The apostles' experience of seeing the Crucified and Risen Christ is meant to be a fundamental experience for every Christian. Without this, the spiritual life remains a theory. It is in this experience of receiving Christ's overflowing Mercy that our hearts can be changed. We know that our Father is not distant, not angry, not uncaring, but close. In touching Christ we receive a Peace that goes beyond understanding and are sent out to be this Mercy in the world.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://castingfire.wordpress.com/2023/04/15/low-sunday-marked-by-mercy/

The Cross is the strangest and most paradoxical event of God's revelation in our life. In the most unexpected way, God reveals to us his justice - in his forgiveness of our sins and a love which will never be exhausted. And this Love makes itself present today in our lives for those who will welcome it. In it we also find the Resurrection.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://castingfire.wordpress.com/2023/04/07/good-friday-why-the-cross/

It is not without reason that some Biblical scholars have called the gospels simply Passion accounts with a long introduction. Here we see God's face unveiled for us. We can carry a lot of our fears, a lot of images which we project onto God. But here we find a Mercy which is ever-new, ever-flowing, and able to love us in our wretchedness. 

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://castingfire.wordpress.com/2023/04/01/palm-sunday-the-face-of-god/

The raising of Lazarus completes the series of gospels starting with the Samaritan woman which show the increasing deadliness of sin and the equal victory of Christ over it. Like Lazarus there can be things dead and decomposing in our lives. Events we would rather not visit, places we would rather not go, stones we would rather not move. But if we believe, we will see God's glory, we will know the power of Christ's Resurrection.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://castingfire.wordpress.com/2023/03/26/5th-sunday-raising-the-dead-things-in-our-lives/

The gospels take us on a journey of ever-increasing baptismal grace over these weeks. We heard of the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan Woman; in the process she comes alive in faith. Next week, we will hear the raising of Lazarus, an image of the Resurrection, the final fruit of baptism. God is the actor in these things: I cannot give myself faith, neither can I raise myself from the dead. Today we hear of the in-between, where I am called to walk by the light of faith given in baptism. By faith, I can walk with ever-greater assurance and joy, through the perplexing events of my life without stumbling and falling over and joyfully come to the glorious Resurrection.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://castingfire.wordpress.com/2023/03/19/4th-sunday-the-light-of-faith/

We have the very powerful encounter of the Samaritan Woman with Jesus. She stands for those of us who find ourselves stuck in our life, where nothing we do ever seems to make a change. But not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father's knowledge. And the Holy Spirit has an appointment for her with her divine bridegroom which changes everything. The Spirit invites us into this same encounter each week in the Eucharist.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://castingfire.wordpress.com/2023/03/12/3rd-sunday-watering-the-arid-heart/

Every Christian knows of times when it all seems dark and God seems absent. Ironically, the event of the Transfiguration dazzles the disciples in just one such moment. Both Abraham and the disciples remain paradigms of our own journey where often enough, has more darkness than light.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://castingfire.wordpress.com/2023/03/04/2nd-sunday-the-darkness-of-faith/

We begin our Lenten season as always with the testing of Jesus by the devil. It is the battle in which Adam failed, and in him, all his children. The devil continues to wage war against us and oppress us even today. But Jesus, the second Adam has defeated the enemy. Through his Church, Jesus continues to set us free from the attacks of the Evil One and gives us the life in fullness he promised his disciples.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://castingfire.wordpress.com/2023/02/25/1st-sunday-the-works-of-the-enemy/

We get a sermon in itself in the gospel: Jesus gives a new Law and in doing so raises all kinds of paradoxes. If Israel was unable to keep the Old Law, as Paul argues, what chance do we have in keeping the new one, so much harder than the old? If not committing murder was the bar then, is it now possible to not be angry? The answer lies in Christ's own fulfilment of the Law, the work of the Spirit bringing it about in us - and a forgotten treasure of the Church: virtue.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://castingfire.wordpress.com/2023/02/12/6th-sunday-the-virtue-of-law-and-the-law-of-virtue/