Year C
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
See our music recommendations for the liturgy.
Over the years I have had conversations with people who are angry. They are angry at some injustice, some slight, something that they suffered at the hands of somebody else years ago. They relive it as if it happened yesterday. Day after day their peace of mind is being stolen from them. The people they allow to steal their peace have possibly forgotten that they even exist. On those occasions I often hear Jesus on the cross, praying for his tormentors:
Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.
Jesus, in his passion and death, shows for real the patience, and love and the peace that he has preached throughout his life. He shows that it is humanly possible to maintain one’s inner peace, whatever is happening to us and around us. Jesus, as he always does, shows God to man - and he shows man to God. Ordinary mortals such as you and me can do the same.
Let me quote a gentleman whom some of you may remember: Gordon Wilson. Nearly forty years ago the Provisional IRA planted a bomb at the Enniskillen Remembrance Day Parade. It exploded, injuring Mr Wilson and fatally injuring his daughter, Marie, a nurse. The BBC interviewed Wilson just a few hours later. He said this:
She held my hand tightly, and gripped me as hard as she could. She said, 'Daddy, I love you very much.' Those were her exact words to me, and those were the last words I ever heard her say. But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie. She loved her profession. She was a pet. She's dead. She's in heaven and we shall meet again. I will pray for these men tonight and every night.
This is an exact reverberation of what Jesus promised to his disciples.
Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you,
a peace the world cannot give,
this is my gift to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
You heard me say: I am going away, and shall return.
If you loved me you would have been glad to know that I am going to the Father,
for the Father is greater than I.
I have told you this now before it happens,
so that when it does happen you may believe.
What would our lives be like if we followed Gordon Wilson’s example and took what Jesus said seriously? Could we try it? At least this coming week?
As is so often the case it is difficult to see any connection between the readings appointed for today.
One possible link might be to make this a day when Synodality is emphasised, something which seems to be largely ignored in spite of Francis’ efforts to make the Church a synodal church.
In the Gospel reading leading up to Pentecost Jesus promises his disciples the Spirit and after the assurance of the indwelling of the Spirit in those who keep his words he tells them that the Spirit ‘will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you’.
Jesus is going to the Father but leaves his followers to continue his mission which is to proclaim the Good News to the world.
This is done primarily by the presence of communities of his disciples who by their life and example rather than by their words proclaim what the Kingdom is all about.
In the first reading the Apostles face the problem of non-Jews joining the Christian movement and they do this by having ‘a long argument’ or perhaps better ‘a long discussion’ and finally after due consideration they come up with a solution. Here again it is the synodal process of searching together and listening to one another under the guidance of the Spirit who Jesus has promised will remind them of all that he had said that enables the Church to come to a decision.
Might this be a day to suggest, if they do not already exist, groups of the people to search together for a way forward in how they might better be the Church in their own particular neighbourhood? Reflection on these readings alone would provide and starting point for the process.
Note: These hymns have been chosen from different sources.
Glorious things of thee are spoken (CFE195, L827, TCH218
Jerusalem the golden (CFE317, L991, LHON387, TCH226)
Ye choirs of new Jerusalem (CFE818, L279, LHON746, TCH85)
Christ be beside me (CFE106, L910, LHON194)
Make me a channel of your peace (CFE478, L898, LHON470)
Key
CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone
L – Laudate
LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)
TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
