The Gospel of John includes one of the most powerful episodes in Jesus’ ministry (Jn 8:1-11). When his antagonists throw at his feet a woman caught in the act of adultery, they try to trick Jesus into disregarding either his message of mercy or the law of Moses (which required her to be stoned). We know his famous response: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.”
As we conclude our Christmas celebrations, having been blessed with the graces of the season and the opening of the Jubilee Year, we move into Ordinary Time with an invitation to see the beauty and complexity of life that surrounds us.
“Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” The sixth chapter of the Gospel of John records that Jesus spoke those words to his disciples after the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
In the Gospel of John there are certain questions that jump off the page, significant beyond their immediate context. In the Gospel for the second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Jn 1:35-42) we have one such question. It is, in fact, Jesus’ first words in that Gospel account: “What are you looking for?”
After Gospel readings on the Third Sunday of Easter concentrating on the empty tomb and appearance narratives concerning the risen Lord Jesus, and the mid-point of Eastertide focus on the Good Shepherd on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, the Church turns our attention in the second half of Eastertide to reflection on Jesus’ “farewell address” as recounted in the Last Supper narrative of the Gospel of John.
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?” We start this Sunday’s Gospel (Jn 6:60-69) with an objection from those Jesus is teaching and then are told that many “no longer accompanied him.” Contrast this with the first reading, in which Joshua challenges the people to “decide today whom you will serve” and they reply “far be it from us to forsake the Lord for the service of other gods.”
I will never forget the first time I visited Toronto on a summer vacation. It has all the sights, beauty and points of interest that you can imagine, but what struck me most was a sight that I observed repeatedly on normal city streets.
There will be a major shift in the Sunday Gospels beginning on the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time July 29. This is Year B of the Sunday Lectionary, the year that emphasizes the Gospel of Mark; but for a series of five weeks, from weeks 17 to 21, the Sunday Gospels will be taken from the Gospel of John — the “Bread of Life discourse.”
Indulgences: Bestowed through the authority of the Church