Reflections on the Sunday Gospels Year A: Veronica Lawson rsm

Veronica Lawson rsm is a member of the Circle of Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea (ISMAPNG) Theologians. She is a biblical scholar who writes from an eco-feminist perspective. Her weekly reflections on the Sunday Gospels are widely reproduced; we are delighted to publish them here in 2014 and beyond.

Each month the next four reflections will be published in reverse chronological order so that the most current reflection is always at the top of the list.

Scroll down to find the one you wish to read.

Messages to: Veronica Lawson rsm

23 November, 2014. Feast of Christ the King Year A. (Matthew 25:31-46)
'It has long been a common custom to give to Christ the metaphorical title of King.” These are the words of Pope Pius XI who established this feast between two world wars, in the hope of counteracting the growing secularism “in public affairs and politics” and finding a way towards global peace...'

Download the print ready reflection here

16 November, 2014. 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. (Matthew 25:14-30)
'In answer to my usual greeting, “G’day Muff, what are you up to?” my polymath brother-in-law, David (nicknamed Muff), would invariably reply, “Just contemplating the eternal verities!” ...'

Download the print ready reflection here

9 November, 2014. Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (John 2:13-22)
'My mother once told me never to replicate a mistake that she had made when she was first married. She received an unexpected £2000 bequest from a relative and found herself confronted with a choice between purchasing furniture for the house my dad had just built and investing in a Dobell painting that had come on the market and that she dearly loved...'

                                   Download the print ready reflection here

  2 November, 2014. All the Faithful Departed (Matthew 11:25-30)

'The “Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed” or “Feast of All Souls” as it used to be called (November 2) has traditionally been a fairly sombre feast in the liturgical calendar...'
Download the print ready reflection here
 

26 October, 2014. 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. (Matthew 22:34-40)

'Until fairly recently, the Jewishness of Jesus was often downplayed, even ignored. Today’s gospel passage has Jesus affirming the most central of Jewish traditions, namely the command of Deuteronomy 6 known as the Shema (so called from the first word in the statement meaning ‘hear’)...'
Download the print ready reflection here

 

19 October, 2014. 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. (Matthew 22:15-21)

'The emergence of a common enemy is often the catalyst for sworn enemies to unite. Faced with the threat of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq, previously unimaginable alliances are being formed in the global community...'

Download the print ready reflection here

 12 October, 2014. 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 22:1-14)

'The increasing wealth of the mega rich and the growing divide between rich and poor, particularly in the developing world, are challenging us all to consider our attitudes to the planet’s resources...'
Download the print ready reflection here.
 

5 October, 2014. 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 21:33-43)

'An absentee landowner with slaves to do his bidding is not an attractive hero for a story in this as in any age. While the international community has long-since outlawed slavery, we have become increasingly aware of the persistence of a lucrative industry in our world structured around the sexual and labour enslavement of vulnerable people...'
Download the print ready reflection here

 

28 September, 2014. 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 21:28-32)

'What does one do with passive-resistant behaviour? This is a question that most parents, teachers, employers and leaders of organizations have to confront at some time because there are people in every walk of life who make an art form of saying yes and failing to follow through with action...'
Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)
 

21 September, 2014. Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 20:1-6a)

'In the early 1970s, as a student in East Jerusalem, I would cross the road at about 7am each day from my rental quarters at the Chaldean Patriarchate to the grounds of the Ecole Biblique...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)
 

14 September, 2014. The Triumph of the Cross (John 3:13-17)

'Today’s feast of the Triumph or Exaltation of the Holy Cross commemorates the tradition that Empress Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, discovered the remains of the true Cross in Jerusalem in the 4th century CE...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

7 September, 2014. 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 18:15-20)

'What does a just society or community do with its persistent offenders, with those whose behaviour continually disrupts or even destroys the unity of a group? This is an age old question that has no easy answer...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

31 August, 2014. Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 16:21-27)
'We all know people in leadership who take themselves a bit too seriously. Some confuse their role or title with their significance in the scheme of things...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)
 

 24 August, 2014. Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 16:13-19)
'"Be yourself. Everybody else is taken," sings Melinda Schneider. The lyrics of this lovely song, composed for Melinda’s dying father, affirm some fairly obvious truths...'
 
Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)
 

17 August, 2014. Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 15:21-28)
'The gospels are written in Greek and much of the language of the gospels has to be understood against a Greek philosophical background...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

 

10 August, 2014. Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 14:22-33)
'The church knows metaphorically what it means to be ‘battered by the waves’. Over its two millennia history, there have been periods of discrimination and persecution against its members...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

3 August, 2014. Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 14:13-21)
'Rising fuel and food prices affect us all. Not everyone, however, considers the effect that life-style choices and agricultural practices in the developed world might have on the rest of the world’s population...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)
 

27 July, 2014. Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 13:44-52 or Matthew 13:44-46)
'Several years ago, I had the good fortune to meet Kamran Mofid, an Iranian-born economist who holds dual British and Canadian citizenship...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

20 July, 2014. Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 13:24-43)
'Some time back, my great-nephew met with an unwelcome refusal from his father. His response: ‘Dad, I am not impressed with what I’m hearing!’...'

 Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

 

13 July, 2014. Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9)
'One of the privileges of my life has been an ongoing involvement in Catholic education, especially in religious and theological education...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)
 

6 July, 2014. Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 11:25-30)

'Some people have little appreciation of the depth of their own wisdom. Others seem to think they have the monopoly on wisdom...'

 Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

29 June, 2014. Vigil of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (John 21:15-19)
'My favourite place of worship is the church in Buninyong dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul where our local community gathers each Sunday...'

^{Buninyong is 11 kilometres south of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia}

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF) 

22 June, 2014. The Body and Blood of Christ Year A (John 6:51-58)
'Bread is staple food for much of Earth’s human population. Bread is also a metaphor for the food that sustains a person, a family, a people. Being able to ‘put bread on the table’ is the concern of every parent. Bread means life...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

15 June, 2014.Trinity Sunday Year A (John 3:16-18)
‘ "She has gone to God and God is very near". These are the words that some dear friends of mine chose for the cover of their mother’s funeral booklet. Their choice of words demonstrates their faith in the God of whom John writes in today’s gospel...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

8 June, 2014. Pentecost Sunday Year A (Acts 2:1-11; John 20:19-23)
'Pentecost Sunday is often called the birthday of the Church...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

1 June, 2014. Feast of the Ascension Year A (Acts 1:1-11; Matthew 28:16-20)
'Loss is an integral part of the human experience, and death is generally the most painful experience of loss. Today’s Feast of the Ascension invites us to face the experience of loss in a transformative way. ...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF

24 May, 2014. Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A (John 14:15-21)
'Those who defend themselves in court run the risk of being outsmarted by clever and sometimes unscrupulous adversaries. It is never a good idea to be too self-reliant even in a country with a basically sound legal system such as ours (Australia)...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

17 May, 2014. Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A (John 14:1-14)
‘Take from my heart all painful anxiety’ is a gospel inspired prayer. It is the prayer of Catherine McAuley, the first Sister of Mercy. Like Jesus, Catherine knew in her being that a troubled heart is an ever present possibility: we deal with one problem and along comes another...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

10 May, 2014. Fourth Sunday of Easter Year A (John 10:1-10)
'My brother and sister-in-law are farmers who woke up one morning to find that all their sheep had disappeared. It seems that some enterprising thief or thieves had managed to load their sheep on to transports and move them interstate in the few hours between dusk and dawn...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

3 May, 2014 Third Sunday of Easter Year A (Luke 24:13-35)
'Extraordinary things can happen if we open ourselves to the presence of a stranger or “foreigner” on the road of life. That seems to be a key element in today’s gospel passage from the well-known and well-loved Emmaus story...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)
 

27 April, 2014 Second Sunday of Easter (John 20:19-31)
'Not so long ago we used to speak of the Sundays ‘after’ Easter. The terminology has changed and we now speak of the Sundays ‘of’ Easter. In other words, we now recognise that the liturgical readings and prayers for each Sunday between Easter and Pentecost invite us into different movements of the one great symphony of resurrection faith...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

