3 May 2026 - dwelling place

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Jesus tells us, "Do not let your hearts be troubled". But how do we not? Is it even possible? He tells how: "have faith also in me". And yet many of us believe ourselves to have faith while often still experiencing troubled hearts. Is there something deficient in such faith? Perhaps deficient isn't the right way to look at it. But it may be true that our faith has not yet had its full effect in renewing our minds. It might extend to God in some abstract sense, but not Jesus in the concrete matters of daily life. And this is how many of us often are. We affirm belief in a creator but are less confident that anyone is still around to run things. We dare not apply our faith to circumstances for fear that they will not turn out well. And yet it has always been a fundamental teaching of the Church that circumstances, whether good or ill, only happen as directed or permitted by God's providential care. If we can learn to believe that God is not only real but that he is also really in control we can dampen the degree of anxiety we feel when things seem to be going poorly in our lives and in the world, as they often and with increasing frequency seem to do.

In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

Jesus did not abandon us, but went away specifically for our sakes. He left so that the Spirit could come and unite us to him even more perfectly. He is absent in body but his guidance is even more intimately available to us than ever. Through his enthronement in heaven and his uniting us to himself by his Spirit he is even now preparing our hearts to dwell with him forever. This is no less true when times are difficult. In fact at such times, it is, if anything, even more true, since it is then that our union with him can gain the most strength. When we have the opportunity to prefer nothing to him we also have the opportunity to change our relationship to those things which are merely temporary. Our idols won't save us in our daily struggles. But our relationship with Jesus is the one thing that can sustain us. He is our shelter in the storm, no matter how fierce.

Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?

Jesus' plan seems elusive or even convoluted to us much of the time. We protest that we do not really know how to connect what we are supposed to do in our daily lives with this grand vision of union with God forever. But Jesus told Thomas that it was not, after all, so very complicated. Although he did not tell us the future in such a way that we could determine for ourselves the right path, he himself remained present to us, showing us the way. More than trying to solve reality like a riddle we are meant to focus on living in union with Jesus himself. The closer we are to him the more we can be sure that we are in fact going the right way, that we are grounded in the truth, and headed toward eternal life. There is no way to express this that is better than participation in the Sacraments of the Church, in which our unity with Jesus grows. From there, the love of Christ that we receive impels us on. We are sent out on mission to the world, to love the world as Jesus first loved us.

Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.

Perhaps we are too eager to look elsewhere to find what we need. We have been given an embarrassment of riches as our Christian inheritance. We no longer need to search for meaning as though our lives depend on it. We don't need to desperately seek the next experience that might finally fulfill us. We don't need to look to the left or the right. What we need has already been given. He himself already lives within us.

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left (see Isaiah 30:21).

We are empowered for service, though in a different way from the deacons described in Acts. A significant part of our mission is to ensure that no one is missed or neglected, especially by our prejudices. Each of us has different gifts and will therefore live the mission in different ways. We are to become living stones, each one of us fitting uniquely and irreplaceable into the spiritual house of God. We are all priests, prophets, and kings. But we live these realities differently. For the fullness of God's plans for the world, the full dawning of his "wonderful light", we are all essential.

 

BNC Digital Music - Proclaim His Marvelous Deeds

 

2 May 2026 - greater works than these

Today's Readings
(Audio)

If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.

Philip seemed to think Jesus was implying something less direct and immediate than was in fact the case. He thought, perhaps, that Jesus was using hyperbole to imply that he would be able to recognize the Father because of his likeness to Jesus. So he pressed Jesus that the actual event could take place. As Moses asked God, "Please show me your glory" (see Exodus 33:18), so now Philip asked, "show us the Father". He thought Jesus was training him so could eventually behold the Father directly without any need of Jesus as an intermediary. But Jesus was not merely a bridge that could be crossed and then forgotten. The theophany of God the Father did not await on some far side without him. Rather he himself was the revelation of the Father, and without him the Father could not be seen or known.

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

Many people had apparently seen Jesus. But most had not seen him with the eyes of faith. Faith revealed the presence of the Father in Jesus, but in a specific way. It was not as though Jesus was a mask the Father wore to present himself among men on earth. The Father and Jesus were not different modes of operation for one person. They were one. But they were also, somehow, in relationship with one another. Thus Jesus used the language of relationship. He explained that even the works he performed were not only his, but also those of the Father, saying, "The Father who dwells in me is doing his works". This wouldn't make sense unless they were somehow outside of the context of relationship. But it did not negate the profound oneness that they shared. The Father chose Jesus exclusively to reveal his face and his heart to the world. Jesus chose to say only the words his Father wished him to say, to do nothing but what he asked, to prefer nothing to his will. They gave themselves to and for each other completely, steadily, and without hesitation.

Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.

Believing in Jesus was the gateway to sharing in his communion of love with the Father and the Spirit. The Father had until then been doing marvelous deeds through the human nature of Jesus. But Jesus promised that, together, he and his Father would use the faith of believers to do even greater things. The works that the disciples had witnessed appeared to be largely external, and to have consequences that were merely temporary. Even so great a work as the raising of Lazarus was impermanent. But the work that God would do in us by virtue of our faith would accomplish forgiveness and salvation, eternal goods. We can thus speak of "obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls" (see First Peter 1:9) in the sense that it is both God's work and our own. This is why Jesus responded to the question of what must be done to accomplish the works of God by saying, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (see John 6:29). 

In the Acts of the Apostles we witness the disciples performing many great and miraculous deeds. But the greatest accomplishments, and those which were the most celebrated, were always people coming to believe.

All who were destined for eternal life came to believe,
and the word of the Lord continued to spread
through the whole region.

We sometimes get fixated on miracles because of how pressing are the temporary trials that afflict us as mortals. But if we focus on the fact that our faith is something still greater we can have the same joy that characterized the disciples, since the Holy Spirit has filled us just as it first filled them.

The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.

Peter Furler - Greater Is He

 

1 May 2026 - yes way

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith in God; have faith also in me.

