so terrified that he denied even knowing Him. He was a sheep who had lost his shepherd, paralysed by the wolves closing in around

Acts 2:14, 22-33/ Ps 16(15):1-2a, 5. 7-8. 9-10. 11/1 Peter 1:17-21/ Luke 24:13-35 In the Gospel passage today, two disciples are walking down the road to Emmaus when an extraordinary encounter changes their lives for ever. They are joined by none other than the Creator of the Universe, the Saviour of the world, but because He looks like any other traveller on an ordinary road, they do not recognise Him. We might ask ourselves: How often does God join us in the ordinary moment