18/03/2026

When we concentrate on Scripture we are opening our hearts and minds to the presence of God that is constantly with us.

 "Jesus answered the Jews,

‘My Father is working even now, and I am working.’"

John was coming to the end of his long life when he prepared his recollections of  "Life with Christ". After the Resurrection his recollections had become consolidated by his experiences and understanding into what has become "Theology" and he knew that Jesus was undoubtedly WORD, that was the BEGINNING and the END and ONE with IAMIAM of the scriptures with which he was familiar since childhood. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not parts  but each and together ONE IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, one God.

John has not left us with any memoir about his post-resurrection life with Mary. There had been doctrinal differences of opinion even in the Apostolic Age but the Church founded on Peter, as such was not concerning itself with "the things of this world" and was still the loose association of friends united in the belief that Jesus had not completed his mission and would soon return, that it had been in the Upper Room and Portico of Solomon.

As I opened myself to the first two readings this morning I was filled with a sense of the grace that God has bestowed on his creation and particularly on the Jews. At the same time, I was aware of the horrors of Auschwitz and Gaza and of the historical failures of Christendom. All human beings have attempted to control themselves within political structures that are all man-made and we are still failing even as I type this

Even after the sublimity of the Incarnation, our World is still not the Holy Place that we have to strive to make it to be. I cannot forget that Jesus did tell us that he would be with us until the end of time and that I have personally been blessed by the Mercy of God. 

Throughout the centuries that have passed since the Resurrection there have been many of us who have truly abandoned the things of this world in their efforts to live life as did Jesus and the Apostolic Church. They have been supported in this world by Sacraments and Church Structures, but the one sure source of holiness in this world is the spiritual commitment we make in our hearts to cancel our self-will and do only the will of "Our Father who art in Heaven". Our individual sins all contribute to the Evil which dominates our World today and for the defeat of which Our Lord allowed himself to become the Final Sacrifice by the merits of which we can all become "Children of God".

Jesus John and Mary are the Spiritual New Holy Family in which we can find safety from the  temptation that entanglement with the things of this world brings to us all but only when we match our deeds to the words with which we pray

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, 

Now and at the hour off our death. Amen