He had just recently given them what seemed to be very good reasons to let their hearts be troubled. He had revealed the fact that he would be betrayed both by Judas and by Peter. The circumstances that were coming were indeed troubling. We know from the other Gospels that he had by now made several explicit predictions of his passion. In John's Gospel we see references that are somewhat more oblique. He spoke of the hour when he would be lifted up, the fact that he would lay down his life for his sheep, like a grain of wheat that first died in order to give life. As that ominous hour drew near it is no wonder that it was the disciples natural disposition and tendency to experience anxiety. 

Jesus told them in advance about what was going to happen, but not in order that they could somehow circumvent it. He told them so that they could believe it was a part of the plan. If they could trust him, and believe what he told them about reality rather than how it appeared, they could maintain peace of heart. They needed to believe what he said to them even about how they themselves would fail. He knew it. He was not surprised by it. This too was a part of his plan, something in which when sin abounded grace would abound still more (see Romans 5:20). But this would only work if they had faith in Jesus such that he, and not they themselves, was the center of their lives. If they remained egocentric prisoners within themselves they would necessarily view every failure as catastrophic. But if they trusted the words of Jesus they could have a higher, heavenly vantage point. 

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

Jesus was helping to prepare them to see things as they really were, from a heavenly, eternal perspective. He was already preparing them for their heavenly homes by this transformation of their minds to function in a more transcendent way. He was thus the way, transfiguring the intellect and will of his disciples to shine with the radiance of his own light, as he would indeed one day do also for their physical bodies. He was also the truth, the Word through whom all things were made. When this truth was fully known and internalized one already dwelt in heaven with the Father and the Son. It was not merely intellectual knowledge, nor like the the supposed mystical knowledge of the Gnostics. Rather, it was a relational, we should say spousal, type of knowing that was being described. Because this was so it could be something that ordinary knowledge could not: the source of life. Faith centered on Jesus was the way to unite oneself to him, by believing what he said about himself, God, and the world, and thus experiencing eternal life in communion with God himself.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.”

We should return briefly to the beginning of our Gospel passage in which Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled". The point was not merely that there was a better future state that awaited them, and that is why they could have peace. It was rather that, in virtue of being on the way to that future they already in some sense possessed it. Faith made the future to be mysteriously somehow already present. Thus the predictive words of Jesus were powerful because they not only saw beyond the darkness but were in fact a bridge to the other side.

 

Pat Barrett - The Way (New Horizon)

 

30 April 2026 - Christos in charge

Today's Readings
(Audio)

But so that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.
From now on I am telling you before it happens,
so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.

The reason his disciples were going to be able to believe in him was not because he prevented the betrayal of Judas, but rather because he told them about it before it happened. Such is to say that since he knew these precise details he could have avoided it if he so chose. But rather he calmly and deliberately accepted it as a necessary part of his Father's plan. So too, often, in our own lives. We are explicitly promised that we will not be spared difficulties in this world. Jesus said, "In the world you will have tribulation", but also that, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace" (see John 16:33). He did not choose an easy escape for himself, nor did he ask for one on his disciples' behalf: "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one". The real reason they would be at risk from the evil one was not because of their circumstances. Rather, the danger would be that they would let the circumstances overwhelm their trust in Jesus. Things might often seem dire. Would they believe their own impressions and emotions about things or would they instead cling to what Jesus revealed in advance? It was precisely the fact that the crucifixion unfolded exactly as Jesus predicted that was meant to be a concrete demonstration of his divinity. He is also more than able to reveal himself in our own difficult circumstances if we continue to trust what he tells us about how they fit into his larger plan. Basically, as long as we refuse to believe that Jesus himself was taken by surprise, or that he somehow lost control, we can have peace no matter what we face.

Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master
nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.
If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.

One symptom of believing that Jesus is not in control is that we will begin to slack on our duty to be servants. The inherent corruption of people and institutions, the virtue signaling of the disingenuous, and many other things will make us wonder what after all is the point of continuing to pursue excellence. If circumstances are bad and are going to remain bad, why try? Why, unless it really is a part of the plan, a part of the dying that is required before the resurrection? Even the Church itself will often contend with corruption just as it did with Judas at the beginning. But even this is not outside of the scope of providence. Even from this God is able to bring great good.

We can see from the evangelization efforts made by the disciples in Acts that the main question, the thing that matters most, is what we believe about the identity of Jesus himself. Do we believe the superficial appearance of the circumstances? Or do we believe that narrative of hope that ran through David and the prophets and found fulfillment in when he came to live among us?

From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise,
has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.

Phillips, Craig, and Dean - The Great I Am

 

29 April 2026 - not to condemn

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Whoever believes in me believes not only in me
but also in the one who sent me,
and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me.

Responding to Jesus was different from responding to another teacher, leader, or spiritual guru. A response to him reflected more than a mere personal preference about learning styles. Jesus was not speaking merely human words with which could legitimately disagree or which might be wrong. He spoke exactly the words the Father desired him to speak. Even in the way he interacted with others he perfectly revealed the nature of the Father's heart. Apart from this revelation there were not other sources of light, only different degrees of darkness. 

I came into the world as light,
so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.

People were entrusted with freedom to decide whether to remain in the darkness or come into the light. But judgment was fundamentally about where one finally stood. So if one had embraced the light, that choice would be ratified. If the darkness, likewise. 

And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them,
I do not condemn him,
for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.

It wasn't as though Jesus had something personal against those who would be condemned. Rather, he simply told the truth about the way things were. He explained that salvation was only possible through him, since he was uniquely united to the Father, and therefore able to bridge the otherwise infinite gap between heaven and earth. He gave his audience a map or guide explaining what was necessary to experience salvation. They were free to ignore it, free even to walk straight off the cliffs it clearly demarcated. 

the word that I spoke,
it will condemn him on the last day,
because I did not speak on my own,
but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.

