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Risen Lord

2nd Sunday of Easter, Year C – 2022

22 avril 2022
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: apostle Thomas, GOD LORD, John 20:17, John 20:19-31, personal God, prayer, repeating, Risen Lord

Repeating things – speaking again the words already said – we do it very often.
To remind someone of something, to explain something voiced before, to make sure people have understood.
We do it with people and for people, and we do it also… with God!

Yes, it is something that is often part of our relating to God.
Is it that we fear he has forgotten some of our requests?
Is it that we think he likes to be reminded?
Is it that we like to make sure that we have asked properly?

Returning to God again and again, for whatever reason, is not bad.
He may indeed be happy with our coming again to be in his presence!

But… there may be a danger in repeating…
The danger is that we, ourselves, may no longer be very attentive to what we say.
We may be used to the words our lips pronounce again and again and…
our mind and heart may be busy somewhere else!

I think especially of some of our prayers.
And today, I think more specifically of the words of Thomas, the apostle, in today’s gospel (John 20:19-31) –
the words he spoke to Jesus when seeing his wounds:

“My Lord and my God!”

It is a very meaningful expression of faith and we do well to repeat it.
But, as the words come to our lips, is our mind really present, is our heart expressing itself personally?

Jesus is indeed the Risen LORD and he is truly GOD, we are convinced of this.
But what about the small word ‘MY’?
Is Jesus-the-Lord-God really ‘MY’ Lord and ‘MY’ God?

When he had risen, Jesus met Mary Magdalen in the garden, he told her:
“Go to my brothers and say to them,
‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’.” (John 20:17)

When Jesus spoke these words, he may have had something in mind…
he obviously stressed that God is OUR Father and OUR God.

It may be good to… REPEAT our reflection on this so as to appropriate Jesus’ message…
to appropriate especially… God as OUR God
as truly as Thomas did on that night as he met the Risen Lord –
not as a remote Being, but as a very personal God
who wants to be present to our daily experience whatever it may be.
 

Note: In a video presentation, Thomas, the apostle (personified by Arnold Rodriguez) tells us of his experience with the Man of Nazareth: https://youtu.be/kp1eb-oBH6w

And another reflection, on a different theme, is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/2e-dimanche-de-paques-annee-c-2022/

 

Source: Images: The Better Fundraising Company    www.churchofjesuschrist.org

Easter Sunday, Year C – 2022

16 avril 2022
Nicole Gregoire
2 Comments
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: believe, body, conversations, encounters, events, John 20:1-9, linen cloths, meetings, Risen Lord, see, stone

A stone rolled away…
A corpse… missing…
“Strips of linen lying there”…
Cloth wrapping the body “still lying in its place”…
All these are seen, noted, but…

No body lying there, NOBODY present!
Yet, the gospel text tells us that when John had witnessed this scene,

“He saw and believed.”  (John 20:1-9)
                                                             
Daily events…
Regular meetings…
Occasional encounters…
Ordinary situations…
Unexpected happenings…
Unusual occasions…
Overheard conversations…
Surprising details…

Which of these?
All of these?
At times… sometimes… could be… will be… the signs that could lead us
to make the personal experience that John made.
We will see and believe.

We will NOT see any body – not ANYBODY – but we will perceive a presence.
We will recognize the Risen Lord with us as surely as he was 21 centuries ago!

 

Note: And another reflection, on a different theme, is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/dimanche-de-paques-annee-c-2022/

 

Source: Image: christianity.com

 

 

 

Easter Sunday, Year A – 2020

11 avril 2020
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: Jn.20:1-9, perception, Risen Lord, Seeing, understanding, undrstanding, vision

What we see… what we do not see…
 
It is always like this in life, is it not?
We see certain things and we miss others.
We perceive certain realities while we cannot distinguish others.

The gospel text of this Easter Sunday made me realize this anew (Jn.20:1-9).
Peter and John come to the tomb where Jesus had been laid and…
they see the pieces of linen neatly folded and the cloth that had been around Jesus’ head also laid on the side.
But the person for whom these items had been used, they do not see.
 
Jesus’ body – this is what they were looking for – his body was not there.
The two apostles could not fathom that he, himself, could have been there.
They were looking for a corpse… they had to meet a living person!
They were looking for something, they were to encounter SOMEONE.

Their perception had to be transformed,
their vision had to be enlarged,
their understanding had to be deepened.

Is it not what EASTER is all about?
Seeing with eyes that go beyond appearances.
Perceiving with a mind that stretches beyond the obvious.
Understanding with a heart that is attuned to the depths of reality.

The Risen Lord can give all of this… from day to day…

Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/dimanche-de-paques-annee-a-2020/

 

Source: Image: Unsplash

 

 

 

 

 

3rd Sunday of Easter, C

7 avril 2016
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: 153 fish catch, Adam, fishermen, Gn.2:19, God's concern, Jesus, Jn.21:3, Jn.21:9-10, Lc.1:32, Mary Mother of God, Risen Lord

How are you doing?
How are things with you?
Are you managing all right?
How are you faring?

So many expressions that we hear repeatedly – expressions of interest in another person, expressions of concern about what is happening to him or her.
They manifest to others that we care for their well-being, we may even worry somehow about their welfare.

stchrysostoms.wordress.com

This is the language that the ‘man-on-the-shore’ uses to greet the group of fishermen getting closer to the lakeshore. “Friends, have you caught anything?” The faces surely give the answer as well as the lips: “No.” So the stranger – so he appears – adds: “Throw the net out to starboard and you’ll find something” (Jn.21:3).

The story is well-known to us including the catch of 153 fish. Human concern, so it seems, has provided what every fisherman dreams of! More still, God’s concern expressed in the of the Risen Lord slowly recognised as the Master.

Whenever I read this gospel text, I marvel at many aspects of it but there is one that especially retains my attention: “As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there, and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. Jesus said, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught’.”(Jn.21:9-10).
Jesus had already prepared breakfast for his apostles – everything was there ready and yet… he asks them to contribute something.

This is what I call: ‘God’s method’, yes, God’s way of doing – from the first chapters of Genesis (Gn.2:19) when God tells the newly-created man to name the animals, to the moment of the Annunciation (Lc.1:32) when God asks Mary, a woman of our race, to be the mother of his Son – God wants us to collaborate with him. He wants us – poor, weak, unreliable though we may be – to take part in his plan to make the world a better place, that is to save it, literally!

And in this ‘year of grace’ 2016, I do not see God’s method having changed… only his collaborators have… looking very much like you and me!

Source: Image: stchrysostoms.wordpress.com