What a profound experience for the first disciples gathered together during Pentecost. I love how St. Luke describes how "suddenly" the Holy Spirit came in Acts 2:2 — without warning. First, their lives were suddenly changed by Jesus, and now they were suddenly changed by the Holy Spirit.

On the evening of the Last Supper, Jesus fully embraced His role as high priest, which is to offer intercession and sacrifice. The Gospel today is His final priestly intercession before being arrested, convicted, and crucified, so these are particularly powerful words. He begins by praying not just for the disciples present but all who will come to believe through them...i.e. YOU.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus speaks words of deep reassurance to His disciples—and to us: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

These words, spoken on the eve of His Passion, carry profound weight. Jesus knew what awaited Him: betrayal, suffering, torture and death. In this context, he wants to give us a vital lesson: it is possible to be at peace in the middle of difficulties!

Today’s Gospel shares with us a beautiful message: to love one another as Jesus loves us. Jesus loves in so many ways, particularly through His compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and mercy (Col. 3:12). Jesus doesn’t just command us to love, He shows us how to love! Think of how often we fail to love others, whether it be by putting ourselves first, struggling to forgive, or lacking patience. Loving at all times is not an easy task, but you can ask Jesus to help you love better!

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us insights on not only His relationship to us but also His relationship with God, the Father. Both are incredibly intimate relationships. Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me.” How beautiful to reflect on how Jesus knows us! The more time that we spend with God in prayer, in particular with Scripture, the better we will become attune to His voice. Even amidst all the other voices of this world, even if His voice is just a whisper, we will know His voice if we spend time with Him.

When Peter reaches Jesus on the shore, he encounters a familiar sight: a charcoal fire, just like the one by which he denied Jesus three times after the Last Supper. But as Peter approaches this charcoal fire, he is not greeted by taunts or accusations; instead, he is met only with Jesus’ peaceful invitation: “Come have breakfast.”

Looking at Thomas, we see clearly that he lacks faith in the Resurrection of Jesus. However, notice how Jesus comes first to meet Thomas in his unbelief. “Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.’”

With great humility and an almost desperate jubilation, we approach the great mystery of the Resurrection. A very happy Easter to everyone — the sacred day without which true “happiness” would be only a passing shadow or a wishful dream. As Saint Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised... if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.”

He was journeying towards the Holy City, to celebrate the common feast of Passover, knowing that in the mysterious gifts of Bread and Wine he would give himself forever to his own. As He rides on the donkey He thinks about your freedom, the gate that will be open for you and me. Our friend Jesus is calling us to the heights of God himself; to those heights He wanted to lift every human being.

This week's Gospel presents a dramatic confrontation: a woman brought before Jesus, accused of adultery. The scribes and Pharisees, seeking to trap Jesus, force Him into a judgment. But "Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger" (John 8:6). Why this pause?

Recently a friend described to me the experiences of a blind person. Everything in their life is three-dimensional, and understood through spatial awareness. Even in modern cases where sight is restored through surgery, achieving full vision and mobility can take many years. When Jesus heals the blind man it is a healing of the whole person. We see how the opening of the eyes of the body has also led to the opening of the eyes of the soul. The plot unfolds quickly, leading the healed blind man to finally discern Jesus’ true identity and profess faith in him.

In this week’s Gospel, Jesus boldly and intentionally pursues a woman on the fringes of society. The Samaritan Woman is someone well aware of her sin, her social status, and her past. She knows her own story, and as she makes her solitary way to draw water in the heat of the day, she does not seem interested in any new chapters or new encounters. But Jesus is unperturbed: he wishes to know her, and to show her the new life that is possible for her.

Sometimes we are on the mountaintop with Jesus in the glow of his divinity, and sometimes we are deep in the valleys of fear, doubt, or distrust. But the amazing thing is that Jesus is with us in those valleys, too. He never abandons us, and even when our faith falters, he is always unwaveringly faithful to us. Jesus knows that Peter isn’t perfect, yet he still confirms him as the first pope. God knows that Abram didn’t always trust his promise, but he still keeps that promise and confirms Abraham as a great father in faith.

As we begin our Lenten journey, the Gospel of Luke presents Jesus’ time in the desert, where He fasted for forty days and faced temptations. The first temptation, where the devil urges Him to turn stones into bread, is deeply connected to the experience of Israel in the wilderness during the Exodus. Both Jesus and the Israelites underwent a period of testing, but while Israel struggled in trust, Jesus remained faithful.

In this week’s Gospel, Luke continues his Sermon on the Plain (which parallels the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s). It is a challenging passage that prescribes a defining Christian characteristic: a universal call to mercy and forgiveness.

In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus coming down to a level place to speak to his disciples and the crowd. This small detail is powerful. Though Jesus is God, He meets people where they are. God is not distant or unreachable, but present and relatable. This is what makes the God the Son component of the Holy Trinity so powerful.

This Sunday’s Mass readings illustrate a pattern that emerges throughout Sacred Scripture in the encounter with God: a sinful man finds himself before God and, glimpsing the magnitude of his glory - the vastness of his power, his goodness and his splendour –recognizes the fundamental truth of the abyss that lies between him and his Creator. In the face of God we are confronted by the reality of our sinfulness and unworthiness before Him.

In today’s gospel, Mary and Joseph bring their newborn baby Jesus to be presented in the temple according to Jewish custom. At this time, the people of Israel were awaiting the coming of the promised Messiah, the One of whom the Old Testament prophets spoke, as we hear in the first reading from Malachi today: “And suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. This is a bold claim from Jesus, who just read from the scrolls of the prophet Isaiah. We know this scripture from the Old Testament book of Isaiah “The Year of the Lord’s Favor” (Isaiah 61). The people of Jesus’ time would have known this scripture referred to the Jews’ liberation from Babylonian captivity. Imagine the absolute shock the people in the synagogue must have experienced from this proclaimed statement- Jesus is their freedom and salvation. In a reflection on this Gospel, Venerable Fulton Sheen shares how Jesus took the language surrounding this exile of His people and put it around Himself: “The ‘poor’ being those who had no grace and lacked union with God; the ‘blind’ were those who had not yet seen the Light, and the ‘captives’ being those who had not yet purchased true freedom”.