He was not interested in watching people choose the darkness and then saying I told you so after the fact. He was not making the Father's word known only in order to make people more accountable, more liable to judgment. Rather, the purpose of his Father's plan was also his own. His Father's heart was that people would listen, respond, believe, and so be saved. And so this was the heart of Jesus as well. The Triune God did not delight in the death of the wicked (see Ezekiel 33:11) but rather desired all to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth (see First Timothy 2:4). What they desired for humanity, the reason for the commandments, for the mission of Jesus, for his words, was that humanity might regain what was lost in the Garden of Eden: eternal life, together with God forever.

We are meant to desire for ourselves and others that which God wants for us. We can see that the early Church shared the priority of Jesus regarding spreading the message of salvation far and wide. But the reason they were so successful is that they allowed themselves to be docile to the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus himself was docile to the Father.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,
“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul
for the work to which I have called them.”

If we were this open to having our lives directed and orchestrated from above we could be sure that the Church would not look so lifeless and impotent as it in fact often does in our day. As Pentecost approaches let us try to open our hearts more to the Spirit, to listening to him, and then allowing ourselves to be used by him, together with a community of like minded Spirit-filled individuals to pray us on our way on this God-given path.

Paul Wilbur - Let Your Fire Fall

 

28 April 2026 - explain like i'm five

Today's Readings
(Audio)

How long are you going to keep us in suspense?
If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.

He had already told them who he was, that he was the one uniquely sent by the Father. They acted as though they couldn't understand and effectively asked Jesus to explain it like they were five. The suggestion was that if he spoke plainly enough they would have no choice but to accept his testimony. But that was not in fact the case. Their protests of incomprehension were disingenuous. 

Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe.
The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me.
But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.

The problem was not fundamentally one of the intellect, but rather one of the will. They had been invited to allow themselves to be drawn by the Father so as to recognize the voice of his designated shepherd. They had seen signs sufficient to validate what Jesus said of himself. Yet they still obstinately persisted in hardness of heart. They sought to shift the blame to Jesus. But they had been given enough to discover the truth if they wished.

My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

Those who questioned Jesus may have been more interested in a Christ anointed for military conquest rather than one whose mission was more in keeping with that of a shepherd. Most likely, and this is like many of us, they did not fancy themselves as similar to sheep, and did not wish to evince the docility that was characteristic of such. Sheep seemed to be basically fluffy bundles of incompetence and weakness, antithetical to those who took pride in their great learning. However, only those who would let themselves be as sheep unto Jesus their shepherd could receive the rewards of his care and protection. They were the ones who would receive all the blessings promised in the twenty-third psalm. In particular, they were the ones who would not need to fear in the dark valley of death because he was present with them and said, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish".

The question might arise as to whether it was better for the Judeans to trade their apparent freedom for such security. But the false freedom that they would lose was not such as could ever satisfy them. It was a freedom of license, tending to addiction, dissipation, and eventual despair. By renouncing such freedom they would gain a still greater freedom of the daughters and sons of God. The freedom of falsehood is really nothing better than the demanding to drive on the wrong side of the road and closing one's eyes to the oncoming traffic. It is the freedom of stepping off a cliff and pretending gravity will make an exception this time. False freedom creates instability and fear. But the true freedom given by Jesus tends toward peace and confidence.

No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.

Just as Jesus was absolutely confident and at peace because of his relationship to his Father, so too can we be in him. There is no force outside of our own will that can take us from the hand of our God. Paul wrote of this in his letter to the Romans:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (see Romans 8:38-39).

Elevation Worship - There Is A King

 

 

27 April 2026 - zero sum game?

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

In general, most shepherds worked for their own livelihood and that of theirs families. They expended effort because they had to take care of themselves. They had their own problems about which to worry. If they ever did anything brave or heroic to protect the sheep it was nevertheless not the sheep who were their primary concern. If they didn't take care of themselves, they thought, no one else would. Only Jesus, because he abided in the abundance of the Father, did not need to make a choice between himself and others. He didn't have to provide for himself or protect himself. His life was thus able to become, entirely and completely, a gift. It's true that other shepherds did not do this, not because they were bad shepherds, but because they were not the good shepherd. Good in this sense was like when the rich young man called Jesus good teacher, and Jesus responded that none were good save God alone (see Mark 10:17-19). It was a goodness of a different order, properly only to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It was the goodness that resulted from noncompetitive transcendent abundance.

A hired man, who is not a shepherd
and whose sheep are not his own,
sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them.

A hired man had to choose between himself and his sheep. And as Jesus says, he typically chose himself. This wouldn't have been a problem in an idyllic paradise with no wolves to threaten the sheep. But this was no longer such a world. Sin, death, and the devil, conspired against everyone. They used vice, addiction, and fear of death to manipulate and control people. In the face of such opposition the shepherds, who were not so strong as to triumph against such foes, fled to self-protection. This they did although they had been called by God to struggle heroically for the sake of the sheep. But at heart, they too were sheep in need of a shepherd. What were they to do but try to make the best of things and earn their promised pay?

I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.

Jesus had a deeper relationship with his sheep than was possible for any of the hired help. He had knowledge of them was so complete that it was how the sheep were in fact created. It was that knowledge that continued to sustain them in being moment to moment. How might we describe knowledge of this kind? We get a glimpse of it from Jeremiah when God said to him, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" see Jeremiah 1:5). The psalmist also sang of this mystery:
 
Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance;
in thy book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them (see Psalm 139:16)

The mystical knowledge of Jesus expands not only to what we now are but even unto our fullest potential. Thus when we allow him full access to ourselves and acquiesce to his desires for us, when we begin to believe what he tells us is true about ourselves, rather than what the world and the devil tell us, his knowledge transforms us ever more fully into what we are meant to be. This is the mutual gaze of love described by Paul:

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (see Second Corinthians 3:18).

That transformative gaze of mutual mystical knowledge is the same one spoken of by John in his first epistle: "we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is" (see First John 3:2). We are meant to be so transformed by his loving gaze that we begin to experience a similar abundance to what he himself feels from being known by the Father. The more we have this experience the more we are able to make gifts of our own lives, without counting the cost. The cost, from that vantage point, is only temporary. It can no longer threaten our true treasure, that which matters for eternity, God himself.

