Word in the Hand

Gospel Luke 2:15-20 House shrine Assisi When the angels had gone from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told. It may be a surprise to learn that the word ‘hospitality’ doesn’t mean what we think it means –like many words it has lost something in translation and in tradition.   These days we imagine that it means having friends and loved ones around the table. To be generous to those we love; to celebrate togetherness. As hope...

Gospel John 10:27-30  Jesus said: ‘The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from me. The Father who gave them to me is greater than anyone, and no one can steal from the Father. The Father and I are one.’ The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is the first image that Christians proclaimed. Around the 3rd Century there are many artist’s impression of Jesus as a young man with a sheep held safely on his shoulders. From our earliest years the pastoral style of the Children’s Bible illustration has given us this lovely, warm image; an image of comfort and protection; the gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Except that now we know, that the shepherd is not who we used to think he was. Shepherds in the time of Jesus were hard, itinerant men with little regards for polite society. The hills were wild places, living in them meant you had to...

First reading Amos 7:12-15  Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, said to Amos, ‘Go away, seer;’ get back to the land of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there. We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple.’ ‘I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prophets,’ Amos replied to Amaziah ‘I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took me from herding the flock, and the Lord who said, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.” “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” ― John Muir I don't often reflect on the Old Testament part of the Sunday readings but I have a soft spot for Amos ever since I first noticed this reading and spent the rest of the Mass imagining him as a shepherd in a Tolkien-esque landscape where trees were like Ents and needed to be shepherded to stop them going over cliffs and getting lost in the wastela...

Gospel John 10:1-10  Jesus said: ‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’   Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.   So Jesus spoke to them again: ‘I tell you most solemnly, I am the gate of the sheepfold. All others who have come are thieves and brigands; but the sheep took no notice of them. I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pas...