Scripture Reflections for Fifth Sunday of Easter

“The church growing but with growth comes conflict. But look at how beautifully that conflict was resolved. By a very interesting, healthy play between the authority of the Twelve and the involvement of the community.”

“What if you woke up in the morning and said 'my task today above all is to bring God to people?' Not primarily to be personally successful, not primarily to be chipper and happy, not primarily to do this or that, my job today and everyday is to bring God to people.”

“Jesus is our promised land. In him we find our true home, our dwelling now and in the eternal life to come. And the home Jesus invites us to move into is a home that is characterized by his perfect peace.”

“Jesus never tried to escape his humanity so when he says 'I am the way' he means that we are to live as he has lived. He has done, he has walked the walk and talked the talk, and he wants us to follow behind him.”

“The whole point of his divinity is that we can now revel in the fact that he wants what's best for us. Here's the bottom line, the more we affirm the divinity of Jesus the more loving and inclusive and accepting we become of others.”

“Do we have enemies? Sure we do. But what divides us is always less foundational than what unites us. What if you were to live out of that consciousness consistently?”

“Heaven is difficult to talk about for obvious reasons. We have no immediate frame of reference. Whatever we say about heaven is always symbolic, anthological, poetic sort of talk but at the same time heaven is everything. It's what it's all about.”

“See, we're members of his mystical body. Shift the metaphor a little bit, we're the living stones that make up the temple that he is.”

“So everybody on this 5th Sunday of Easter meditate on that temple in Jerusalem, which has morphed if you want into the temple of the Church, which in turn anticipates this great heavenly temple”

“A priest is a mediator between God and human beings. Someone who offers a sacrifice and praise to God and thereby links divinity and humanity. A priest is a kind of pontifex. That means bridge builder.”