Mary M. McGlone

Scripture for Life: Both Jeremiah and Peter had a bone to pick with God. But Jeremiah received a new perspective. Nothing was forced on him. Nor on Peter and friends.

Today, we find ourselves called to answer Jesus' question for ourselves. Happily, we don't need to figure it out alone, nor live it alone.

Scripture for Life: Concerns about who is in and who is out are as old as nature. As Isaiah, Jesus and Paul knew well, it's hard to free people from their ethnocentrism — the pride being part of an exclusive pack.

Scripture for Life: Peter shows us how to risk the depths. His example dares us, too, to do what Jesus did. Today's word of God is, "Come." It's the only remedy for our little faith.

Scripture for Life: If we want to know what God is like, listen to him. If we want to hear God's voice in our own time, if we want to know the will of God, listen to him.

Scripture for Life: Today's Liturgy of the Word invites us to wonder and believe in God's care.

Scripture for Life: What will make us more God-like, focusing on our failures or exulting in those moments when we know God has worked through us to bring about something wonderful?

Scripture for Life: Imagine what it would feel like to have genuine sympathy for the "wise and learned," who rely on themselves, compelled to make a show of their prestige. Imagine laying down all those heavy burdens!

Today, as we prepare to celebrate July 4, we might ask ourselves some of the following questions: "Who are the prophets in our society? Who is calling us to a deeper living of the Gospel? Whose need reminds us of the fragility of all life and our universal need for solidarity?"

Scripture for Life: Jesus would probably remind us that our greatest powers do not come from our physical or intellectual prowess but from the attitudes that motivate our actions. 

Scripture for Life: Taking the invitation and challenge of today's Gospel to heart, we will do all we can to be and become a church of disciples who continue the mission of Jesus.

Scripture for Life: Where does this feast invite us to go? Like the entire Gospel of John, it invites us to venture beyond what we see and to imbibe Christ's invitation to communion.

Scripture for Life: The Scriptures offer tremendous help in our search to know what God is like, not because they give us a clear answer, but precisely because they do not.

Scripture for Life: At Pentecost in the 21st century, when no part of the world is unreachable and every language is translatable in an instant, it is time to appreciate the "blessed awareness that we are all part of one another."

Scripture for Life: As we celebrate the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, the Scriptures teach us that genuine faith is a way of life in community.

In the long run, the promises Jesus made us, his invitation into union with God through Christ, are not about us. That union, the grace of baptism, the communion of the Eucharist, are all for the sake of mission.

Scripture for Life: Today's Gospel and second reading address situations of tension in the midst of diversity, showing how it can lead to something new and deeper than any of the participants would have imagined.

Scripture for Life: Just as people of Jesus' day missed the point, many today remain unaware or insufficiently concerned about how we are shaping the future of our planet.

On this Sunday, Mary and the other disciples would probably tell us, "Be careful about asking for God's mercy! It comes with the uncomfortable grace of a vocation."

Scripture for Life: The call to "seek what is above" is not an appeal to abandon this life, but to believe that Christ and his resurrection have revealed that everything is oriented to union with God.