Dan Schutte - You Are Near

 

26 April 2026 - gatekeeping?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.

The Pharisees and other religious leaders were among those who attempted to climb over elsewhere. Whereas Jesus won over the crowds by acting and speaking to them with sincerity and truth, others tried to poach his flocks by insinuating that he was incompetent or evil. They tried trickery and subterfuge to gain his sheep for themselves. But for all of their human cleverness they were lacking the key factor in the success of Jesus. He had the gatekeeper to open the gate, the authenticate his ministry in the minds and the hearts of the crowds. His Father drew those who were willing so that they could come to believe. The gate had in fact been prepared by previous generations of prophets, who promised the eventual coming of the messiah. Those prophecies, and thus the gate itself, corresponded only and exactly to Jesus himself. Not only that, but every human heart was also made so as to desire his coming. Jesus was the key designed to unlock all of those hearts that would otherwise remain closed. That is why people resonated so deeply with his words, and noted in him an authority that others did not possess. Many Pharisees and others were deeply envious of this rapport of Jesus with the crowds. After all, no matter how clever they were or how hard they worked they could never have the connection Jesus had his followers. 

When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.

The sheep of the flock of Jesus are drawn to him by the Father. In his presence they learn to recognize his voice. He knows more about them than any rival claimants to the title of shepherd, knows not only their names, but their deepest identities. His sheep feel seen by him, and in being seen, they feel his overwhelming love for them. They are known, known in their strengths and their weaknesses, warts and all, and yet are loved no less for their imperfections. There is no other gaze like the gaze of the good shepherd. Thus the sheep feel entirely confident to entrust themselves to his care.

I am the gate.

Jesus is both the way and the destination. Others sought the sheep out of short-sighted self-interest. They act beneficently toward them only long enough to get them to lower their guard so that they could begin to exploit them. They basically desired to possess the sheep for the sake of their own pride and self-image. There was no way that such shepherds could lead the sheep to any truly desirable pastures. Contrast this with Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve, not to exploit the sheep, but to save them. Rather than taking their lives to build himself up he laid down his own life for their sakes. To be fair, he had come to do something that only he could do. Only he possessed life in abundance. Only he was capable of sharing it with the flock. 

There are so many thieves in our world that desire to steal our joy and slaughter the life of grace in our souls. Only Jesus gives us life in abundance. But this is not merely a slogan, or a good title for a potential best seller in the genre of Christian literature. The life we are given is not merely a metaphysical reality that, while true, does not impact the experience of our daily existence. Rather, it is meant to transform us entirely. We should be noticeably different because of Jesus, just as Jesus himself was different from all others because of his Father.

For you had gone astray like sheep,
but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

As sheep we are prone to stray and to forgot, neglect, or minimize the blessings of the Lord. But sheep are not valued for their indefectability. It is rather docility that is the quality that is valuable. If we have strayed, well, we are sheep, not superheroes. The important thing to do at such times is to allow ourselves to be led back to our shepherd. He never ceases to call and chase after us, no matter how lost we become. He is not doing this job for his own sake and thus he does not hold a grudge against sheep for acting as sheep tend to act. Even if we've forgotten, he still holds the keys to our hearts. His words can once again do for us what they did for the crowd in Acts:

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
"What are we to do, my brothers?"

Most of us have already been baptized. But we may need to reconnect with that baptismal grace through repentence. If we do so there is nothing which cannot be forgiven, no sheep so lost that he cannot return to the fold. We may not have been open to the gift of the Spirit when we first received it. Even if we were, we may well have squandered his fruit. But it is not too late to open ourselves to him once more. What he was not free to do then because of our limited understanding or engagement he still has the power to do now. What may now be embers can be fanned into flames. This is good to remember as we move into the latter part of the Easter season and head toward Pentecost. It is precisely his gift of the Spirit that is the fullest expression of the abundant life he desires for all of his sheep.

Peter Furler - Psalm 23

 

25 April 2026 - mission dynamics

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.

We note the way Jesus expressed this command. More specifically, we note what he did not say. He did not say, "Go and use your cleverness and intellect to debate, argue, and persuade". He did not say, "Use your popularity and charm to sway those susceptible to emotional manipulation". He did not propose any of the normal human strategies that would be used to spread a merely human ideology. Of course his followers would also debate at times. The sermons of Peter and that of Stephen in the book of Acts both have intellectual and rhetorical aspects to them. And it is natural that the likability of many of the early disciples was also instrumental in helping them to establish relationships and spread the good news. But none of this was the primary plan as Jesus expressed it. Rather, he said something more along the lines of "Tell them how good it is and show them it works". It was not going to finally come down to how smart, charming, or persuasive they were since God would work with them and confirm the word as they proclaimed it.

These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.

When the Kingdom breaks through it is as though a whole new dimension of reality has opened. Things that previously seemed impossible become possible. Whether this takes the form of miracles and supernatural signs or the more subtle workings of grace in human hearts it is clearly of a different order from the normal workings of reality elsewhere. People begin to give when there is nothing in it for them, they love even their enemies, they forgive even those who have heart them the most deeply. Apparently intractable addictions are overcome. Longstanding negative patterns of thought, speech, and behavior are transformed. Sorrow that is the natural result of life in a fallen world begins to give way to the joy that results from being connected to a higher one. We do not say this to overly spiritualize the miracles. God definitely did and still does move in power when such revelations actually help to move the will of nonbelievers to faith. He does not do so for entertainment, especially not for the entertainment of Christians who already have faith. But we see in the story of Thomas that there are no lengths to which Jesus will not go to reveal his resurrection to those with otherwise unbridgeable doubts.

Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.

It wasn't as though he left and then left matters to the disciples. No, what he did was to claim the higher vantage point that was his right, his heavenly throne. From that point of view he would direct the Church on earth, and provide whatever support we might need to accomplish the mission entrusted to us.

