Word in the Hand

Another superhero event hit our cinema screens this weekend as the X-Men (and women) fight to save the annihilation of the human race by re-writing history.  Not wishing to be a 'spoiler' - you can read after you have seen - the basic premise is that the fear of the unknown and still largely unseen 'mutants' has inspired the development of hunter robots. Not only can they 'scent' the mutant gene in humans but, thanks to a captured mutant, they have the ability to mutate themselves to overpower anything they come up against. As they become better at what they do, they begin to anticipate the genetic possiblities in pretty well anyone they meet. So, yet again,  humankind are under threat from the very devices that were meant to protect them. How tempting to reflect on how self-destructive we seem to be. Not only passing control of our bodies and minds to hi-technology and doomsday peddlars but insisting on the sense that the enemy is always the 'other...

Gospel of John 14:15-21  Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If you love me you will keep my commandments. I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever, that Spirit of truth whom the world can never receive since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come back to you. In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him.’ John's Jesus speaks in a labyrinth of words. Whether they are meant to reassure or compel, it hard to tell. It is clear that Jesus is trying to get his message across that where he is going - there is Love. A love that flows freely ...

Sunday - First reading Acts 6:1-7  About this time, when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenists made a complaint against the Hebrews: in the daily distribution their own widows were being overlooked. So the Twelve called a full meeting of the disciples and addressed them, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the word of God so as to give out food; you, brothers, must select from among yourselves seven men of good reputation, filled with the Spirit and with wisdom; we will hand over this duty to them, and continue to devote ourselves to prayer and to the service of the word.’ The whole assembly approved of this proposal and elected Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.   The word of the Lord continued to spread: the number of disciples in Jerusal...

Gospel John 14:1-12 J esus said to his disciples: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too. You know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you know me, you know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him.’ Philip said, ‘Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.’ ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip,’ said Jesus to him ‘and you still do not know me? ‘To have seen me is to have seen the Father, so how can you say, “Let us see the Father”? ...

Gospel Luke 24:13-35  Two of the disciples of Jesus were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking together about all that had happened. Now as they talked this over, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side; but something prevented them from recognising him. He said to them, ‘What matters are you discussing as you walk along?’ They stopped short, their faces downcast.   Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, ‘You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.’ ‘What things?’ he asked. ‘All about Jesus of Nazareth’ they answered ‘who proved he was a great prophet by the things he said and did in the sight of God and of the whole people; and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified. Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is ...