John 11:1-45, Fifth Sunday of Lent This semester I teach the 3rd year theology students the Gospel according to John. Last week we reached chapter 11, the raising of Lazarus, and had a long discussion. So many questions popped up and puzzled the students. For example: Why did Jesus not go to see Lazarus when…
Category: Evangelist: John
Sigh – Jett Villarin, SJ
John 11:1-45, Fifth Sunday of Lent Or in Greek, embrimasthai. It is a word that is variously translated as a groaning, a thundering within, a trembling inside. It is what Jesus lets out when he sees his dear friends Martha and Mary weeping, when he asks where his beloved Lazarus lies. “Jesus said in great…
God’s Freebies – Arnel Aquino, SJ
John 9:1-41, Fourth Sunday of Lent Fr Joe Roche was our professor in the theology of Grace, oh some 500 years ago. Most of you are familiar with the teaching method back then. Straight lecture, exposition of concepts and terms, arguments, counter-arguments. Very informative, if anything, but pretty much cut and dried. But there was…
Where is your Siloam – Johnny Go, SJ
John 9:1-41, Fourth Sunday of Lent This healing miracle, unlike others, did not happen instantaneously. While the other healing of our Lord was achieved with almost just one word or a single touch, this one involved several steps–including the use of the bizarre mixture of saliva and spittle. But what struck me the most about…
Blinded – Rudolf Horst, SVD
John 9:1-41, Fourth Sunday of Lent For the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we recall Jesus’ healing of a blind man that brought many more things to light than just one man’s eyesight. It teaches us how blind we can be to what’s going on. The Lord wants to cure us of the worst blindness: a…
Is Your Belief Based only on Blessing? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
John 9:1-41, Fourth Sunday of Lent When Jesus heard that [the Jews] had thrown [the man who had been blind] out, he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (John 9:35) If I were Jesus, I would have asked that question earlier in the story – just after the man…
Evangelize – Rudolf Horst, SVD
John 4:5-42, Third Sunday of Lent We are so used to hearing this beautiful story that we don’t realize how shocking it actually is. So, let us use our imaginations to picture this scene. Jesus was tired after his journey. He sat down by the well, thirsty, hungry, worn out. The Well, Jacob’s Well, still…
Thirsting – Rogel Abais, SJ
John 4:5-42, Third Sunday of Lent Our readings for today give us interesting perspectives and insights into thirsting and quenching one’s thirst. In the first reading, we encounter the Israelites who are wandering in the desert where there is no water and everyone is complaining to Moses about their thirst. In many of the translations,…
Ever Widening Circles – Mark Aloysius, SJ
John 1:29-34, Second Sunday in Ordinary Time I. When I was a young child, there was an animation called The Spiral Zone which I used to faithfully follow. In this animation, the bad guys would set up a generator from which an ever widening hemisphere enveloped the entire land, called the spiral zone. Within this…
Out of Fashion – Johnny Go, SJ
John 1:29-34 Humility seems to have gone out of fashion these days. Just look around and listen to all the talk around you. It seems to me that on any given day, brashness trumps humility. Somehow the louder you speak, the more confident you come across, the more blatantly you flaunt your power, the more…
A Messy Christmas – Joel Liwanag, SJ
John 1:1-18, Solemnity of the Birth of our Lord As a way of preparing myself for Christmas, I once tried to contemplate the nativity scene following the prayer method proposed by St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises. Using the power of my imagination, I began by trying to feel the cool gentle breeze…
Prayer, and then silence…- Mark Aloysius, SJ
John 17:11B-21, Feast of St Edmund Campion Perhaps the most well known piece of writing by Edmund Campion is a letter he wrote to the Privy Council in 1580, often referred to as Campion’s Brag. Allow me to read to you a well-known part of it: And touching our Society, be it known to you…
One Lost Sheep 