We might wonder our own experience of trying to share the Gospel frequently seems so different from that described by Mark. We do not often feel as though we have much guidance. We are not often aware of heavenly help as we attempt, often awkwardly and inarticulately, to tell others about Jesus. But even in these instances we can be confident that God is at work, directing things from behind the scenes. He helps us to say things we would not have otherwise thought to say. And he opens the hearts of others to hear us. Yet it works still better if we have a practiced partnership with him. If we are used to listening to his word and conversing with him in prayer we will be more docile to his guidance when we really need it. He will give us the words we need when we need them. But we will be more open to those words if we are already used to listening to him and can more easily recognize his voice.

It is only when we are accustomed to the way God's providential hand directs both the universe and our lives, accustomed to it by repeated practice of cooperation with him, that we will trust him enough to do what Peter suggests in our first reading.

Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.

When we begin believe that he cares for us we also start to trust him enough to let him handle our worries. We are still sometimes tempted to try to reclaim them for ourselves and start worrying again. But each time we do, we can remember his love and give them back to him once more. We can know that he will do a better job with them and bring about results that surpass anything we could manage on our own. 

The favors of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.

 

Newsboys - The Mission

 

24 April 2026 - in the Flesh

Today's Readings
(Audio)

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?”

Bread and other forms of food were one thing. Food and drink were well known symbols, representing the reception of God's word and his wisdom (for instance in Sirach 15:1-3 and Proverbs 9:4-6). Jesus had deployed a similar metaphor when he said, "I have food to eat that you do not know about" and went on to clarify that "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (see John 4:32-34). The crowds therefore accepted the literal level of Jesus' meaning, which referred to the multiplied loaves. And they understood the context of the spiritual meaning about wisdom. Although the centrality of Jesus himself as bread in this context was still more than the wanted to accept. But when he shifted his metaphor to refer, suddenly, to Flesh, they were lost and disoriented as to what he meant. The purely physical was one thing. And the spiritual at least made sense. But the Sacramental and sacrificial dimension was beyond them. After all, it seemed to be at least superficially repulsive. It seemed inelegant compared to the pure abstraction of spiritual meaning. As far as they were concerned the incarnational element Jesus now raised placed too much emphasis on the carne, on the Flesh. They revealed their subconscious assumption that for them the world was divided into separate spheres of physical and spiritual that could not finally be bridged. The world of physicality seemed too messy God to truly dwell therein. Further, it seemed that consuming Flesh necessitated destruction, an inherently abhorrent concept. It required that the substance first be sacrificed before it could be shared. This was done with lambs and other animals precisely because it was too horrible and graphic to be done to men. We remember the angel that stayed the hand of Abraham when he was about to offer Isaac. All of this pointed to something necessary, but something as yet not accomplished. Isaac had not, in the end, been offered and "it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (see Hebrews 10:4). It was impossible to solve the problem from the physical side of things with mere representation. Even actual human life was insufficient to pay the unpayable debt owed by our race. But it seemed that the Spiritual side was too pure for it to somehow supply what was lacking. Until Jesus. Until he suggested that it was precisely him, precisely his Flesh that would do this.

Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.

The Flesh and Blood of Jesus poured out would accomplish something that neither man, nor disembodied divine wisdom could do separately. Taken in the metaphorical sense, the bread of wisdom did point the way to immortality. But it did so because the bread was eventually revealed to be Jesus himself, the wisdom of God incarnate. Thus receiving that bread was receiving his self-sacrifice on the cross. Those who were wise in the ways of God before Jesus came into the world were led by wisdom to look forward to his coming, and to hope in him, as did the prophets. But those of us who have come after are invited to come to Jesus himself, to taste and see the goodness of what he did for us.

Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

Through the Eucharist Jesus gives us access to a higher and divine form of life. The communion that he naturally shares with the Father and the Spirit becomes a gift to those who share in the banquet of the sacrifice of the lamb of God, which reestablishes our own communion with God that had been offline since Eden. His Flesh becomes the source of a new and higher form of life that does not neglect of negate the physical but which will ultimately raise it up and transfigure it in the Resurrection of the Body on the Last Day. It is this food that finally undoes the curse incurred at Eden, and all of the subsequent curses as well. It even reveals that curse to have been a happy fault, since without it we may never have received a gift so great.

Damascus Worship Featuring MarySarah Menkhaus - Body And Blood

 

23 April 2026 - drawn together

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.

On one level, people coming to Jesus was the result of curiosity leading to investigation. The crowds heard he was performing signs and came to see for themselves. But in order to understand the meaning of the signs needed the Father to draw them. In their fallen condition, with their intellects darkened by sin, an objective analysis of the data was only possible in theory, but not in fact. They needed the Father to lead them beyond the enclosed prison walls of their egos so as to become actually open to the truth, to become docile and teachable. Human pride would have preferred to solve such a momentous mystery without assistance. It pushed against the need for revelation. But the questions in view were too transcendent. They required revelation from those with firsthand expertise. Fortunately God had indicated through the prophet Isaiah that he himself would be our teacher.

Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.

The crowds might have thought that if they were going to be drawn by the Father and taught by God that there was not after all any great need for Jesus himself. But Jesus made it clear that it was not possible to do an end-run around him, to bypass him and go directly to the Father. No, the Father himself was only guiding insofar as he guided the hearts of the people to be open to Jesus. It was his delight that Jesus be the one to reveal him to the world.

We see the same logic in a different form later, with the request of Philip the Apostle (different from the deacon in our reading today from Acts) to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us". Jesus made it clear to Philip that he himself, by his very presence among them, was showing them the Father: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?" (see John 14:8-11).

