When I was still a seminarian, I was in Surigao City, a city northeast of Mindanao Island in the Philippines and one day as I was walking around a corner a car nearly sideswiped me.

An atheist friend once said, “The Bible message is nice to read, but it is too beautiful to be true”. Of course, it is beautiful, who would say otherwise?

This Sunday’s Gospel reading is one of those passages of Scripture that is very hard to understand. Jesus seems to be contradicting himself. 

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter! Christ is risen, he is risen indeed. Alleluia.

After our last two Easters where the communal celebration of this pinnacle of our faith life was severely limited due to COVID-19, what a joy it was to gather in numbers again to welcome the Risen Lord.

In my ministry, I have had a few families talk to me about their challenges, mostly with their children. Most often some parents come to me distraught and needing answers. Do I pretend to have the answers to their questions and challenges? No! However, being a priest I often try to let them understand their problems with their children from the biblical perspective, writes Fr Clement Baffoe SVD.

In this reflection, I would like to use two biblical illustrations that perhaps might help you as well think of your own family problems broadly? Do I intend to answer your questions? No! However, if at the end of this reflection you find some meaning or comfort, we will together raise our hands and say: thanks be to God.

One of the mid- 20^th century’s most influential people was Helen Keller. Born in the USA on 27^th June, 1880, she went blind and deaf as a young child due to an incurable disease.

There’s this story about the US Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln was being briefed by his generals on the state of the war. His generals said to him, “In order to win this war, we must destroy our enemies”. The president replied, “I agree fully. We must destroy our enemies to win the war”. Then he added, “Let us make them our friends”.

Over the past few Sundays, we have heard in the first readings a focused theme – that of ‘Hearing God’s Sacred Word’. On the Third Sunday, in the reading from the book of Nehemiah, we heard the prophet Ezra proclaiming God’s Word in the assembly of the people, after their return from exile.

In Jesus’ day, if  there were reality tv shows in which least popular contestants are voted-off, the chances are he would be the first to get the boot! At least that’s the impression one gets while reading this Sunday’s Gospel.

When Jesus began his ministry in Nazareth , he stood before a group of faithful people who had gathered in the synagogue there, and he quoted words that had been written by the prophet, Isaiah, centuries before: “The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted and broken hearted.” (Luke 4:18)