Sunday reflections

In this week’s gospel reading (Matthew 16:13), Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”. The disciples offer various answers, including that some believe Jesus to be John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah.

Fifty days after Easter we celebrate the events of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples who were gathered. They were alone, waiting and wondering. Jesus had ascended into heaven. Now, at Pentecost, there was the coming of the Advocate, the Paraclete, as promised by Jesus at the Last Supper before his death.

Catholics and many other Christian communities believe in one God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit. St Augustine expressed the understanding this way: God is Lover, Beloved, and the Love between them.

Fifty days after Easter we celebrate the events of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples who were gathered. They were alone, waiting and wondering. Jesus had ascended into heaven. Now, at Pentecost, there was the coming of the Advocate, the Paraclete, as promised by Jesus at the Last Supper before his death.

The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini wrote famous operas such as La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Tosca. It was during his battle with terminal cancer in 1922 that he began to write Turandot, which many consider his best work.

We are still in the Easter season celebrating a new creation. But John’s gospel takes us back before the Easter event as we hear another part of the farewell spoken by Jesus before his death.

John’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth speaks of a time when sorrow, death and suffering will be no more. Some two thousand years later we might think that John’s utopian vision is little more than wishful thinking. Moreover, if we take the words of Jesus in this week’s Gospel – “You must love one another as I have loved you” – we can also recognise that Christians honour this commandment more in the breach than in reality.

The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd tenderly carrying a sheep on his shoulders was one of the earliest images of Jesus in Christian art. It was found in the Roman catacombs, the ancient cemeteries outside the city of Rome where the early Christian martyrs were buried. It has remained a much-loved image of Jesus throughout the centuries.

This week’s gospel presents a scene so familiar that we can almost picture it happening on an Aussie beach. After all, what’s more Australian than a feed of fish and chips by the water after a long day?

Fear can be such a paralysing emotion. With its familiar twin, anxiety, it keeps us from acting or thinking constructively and clouds our awareness of grace. In this week’s gospel reading, the disciples are gathered in fear behind closed doors. They are terrified about what may happen next.