The Father made Jesus the center of everything, such that it was belief in him that opened the door to eternal life. Believing in him had much greater power than the manna in the desert, since those who ate even that miraculous food ultimately perished. It did not free them from the curse incurred when our first parents chose to submit to the devil in the Garden of Eden. Such a thing could not be overcome by the manna of Moses. But Jesus did what no one else could when he gave his Flesh for the life of the world. He became bread that availed to eternal life when he offered himself as a saving sacrifice for the sins of the world. The truth of this did not stop at the level of the spiritual. At the Last Supper his Flesh was revealed as true food. It promised not merely immortality in some disembodied nonphysical state, but the resurrection of the body on the last day. It was, after all, the risen Flesh of Jesus that he gave to the world. When this risen Flesh was received by the faithful the seeds of their own future resurrection was planted and nourished.

Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage,
he proclaimed Jesus to him.

We said above that the Father delighted to make Jesus the center of his plans for the world, and the focal point of his plan to reveal himself to humanity. An upshot to this is demonstrated by Philip in our first reading. The fact of the matter is that everything is connected to Jesus in some way, and everything can be used as the beginning of a conversation about him. He is the source of creation, the reason that science causes us to experience wonder. He is the ground of truth, the reasonability and rationality that makes knowledge of any kind possible. He is the desire of our hearts, the same desire obliquely expressed by artists and storytellers of various kinds throughout the ages. It has been said that all truth, properly understand, is Christian truth. So too all beauty. So too all goodness. When we understand this we will have a compelling case to make. People will listen not because we are imposing on them, but because we are speaking to something deep within their hearts. Many will respond as rapidly and fully as the Ethiopian eunuch.

the eunuch said, "Look, there is water.
What is to prevent my being baptized?"

Vertical Worship Band - Open Up The Heavens

 

22 April 2026 - second chances

Today's Readings
(Audio)

They had said, "Sir, give us this bread always". But Jesus answered, "I am the bread of life". It was not something they could take and run, nor something that could be had apart from receiving Jesus himself. But although they were interested in what Jesus had to say they were unwilling to embrace a belief deep enough to receive his gift of himself. If he was a prophet, even a great prophet, what sense would it make to consider him bread to be received? Was it not rather the word of God and the wisdom of God that were true bread, and the role of the prophet more to lead people to the feast? They did not realize that Jesus was himself both the word and the wisdom of God, far more than the words contained on the scrolls of the Scriptures. Yet there was definitely a different in order of magnitude of what Jesus promised as a result of receiving him, compared with what was possible through an unassisted reading the Scriptures.

whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

The centrality Jesus claimed for himself in satisfying the desires of the human race was breathtaking. Truly, only God himself could be the one to legitimately make such a claim. The crowds were willing to accept that Jesus might be a prophet, powerful and word and deed. But they would not go so far as to believe in him as their God. They had seen signs attesting to that reality. But they refused to open their hearts to him completely and understand.

Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.

Jesus did not mention the Father's plan in order to indict the crowds as among those not chosen by God, who would therefore be incapable of salvation. Rather, he wanted the crowds to let the Father work in their hearts so that he himself could draw them to Jesus. This was, after a fashion, a plea for them to open their hearts so that he could accept them, because he desired to do so. They probably had a hard time coming to one who appeared to be as human as any one of them. Humans typically expressed favoritism for one person over another. Even the very generous were not entirely equitable when they distributed blessings to others. They will often accept those who were similar and reject those who are too different or who seem to be in competition with them somehow. But Jesus held no such vested self-interest. There were in him none of the human failings that made people so reluctant to trust any normal person so completely. That very fact itself was further evidence that he was not merely a man like any other.

And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.

Jesus was entirely committed to his Father's plan that all people be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. Where as normally people would take a failure to respond to the generous offer  personally, Jesus' ego was not bruised by the response he received from the crowds. It was as though he said that he would not give up on them even if they seemed to have rejected him. His message was like a plea, but it was also like a challenge. It was like a plea in the sense that he tried to clear the deck of their preconceptions and invite them to consider him with fresh eyes. It was like a challenge, inviting them to consider that they might have had deeper semiconscious reasons for rejecting him of which only the Father could heal them. They no doubt liked to imagine themselves as savvy rational actors. But the spiritual forces fighting for their destiny were bigger than any of them on their own.

and I will not reject anyone who comes to me

After Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden they were cast out. But Jesus, who was himself the new fruit of the new Tree of Life, would not reject or cast out anyone who came to him. People were all living in various states of having been cast out and rejected by God from the initial state of paradise and immortality in Eden. But in Jesus they could have a second chance to choose to eat from the correct tree. The result, as he said, would indeed be life.

For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.

Much of the crowd who heard the discourse about the bread of life initially rejected Jesus. But this did not mean the Gospel had failed. Rather, initial rejection often yielded unexpected opportunities in the future. This was what happened in Acts after a severe persecution of the Church, which was itself now the mystical body of the one who was himself the bread of life.

Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

We ourselves have a role in bringing the bread of life to the world. We who have experienced the peace that only Jesus can give are meant to help bring that peace to the world who still does not know it. And on this journey we will experience rejection, as both Jesus and his disciples did before us. But we must learn to have the commitment of Jesus to the plan of the Father, enough so to extract our personal predilections and vested interests from the process. We must learn to be unfazed by rejection, as Jesus was, and as he also trained his disciples to be. Rejection, is, after all, never final, as long as this life shall last.

With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.

There are many things that characterize our modern cities. But great joy is not often one that comes to mind. But it can be. It is meant to be. And it will be if we take Jesus at his word.

There was great joy in that city.

 

Kutless - All Who Are Thirsty

 

21 April 2026 - bread weak?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

Jesus had tried to tell them that they had not understood the signs that he had already done. Now they seemed to be provoking him by suggesting that he needed to do a still greater sign that they could not ignore. Rather than merely feeding the crowd with loaves and wish he should do something even more obviously supernatural, similar to the manna that God gave to Israelites in the desert through Moses. Never mind how that generation quickly tired of the manna and grumbled against God longing for meat. They tried to refer to a related but apparently more supernatural miracle involving food in order to force Jesus to escalate what he himself was doing, if he could. But they did not even understand the context of their reference. They wanted to see if he was one greater than Moses, as though Moses had been the source of the heavenly bread. Was Jesus therefore a prophet with a capacity to feed the people more effectively than Moses? Clearly he was at least that. But he was so much more that the comparison was not altogether helpful.