20 April, 2014. Easter Sunday Year A (Matthew 28:1-10)
'After death, Jesus is cared for by a faith-filled man in the presence of two faith-filled women...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)
 

 

13 April, 2014.  Passion Sunday Year A (Matthew 26:14-27:66)
'Capital punishment is abhorrent to most of us, particularly when a just person dies for specious reasons or to political ends. Public executions of convicted criminals were part of life in the ancient Roman Empire. That’s what confronts us in today’s gospel...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

6 April, 2014.  Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A (John 11:1-45)
'Today’s readings touch into the most profound of human mysteries, the mysteries of life and death...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

 

30 March, 2014.  Fourth Sunday of Lent Year A (John 9:1-41)
‘There are none so blind as those who will not see.’ Last week, we journeyed with a woman of Samaria from a superficial level of faith understanding to deeper insight into Jesus’ identity and mission and to stronger faith commitment...'

 Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

23 March, 2014. Third Sunday of Lent Year A (John 4:5-42)
'Those privileged to act as catechists in the RCIA program over the Lenten period will be introducing the candidates to some of our most treasured gospel stories...'

 Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

 

16 March, 2014. Second Sunday of Lent Year A (Matthew 17:1-9)
'The geographical and symbolic setting for last week’s gospel was the wilderness. This week, the setting is a mountain and eventually a cloud-covered mountain...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

 

9 March, 2014. First Sunday of Lent Year A (Matthew 4:1-11)
'Lent comes around each year and presents us with its usual challenge to take stock of our lives, to see more clearly what is in our hearts, and to discover what might be calling us out of our comfort zones...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

2 March, 2014. Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 6:24-34)
‘Today’s trouble is enough for today!’ These are the concluding words of the gospel for this Sunday. We are “not to be anxious”. Rather, we are invited to be single-minded in our commitment...'

 Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

23 February, 2014. Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 5:38-48)
'Today’s gospel is a continuation of Jesus’ teaching on the sort of righteousness, the right relationship and justice, to which his followers are called in their living of the Law...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)
 

16 February, 2014. Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 5:17-37)
'We sometimes forget that Jesus was a faithful Jew who observed the Law handed down within Israel from generation to generation...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

 

9 February, 2014. Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 5:13-16)
'In today’s gospel, Jesus addresses two short parables to his disciples in the presence of the crowds...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

 

2 February, 2014. Feast of the Presentation Year A (Luke 2:22-40)
'The opening verses of today’s gospel reading have often been a source of confusion with the result that the focus has sometimes been on the “purification” of Mary rather than on the presentation of the child...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

26 January, 2014. Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 4: 12-23)
'Most of the gospel readings this year will be from Matthew’s story of Jesus. As with any story, it is probably best to read it from beginning to end over a few days...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)
 

 Alternate reflection on the Gospel for Australia Day (Matthew 5:1-12)
'We have become so familiar with the beatitudes that there is a danger of our listening only to the mellifluous flow of language and of failing to attend to the extraordinary present and future reversal that they offer to those who suffer injustice and to those who choose non-violent ways of addressing it...'
Download the alternate print ready reflection here (PDF)

19 January, 2014. Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (John 1:29-34) 
'To provide a reference is a serious responsibility as well as a privilege because, more often than not, a good deal depends on the testimony one provides. John the Baptist took it upon himself to be a referee for Jesus...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

12 January, 2014. The Baptism of Jesus Year A (Matthew 3:13-17)
'The Baptism of Jesus marks the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Ordinary Time. In many places, it coincides with the end of the Christmas break, a return to work and to the regular patterns of life...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)     
                            

5 January, 2014. Feast of the Epiphany Year A (Matthew 2:1-12)
'God’s presence is revealed to us in diverse ways: we can read the “book” of God’s creation; we can search out the meaning of our dreams; we can learn from our own and others’ experience; and we can be attentive to the wisdom of our sacred scriptures...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)

29 December, 2013. Feast of the Holy Family Year A (Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23)
'Dreaming is an important part of life, both the dreaming we do at night and the ‘day dreaming’ we engage in as we look to the future...'

Download the print ready reflection here (PDF)