Pseudo-Homilies 16 – Corpus Domini

This feast marks the closing of  the holiday season. I’ve always appreciated this wholesome, rich experience: a sequence of celebrations that manages to present newer and newer peaks of interest, significant and emotional moments, without tiring. It all begins with Lent, which is appropriately long: a preparation through acts of penance, which helps your faith grow and adds to the eventual enjoyment of the Easter feast itself. You get an appetizer with Palms Sunday. Then there’s the Easter Triduum, intense! And then a long Easter time, which even gets a double ending, with Ascension and Pentecost. And even then we’re not done yet! I understand it wasn’t always like that…

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Pseudo-Homilies From a Layman -10- Peter the Shepherd

Fourth Sunday of Easter – Year A   Today’s liturgy, as is often the case, develops two parallel themes: Jesus Christ expressing himself through a metaphor set in the world of sheep farming; Peter who takes center stage, both in the 1st and 2nd reading, as the guide of the Apostles and, as a consequence, of the Church.   I found myself wondering: given that talking about sheep and shepherds at the time of Jesus was an effective way to help the audience visualize ideas through familiar themes, does it still make sense for us, as we’re so far removed from the rural world? It’s become difficult to feel at…

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