Mary M. McGlone

”Get over yourself!” Nobody has probably said that more radically than Jesus in today’s Gospel. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me ... whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

What is a prophet? A prophet is someone called by God to read the signs of the times in the light of the Gospel. 

The author of this Sunday’s selection from Deuteronomy (we’ll assume he was a man, because women didn’t have the leisure time to learn to read and write) was writing history in the form of a homily he attributed to Moses. 

 ”God so oved the world that he gave his only son.” Who is this God? One of the images of God that has most captured the Christian imagination comes from Michelangelo’s depiction of the creation of Adam. 

A little noticed detail in the Pentecost accounts is that the Spirit descends on community groups, not individuals.

One of the unique features of today’s Gospel is that Jesus speaks for the first time of the disciples’ love for him. Previously he’s told his disciples that he is the way, the bread of life, the light of the world — all descriptions of himself that speak of what he wants to offer them. 

Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus asking his disciples to have faith in him. It ends with his astounding statement that those who do so will accomplish even greater works than he did himself. That combination should be understood as a foundational principle of the Christian community. 

When a tradesman of Jesus’ times passed his craft on to his child, the process began early and continued until the son was ready to take over the father’s tools. By then he had so mastered the art of imitating his father’s gestures, angles, and grip that the worn grooves of the tools fit his hand like a glove. 

John’s Gospel gives us two accounts in which Jesus becomes present in the midst of a group of his disciples, appearances neither Mark nor Matthew even mention and which Luke presents as a single incident.