John 20:19-31, Divine Mercy Sunday “The Incredulity of St. Thomas” is a beautiful painting that is inspired by the Gospel reading today. Painted by Caravaggio in 1602, it is one of his more famous works, supposedly copied at least 22 times in the 17th century alone. Originally done for Vincenzo Giustiniani, it is now housed in Sansscouci…
Category: Season: Easter
Jesus’ Shalom – Bro Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP
John 20:19-31, Divine Mercy Sunday Fear is a natural and basic human emotion. Fear plays an important role in human survival because it alerts us of impending dangers or evil, and moves us to avoidance. The science of anatomy would locate the source of this emotion inside our amygdala, a primitive part of our brain…
Easter Fear or Joy – Johnny Go, SJ
John 20:1-9, Easter Sunday 2018 What is remarkable about this Gospel story is the emotion that the women experienced as a result of their discovery of the empty tomb: Fear. I wasn’t expecting that. We are told that the women were so afraid they said nothing to anyone– exactly the opposite of what the angels…
Inequalities – Jett Villarin, SJ
Mark 16:1-7, Easter Sunday 2018 I propose three inequalities for our Easter reflection today. The Easter truth of Christ risen in our midst, living intimately in our lives, reinforces these inequalities. These inequalities are: True > false Light > dark Love > death True > false. We hold this inequality to be true, even if…
Where Is God? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
When Jesus dies in the Gospel according to Mark, the centurion at the foot of the cross exclaims, “Truly, this man was the Son of God!” We should not project onto that Roman officer’s words what we believe today about the divinity of Christ: eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light,…
Please Activate – Rudolf Horst, SVD
John 20:19-23 As a teenager, I thought Christmas was the climax of all feasts we celebrate. Easter? Okay, Easter-egg hunt gave it a special flavor. But Pentecost? It came and went without anything special to make it exciting. I guess that I was not alone with this feeling. Somehow many, like me, missed the…
Surprise! – Ben Sim, SJ
John 20:19-23, Pentecost In a small town near a South American border, there once lived a young man by the name of Angelo. One day he crossed the border and came back with a donkey carrying sacks of sand. And when the custom inspector asked what he was smuggling in the sand, Angelo quickly replied, “Nothing.” So all the sand was poured…
Patronus – Mark Lopez, SJ
John 20:19-23, Pentecost Today’s recommended reading in relation to Pentecost will not be your usual Church encyclical, or Bible verse, or a quote from a famous Pope or theologian. Today’s recommended reading is none other than the book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (book three of JK Rowling’s seven-part literary phenomenon.) For the…
Spirited – Jett Villarin, SJ
John 20:19-23, Pentecost Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth. Lord, send your Spirit now more than ever, during this time when the earth stands to be disfigured by our indifference, by our willful disregard for the ancient rhythms of replenishment and renewal of our land. Renew the earth that…
Between Two Miracles – Mark Aloysius, SJ
Luke 1:39-56, Feast of the Visitation Among all the Marian feasts, today is the most ordinary, the least miraculous. There are no angels intruding into quiet spaces; no bodies ascending from earth to heaven. What we see is just two women coming to meet, to talk, to share their joy. Yet, the church chooses to…
Communion – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Matthew 28:16-20, Solemnity of the Ascension When I was in graduate studies, I lived with an American Jesuit who was a former US Navy soldier. He had been deployed to missions in Syria and Afghanistan, and was even briefly missioned in Subic. While fixing some lunch one day, he asked, “So, Arnel, how’s the interfaith dialogue with…
Can Worship be Mixed with Doubt? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
Matthew 28:16-20, Solemnity of the Ascension In our Gospel today, the eleven disciples climb a mountain to meet the risen Jesus, and we read, “When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted” (Matthew 28:17). There was Jesus, flesh and blood proof of the resurrection, showing them that his promises had been fulfilled and that…
One Lost Sheep 