“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

Jesus was more than a prophet and his mission was more than temporarily satisfying the bodily appetites of the people of his generation. He wasn't competing with Moses to see who could ask the Father for more and greater favors. He himself was the great blessing the Father desired to give to the world, a blessing which was only foreshadowed in all that had gone before. What God had given the people through Moses availed for a while as they journeyed through the desert. But it did not satisfy their longings at the deepest levels. It satisfied their physical hunger. But by their grumbling they proved that merely to eat and be satisfied was not their goal. They longed for more. And that more, though they didn't realize it, was Jesus himself.

So they said to Jesus,
“Sir, give us this bread always.” 
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Jesus himself was the gift of the Father that could sate the deepest spiritual longings of those who received him. More than merely filling the stomach for a day he could so satisfy those who received him that they no longer felt the need to grumble for new and different stimulation. He himself was the sign greater than which no sign was necessary or indeed possible. 

It is true that one taste of Jesus does not fulfill us all at once and forever after. But with him it is not a cycle of emptiness and feeding that never ends. Rather, it is constant upward growth to ever deeper levels of rest in him. Or it can be. We can still forget the magnitude of the gift we have been given and grumble for something else, we know not what. But when we bring our careful attention to even a taste of this true bread from heaven we recognize that there is nothing else like it, nor could there be.

The fullness of Spirit we experience when we consume the bread from heaven is what makes it possible for us to forsake even the good things of this world for the sake of Jesus, since we know that, however good they may be, he is far better. Rather than looking all around us at what we have lost and are in the process of losing we, like Stephen, look to heaven, and are drawn inexorable hence, as though by a powerful magnetic pull.

But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,
looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
and Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

This experience is not something that the world will or can understand on the surface. But at our core it is that for which everyone yearns. Remembering this helps us to be kind even in the face of overwhelming hostility. Again, Stephen is an excellent example.

Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice,
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”;
and when he said this, he fell asleep.

Vineyard Worship Featuring Kathryn Scott - Hungry (Falling On My Knees)

 

20 April 2026 - i saw the sign

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

They had seen the signs enough to recognize that extraordinary and possibly supernatural things were happening around the person of Jesus. But although this motivated them to pursue Jesus it did not sufficiently motivate them to pursue truth. The signs were meant to point to a greater reality. But the crowds were content to have signs endlessly multiplied to supply their wants, or at least to supply some interesting entertainment. And there is sometimes a similar challenge for modern disciples of Jesus. We too often content ourselves with stopping at the surface, or of only having interest in what we can get from God in order to fill the contours of a life we have otherwise planned without reference to him. We may treat Scriptures as mere historical curiosities with occasionally interesting anecdotes rather than a power before which our very souls and open and accountable. We may treat the Eucharistic gathering more like a social club, the songs of praise as designed to boost our mood rather than lift God up in exultation. We are all too able to receive miraculous blessings like healings and then get right back to business as usual, forgetting the giver of all good gifts until the next time we are in need.

Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.

A good way to interrupt our tendency to focus narrowly within the horizon of temporary existence is to ask ourselves whether what we are seeking can truly last. We may sometimes be overly invested in things that come with an eventual expiration date. It is true that most things in this mortal life will come to an end. And that does not mean that we are not permitted to find some enjoyment in suchlike. We are. But we are meant to invest our energy in this world with reference to heaven. We are meant to recognize that whatever good we find here exists in full and lasting measure only in God himself. When we know this we can receive the good things of earth with thanksgiving as they come to us. We can let them go without too much disappointment when they are taken. Like Job we learn to say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (see Job 1:21). Then even the goodness of temporary things becomes signs that actually point us ever closer to God, rather than becoming a distraction and a hindrance.

How does the food that endures for eternal life differ from mere earthly loaves? It is something that can be built up indefinitely, without the normal fear of loss due to corruption, disintegration, and entropy that marks all created things. It is something with which ever increasing growth is possible, as with our ability to give and receive love. And as we receive bread of this kind we become more rooted in that which is eternal and transcendent. It is like the heavenly treasure that is impervious to rust and inaccessible to thieves. And by desiring such treasure and seeking it our hearts come even now to abide in heaven, where alone such treasure is found.

"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."

The crowd assumed that to seek such treasure they must expend effort in many different directions, in an effort to complete all of the good works of God that might be expecting of them. But what they were could  do and what there own efforts could accomplish was not the correct place to begin. It is true that alone and unaided one could never do enough. But joined to Christ in faith we in some sense receive the same "seal" of approval as the Son himself, and actually "become the righteousness of God" (see Second Corinthians 5:21). It is on the basis of what Jesus does within us by faith that we hope to accomplish all the myriad of good works to which we are called. It is his power at work in us that makes them possible. As members of his body we need not be overwhelmed by the multitude of options, since we are a small part of a larger whole, connected through the nervous system of the Church to the guidance of the head, Jesus himself. How else could there ever have been a single martyr? If they felt like they had to do everything themselves they could never let themselves be killed with work still remaining. But as we see in our first reading, Stephen was able to do his part and entrust the rest to God, his face all the while "like the face of an angel", his heart at peace.

John Michael Talbot - I Am The Bread Of Life

 

19 April 2026 - in the breaking of bread

Today's Readings
(Audio)

And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

Sometimes Jesus is near us, guiding us, and transforming us, before we realize that is is him. His action in meeting with Cleopas and his companion was subtle at first. He guided their conversation, making rehearse again the very difficult things that had taken place in recent days. But he didn't bring up the things that had occurred in order to re-traumatize these disciples. We can sense a playfulness in the tone with which he spoke, hinting that he himself was the only one who truly understand everything that had happened. Sometimes Jesus brings awareness to our past not in order to set in the stone as the foundation of our future but to re-contextualize it. Others might try to tell us what happened, as with the women who astounded them with talk of angels and the resurrection. But it is altogether possible that such talk is sometimes too distant from our own experience for us to be able to connect with it. Hence we sometimes need Jesus guiding us through our own experiences until we reach a point when we are open to revelation. It may not be obvious that it is him acting. But eventually we will reach the end of what we are able to say about things. We will say what we ourselves witnessed, what the women said, and what the disciples found. We will express that these results are not enough for us to maintain the hope we once had. But when we reach the limits of our perspective and come to the end of ourselves we sometimes able to open ourselves to a higher perspective. We may come to see that there is no way our point of view could be the whole story.

