“I will not leave you orphans.” What soothing and comforting words from Jesus to his disciples. During the time of Jesus, being an orphan was a very difficult state for a child to be in.

Jesus’ hope filled words today prepare his disciples for his upcoming ascension. The whole experience of the resurrection and the appearance of Jesus to his disciples might have been quite overwhelming.

Many of the images Jesus chose in his teaching or manifests in his relationships are images of tender, loving care and intimacy.

When I was a young priest, I was often surprised by the number of people I met who were “disappointed by God”, and so they walked away from Him.  “God never answered my prayers, so I stopped praying.” 

“Peace be with you.” This was the greeting of Jesus to his apostles on his first appearance after he has risen from the dead. After that, his disciples were first astonished at seeing him. Then he greeted them again, “Peace be with you”.

The Easter celebrations this year are very interesting and certainly very different. It’s really our first Easter Triduum without the richness and the beauty of our liturgical Services, which we normally experience as a community of faith in our parishes.

This is one of the very few occasions that we have two gospels in one Mass. And I have often said how contrasting these two are.

In John’s Gospel, this is what Jesus said to Martha as she was grieving the death of her brother Lazarus. 

The gospel story for today begins with an interesting question: the disciples ask: has the man who was born blind sinned (and thus caused his own blindness) or have his parents sinned?  Jesus answers “neither”.

Many years ago, I was watching a TV show about newly wedded husband and wives. It was a fun show about how do you know your partner. They would have questions like, “What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?” “What’s your favourite footy team?”

 The Gospel reading of today speaks of the transfiguration of the Lord. Jesus’ appearance changed on the high mountain: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white.

The desert was a symbol of deep significance for the Israelites as well as for early Christians.

Many years ago I read a Life of Jesus by the Scripture scholar Dominic Crossan.  There were many different lives of Jesus coming out at the time as the scholars tried to identify the “historical Jesus”.

When I was in my first year in the seminary, our Religious Education teacher challenged us to see who knew the Ten Commandments and who could recite them.

The Gospel reading for the 5th Sunday of ordinary time, challenges each one of us: to go out to the world; to become salt and light for the world. Jesus uses the image of salt and light, to describe the transforming impact of God’s work in our lives and how to impact other people’s lives.