If we said this is “Red Easter”, we’d get a good sense of how the Church regards Pentecost. The ancient liturgy for this feast was patterned on that of Easter itself. The feast of the Holy Spirit had its own solemn vigil of readings, an exsultet, sequence, and baptismal liturgy. Although there was no fire out the front, the Pentecost Vigil had the relighting of the Paschal Candle, after it had been extinguished on Ascension day. In every reasonable way, Pentecost was obser

That’s the last anyone sees of Jesus until the end of time. The New Testament tells us that interactions between Christ and his Church are spiritual from this point: that is to say, real but not face-to-face. For example, the next time the Lord appears will be on the road to Damascus. He says to Paul: “I am Jesus and you are persecuting me.” And though Paul knows Christ from then on, all he sees of him is light. There is no human form to lay our eyes on yet. Certainly,

Living with Jesus those years so changed the disciples, that any thought of his departure gave them the feeling of being orphaned. The Lord acknowledges this when he says: “I shall not leave you orphans. I shall come back to you.” With such strong feelings in the disciples on Holy Thursday night, it can sound to us like the Twelve became dependent on Jesus. The disciples were grown men when Jesus called them. Some of them had families; a number were modestly successful. O

The Lord tells us not to let our hearts be troubled because it's in our power to do so. He only ever commands what is possible; Jesus doesn't ask the impossible of us. So, because life's troubles are inevitable and because Jesus trusts us to deal with them, we're going to find a way forward with him. It's in our power to keep our hearts untroubled; it's in our power to untrouble our hearts. The kind of trouble the Lord sees in the disciples' hearts is of the highest order.

We need a God who doesn’t need us. Our needs are big and simple: from God we need life and we need our mortality to be dealt with. If we have a God who needs us, he will be too weak to satisfy those needs. How could we follow someone who is looking to us for his needs, we who live just until our mortality gets the better of us. No, we need a God who doesn’t need us. The Lord warns us that whatever, whoever is not himself will steal, kill, and destroy us. That doesn’t hav

The two disciples were downcast because they couldn’t see that Good Friday was necessary. They witnessed the terrible events of that dark day and saw only hopes dashed, that is, human ambition for the chosen people thwarted. The Lord showed himself in every way to be God’s anointed for Israel, that is, until he gave up the spirit after his body was pierced through. But the sacrifice of Jesus on Good Friday wasn’t a random event. Nor was it unforeseen. The Lord’s death is

Saint Thomas has spent the past week in the misery of Good Friday. You will remember what that is like. It may have been Good Friday for you when a relative or friend died. Certainly, last week we were there all together. We were quiet, but in that stunned sort of way. And it was gloomy too, not just because of the weather, but because of the general mood of the day. We all went into it, into the quiet and the gloom of Good Friday, not because it's the way we want to li

Alleluia, the Lord is risen! He is truly risen, alleluia! May he who loved us to the end and served us by his death now bring you to the fullness of life by love and service of God and neighbour, alleluia! The bright glory of this day is undimmed by anything whatsoever. This is the Lord’s day. And so, with love and concern, our minds will still be on the world’s sad events. We’re aware that there are hot spots around the world at the best of times. But it does seem that

An ambitious apostle took matters into his own hands, and chief priests bought the Saviour’s silence. Other apostles slept off the Passover wine, or fled at the prospect of guilt by association, or both. The arrest was made on no charge whatever, and trials were conducted by a corrupted council and a foreign despot, followed by cheers of a riotous crowd at the capital sentence pronounced on the innocent. There seems to have been no end to the wrongs done to the Lord. In th