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34th Sunday, Feast of Christ the King, Year B – 2024

22 novembre 2024
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: answers, fake news, information, Jesus King?, Jewish leaders, John 18:33-37, John 8:32, Pilate, truth

We are flooded with information of all kinds about many topics.
We are given much detail about happenings in our surroundings and about events from around the world.
But we are sometimes wondering whether the description we are given corresponds to reality or if…
If it is not somehow ‘changed’ to suit the aims of the reporters and their sponsors!
We feel we are sometimes subjected to what is called ‘fake news’!

The text of today’s gospel (John 18:33-37) has something relevant to address this situation.
We see Jesus being questioned by Pilate, the Roman procurator.
Jesus has been brought to Pilate by the Jewish leaders with the accusation of claiming to be king.
Pilate asks Jesus:

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

As Jesus does not reply directly, Pilate asks again, or rather declares:
“You are a king, then!”

It is then that Jesus says openly what people had asked him about during his life.
They wanted to know why he had come into our world.
Now, he states clearly the purpose of his coming to us:

“I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth”.

Strangely enough, today’s gospel text stops short from giving the next verse where Pilate asks (verse 38):
“What is truth?”
But, it is noteworthy that Pilate did not wait for Jesus to answer!

In this day and age, perhaps many people do the same:
either, they do not dare to ask what truth is, and how it can be found;
or, they do not pay attention to the answers that are given to them.

To Pilate, Jesus said:
“Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Do we?… Are we on his side?…

During his life, when teaching the crowds, Jesus had assured them:
“The truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

We cannot stand the very idea of not being free, yet…
We can ask ourselves: Is it the truth that shapes our ideas, our decisions, our interactions?…

 

Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/34e-dimanche-fete-du-christ-roi-annee-b-2024/

 

Source: Image: https://www.freebibleimages.org/photos/jesus-pilate/

21st Sunday of Year A – 2023

25 août 2023
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: answers, daily life, expérience, Genesis 3:9, God speaking, Matthew 16:13-20, questions, relationship with God

QUESTIONS: there are all kinds of them, they are countless.
There are short questions, easy; others are intricate, or vague.
Some are intriguing, others are disturbing, they make us feel uncomfortable.

People ask us questions, of course.
Life also asks questions of us, often difficult questions.
And even… God asks us questions!

This started long ago – we see it happening in the very beginning of the Bible where God asks Adam where he is hiding! (Genesis 3:9).
Throughout the books of the Bible, different people are confronted with this questioning from God.
The prophets are often the interpreters to their people of God’s questions.

Today’s gospel text shows us Jesus asking a very important question indeed (Matthew 16:13-20).
He asks his apostles:
“What about you? Who do you say I am?”

If we move from the first to the twenty-first century where we find ourselves and…
If we listen to this very question now addressed to us…
What will we answer?
Not repeating Peter’s answer, but giving our own very personal reply to Jesus…

Some people reading this text will think: ‘It all depends…’
Very true! It all depends what kind of relationship we are having with God.

For us, is God a distant deity, far above, or far away, who has little to do – we think – with our daily life and experience?
Do we know little about who he is, apart from acknowledging his greatness and power?
Or, do we perceive him – mysteriously, perhaps – as close and concerned about us, always ready to come to our help?

God’s questions are always meant to help us discern the way to a better life, a deeper freedom, a more meaningful existence.
And, we should be convinced that, with God, there are no bad answer, no reply that is wrong.
All our answers – even the most inadequate or incomplete – will be received by him who accepts us as we are!

But, of course, we have to listen to him to hear him speaking to us…
For his part, he will wait, and wait, for our answers…

 

Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French, at: https://image-i-nations.com/21e-dimanche-de-lannee-a-2023/

 

Source: Image: Unsplash

2nd Sunday of Year C – 2022

14 janvier 2022
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: answers, God's presence, intervention, John 2:1-11, Luke 2:41-49, New Year, questions, request

Questions are very much part of our daily conversation – questions of all kinds.
We ask them from friends and neighbors, family members and colleagues.

The scene of today’s gospel gives us an example of such questioning (John 2:1-11).
At Cana, Mary approaches her son to mention the situation that has arisen at the wedding feast they are both attending:
“They have no more wine.”
 
Jesus answers his mother with a question:
 “Woman, why do you involve me?”
 
Hearing the question, Mary may have remembered another question, one asked by her son long ago.
At that time, Jesus was only twelve years old but he had already voiced such searching words (Luke 2:41-49).

On both occasions, Mary remains silent before Jesus.
But this time she speaks, not to him, but to those who will take part in what her faith dares to ask for:
« Do whatever he tells you », she says.

On her request, it seems that Jesus has anticipated the time – he calls it his hour –
to show something of God’s presence and God’s intervention for people.

Because this is exactly what Jesus does:
he manifests, he makes clear, that God does come to our help in time of need.
And a wedding feast short of wine is as good a place as any for him to show that he cares for people!

But there are also the questions that God, in turn, may ask of us!
God’s questions may reach us in different situations…

  • A reading from a book may suddenly awaken something in us…
  • An email, or a letter, from a friend may challenge us in an unexpected way…
  • A phone call from a relative may remind us of something we had pushed away from our awareness…
  • The sight of a generous gesture from a stranger may be an invitation to the best in ourselves…
  • A comforting word overheard from a patient in the waiting room of a clinic may inspire us with something we did not expect…

All of these, and many more, can transform themselves into questions – questions from God.

At the beginning of a new year, it may be helpful to hear anew these questions that we may not have dared to listen to until now…
And to remember Mary’s words: « Do whatever he tells you. »

We may be quite surprised at the result!…

 

Note: Another reflection on a different theme is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/2e-dimanche-de-lannee-c-2022/

And in a video, also in French, Teresa Penafiel shares her own thoughts on this scene of the wedding at Cana: https://youtu.be/XRKyex5S_uw

 

 

Source: Image: LDS Scripture Teaching

21st Sunday of the Year, A

24 août 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: answers, awareness, Good Shepherd, Jesus, Mt.16:13-20, questions, realize, Redeemer, relationship, Saviour, Son of God

Questions, questions!
Our world is full of them, our lives are full of them – we can’t escape them!
Our minds search and struggle to find the answers – the correct answers, of course.

“What is this?”
“Where did you go?”
“Whom did you meet?”
“How did you manage?”
“Why did you do this?”

Some questions may be important, very important in themselves.
Others may become so because of the person addressing them to us.

And what if it is… God himself who questions us?
This is what happens in the gospel of this Sunday (21st Sunday of Year A – Mt.16:13-20) where Jesus (God-wit-us) asks his apostles:

“You, who do you say I am?”

This question is over 2000 years old and yet… very actual because we know that – in a mysterious way – it concerns us as well!
As you read these words your mind may be already at work.
If you ask yourself who Jesus is for you, the answer coming may be one of those memorized long ago:

  • He is the Son of God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity.
  • He is our Saviour, our Redeemer.
  • He is the Good Shepherd.
  • He is…

And if I stopped you there and asked as Jesus did: “Who is he for you?”
 
This Sunday provides us with a good opportunity to become aware of this – aware of who he is for us, in our lives, from moment to moment.
Aware of what he wants to be and what kind of very personal relationship he wants with each one of us.
Yes, this is a unique occasion to REAL-ize this!

Source: Image: Free Bible Images