And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?"

In most normal circumstances when a stranger says such apparently unkind things to us we are likely to push back and argue. We might launch into an explanation for why what we saw looks nothing like any sort of prophetic fulfillment we can imagine. We might even try to tell the stranger how the darkness of Good Friday could not possibly be part of any plan. But when Jesus is the one with whom we are walking, and the one who chastises us for our foolishness, we can realize that yes, he is right, we have been foolish, and that the seeds of hope were there all along. We remember that Jesus didn't start by making this point, but first guided them to a place in their own hearts where they could receive it. It was something that he all but had to do incognito. Too much of his presence too soon might have only confused things and prevented their continued openness to his guidance. Giving them an objective explanation up front would not likely have been something they could connect with their own experience. 

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.

The second part of the plan of Jesus for these disciples was what must have been the greatest Scripture study of all times. We might have thought that his revelation of himself would come first and that he would then use Scripture to explain the details of the story. But Scripture was foundational for how he desired to reveal himself. It wasn't that they hadn't known Jesus in some sense before. But they hadn't yet truly known him as Lord. To know him in this way was only possible with some understanding of his context, from which they could know that he was the fulfillment of God's plan for humanity, and begin to make sense of the necessity of the Paschal mystery, both of his dying and his rising.

As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, "Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."

We might have thought that the Scriptural exegesis of Jesus would have been sufficient to accomplish his revealing himself to Cleopas and the other disciple. Certainly it contained all of the salient context. It demonstrated how the all of the word of God pointed directly to the Word of God who was himself opening the Scriptures to them. And yet, even with that, they weren't all the way there. They did not yet recognize him. But they knew that they wanted more, and so they asked him to stay.

And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.

Jesus leads us to the mass and opens the Scriptures to us. But it is in the Eucharist that we have the fullest revelation of who he is. He is genuinely present in the Scriptures through his Spirit, which is why we say that they are living and active. But in the Eucharist we taste and see the reality of the presence of Jesus himself. Everything else is meant to prepare us to be open to this revelation, to this gift of himself, that he becomes for us, in order that we may receive him. After that, it is no longer just knowledge. We ourselves have tasted the very Body and Blood of the risen Lord. Suddenly and unexpectedly the clouds hanging over us clear and we discover a new and profound sense of purpose. Where we were before heading in the wrong direction we now about face toward Jerusalem. Our one desire becomes conveying the transformative reality of the resurrection which we ourselves now know firsthand.

Shane and Shane - Psalm 34 (Taste And See)

 

18 April 2026 - small craft advisory

Today's Readings
(Audio)

We know from the other Gospels that it was at the word of Jesus that the disciples set out to cross the sea toward Capernaum. This must have made the storm that encountered all the more discouraging. Would they have blamed Jesus for failing to foresee it? Or, if they didn't expect that he could foresee it, would they have been discouraged that even the commands of Jesus could be compromised by unforeseen circumstances in the same way as any other plans? Either way, the danger they faced was obvious. And Jesus did not seem like a likely candidate to help, since it was because of him that they were out there. 

The disciples were like those men in Psalm 107 who "went down to the sea in ships" (see Psalm 107:23-30) and experienced "the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea", the raw, unconquerable power of God expressed in nature. The disciples themselves no doubt "reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end". But Jesus himself came to them, walking on the waves, as only the Lord himself could do. So the disciples responded as like the men in the psalm:

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress. 
He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.

At first they were terrified because that was the normal human response to the revelation of divinity. It was another form of what Peter experienced when he said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (see Luke 5:8). The power and unpredictability of divinity was greater than any storm. Indeed, the existence of a storm was only possible because God allowed it. Thus the disciples were uncertain that they were any safer in the immediate presence of the Lord than they were in the storm. That is, they were uncertain until he spoke, saying "It is I. Do not be afraid". His greeting cast out the fear from their hearts, and his presence stilled the wind and the waves around them. He was not, finally a God of confusion or of chaos but of peace (see First Corinthians 14:33). Yet he was not a force that could be tamed. They wanted to take him into the boat with them, to themselves manipulate the forces of divinity for their own purposes. No doubt they thought they wouldn't have to worry about the weather if he was with them. But this proved both impossible and unnecessary. Somehow it was as though the space between them and their destination was shortened such that "the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading". This was just as the psalm described:

Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.

When it comes to the signs of Jesus we tend to prefer those like the multiplication of the loaves which satisfy our human needs and desires. But signs like the calming of the storm at the sea do more to reveal the identity of Jesus to us than could any miracle involving satiating our appetites. We would prefer it if we could come to fully realize the reality of the divinity of Jesus without having to experience it from within storms of trials and difficult circumstances. We like to imagine that we would believe it if he simply used his power to keep us always and everywhere safe from such distress. But the fact of the matter is that he permitted and indeed caused his disciples to experience that storm for the precise purpose of revealing that he was a power greater than the wind and the waves, greater even than the chaos of the tohu wa-bohu of the creation narrative in Genesis. It was only from that perspective that they could truly understand that they were in fact dealing with one who was above all of the forces of the creation, that those forces themselves obeyed him.

From our own trials we are meant to learn both that God is beyond are control but also that he is good and on our side. He does not often lead us by the paths we would probably choose for ourselves. But he does always, if allow him, lead us to the haven we desire.

See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.

Vineyard Worship - I Stand In Awe