7th Sunday of Easter - Year C

Jeff Bagnall • 20 May 2025

The first reading ( Acts 7:55-60 ) is Luke’s ending of the story of Stephen the first martyr in his story of the beginning of Christianity. In chapter 6 he tells how the community of Christians in Jerusalem were. asked to choose seven helpers for the work of serving and extending the number of believers. Luke then tells of Stephen who was one of the seven chosen by the people and commissioned by the apostles. But it was not long before his preaching was opposed by some of the Jews accusing him of defaming holy Jewish leaders of the past etc. Stephen is tried and sentenced to death. Luke has him deliver a long speech and we listen to its ending in our reading. He fogives those opposed to him and Luke tells us that a young lad was guarding the clothes of those who stoned him to death – this was Saul better known later as Paul and by us as Saint Paul.

The second reading is extracts from the last chapter of the book of Revelations ( 22:12-20 ) omitting verses 15,18 and 19. The writer has described the Glorious Future – the fullfilment of God’s plan for creation with the imagery of a New Jerusalem. He uses ideas from the literature and hopes of the people of Israel found in what Christians call the Old Testament. The future will be a home for all nations like a New Jerusalem described here as a bride – it’s like a wedding feast that is coming soon (they thought). it finishes with the prayer preserved in the very language of the early Jewish followers – maranatha – which is used sometimes in Christian worship in our own time; it can mean “Come Lord!” or “the Lord has come.”

In John’s gospel, a number of chapters are used to express what Jesus would pray for to His Father while still in this world but leading up to his final moments. Some think that because the period leading up to what we call Easter differed in length depending on the lunar calendar, different passages of this long section provided the readings for the liturgy that they had at that time. Today ( 17:20-26 ) it culminates with a prayer expressing Jesus’ great desire for the unity of all followers; and this was a unity with each other, but brought about by the more important unity of believers within the very life of God, addressed by Jesus as Father. The characteristic of this unity can best be expressed as love.

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Jeff Bagnall was a lecturer for many years at Craiglockhart College teaching RE to many future Catholic Primary teachers.

Feast of Saint Peter and Paul - Year A

by Jeff Bagnall • 24 June 2026

In the Acts 12:1-11 Luke is writing the remarkable account of the expansion of Christianity and the development of the church; and this is despite external opposition, even persecution, and their leaders’ inadequacies and failings. The story is built around the two different characters in the early church of Peter and Paul. Whereas Peter was a headstrong, simple Galilean Jewish fisherman who followed Jesus throughout His public ministry, Paul was a well educated Jew and Roman citizen living outside of the Jewish territory, who after a special encounter with Jesus turned from antagonism to Christians to become an apostle of Christianity to the Gentiles. The phrase “in those days” at the beginning of today’s reading, alludes to the time when the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem and the surrounding area expanded and even included followers of Jesus’ Way who were not Jews – they were Samaritans or even Gentiles. It was this expansion that began to cause disturbances in Jerusalem. Herod, the local ruler, wanted to keep the peace in order to retain favour within the Roman empire, and so began to arrest the Jewish Christian leaders who were the source of the trouble. So our reading concerns the imprisonment of Peter; it was during the feast of unleavened Bread – a sacred time in Jerusalem – so he would be executed after the Passover, as James had been earlier. The story of his escape was passed down by word of mouth and that is what is related here by Luke. This is a good story illustrating how faith can lead us into difficulties and yet God can save us.

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2026 - Year A

by Jeff Bagnall • 16 June 2026

The first reading from the Book of Jeremiah displays a common pattern in the experiences of all humans when they are intending to do their best and what they think is right. In this 7 th century BC this prophet really feels the call from God to try to bring the people – all people – back into a good relationship with a loving God and to preach with severity and reproach against the poor behaviour of his people. It seems almost natural that they oppose him more and more as he upbraids them – and Jeremiah had a really tough time. But he earnestly wants to believe that God will see him alright in the end, will put his accuses to shame; he has faith yet it is shot through with human weakness for he hopes and expects that God will ‘get His own back’ on these miscreants … Jeremiah hopes for revenge! The best of us will still get things wrong about God and His ways.