GROWTH AND CREATIVITY The Gospels offer us different keys to understand how the first Christian communities began their historical journey without the presence of Jesus in front of his followers. Maybe it all wasn’t as simple as we sometimes think. How did they understand and live out

PEACE IN THE CHURCH In John’s Gospel we can read a series of discourses in which Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples. The commentaries call it «The Farewell Discourse». It is permeated by a very special atmosphere: the disciples are afraid of being left without their Teacher. Jes

DON’T LOSE YOUR IDENTITY Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples. Very soon, he won’t be with them. Jesus speaks to them with special tenderness: «Little children, I shall be with you only a little longer». The community is small and fragile. It’s just been born. The disciples are li

LISTEN TO HIS VOICE AND FOLLOW IN HIS FOOTSTEPS The scene is tense and conflictive. Jesus is walking through the Temple precincts. Suddenly a group of Jewish people are around him, accusing him in a threatening manner. Jesus isn’t intimidated, but rather openly reproaches them for the

WITHOUT JESUS IT ISN’T POSSIBLE The meeting of the Risen Jesus with his disciples near the Sea of Galilee is described with a clear catechetical intention. In the story this meeting underlies the central symbolism of the catch in the middle of the lake. Its message couldn’t be more to

DO NOT BE UNBELIEVING BUT BELIEVE The figure of Thomas as the disciple who resists believing has been very popular among Christians. However the Gospel story says much more about this skeptical disciple. The Risen Jesus directs himself to him with some words that have much to do with

WHERE TO SEEK THE ONE WHO LIVES? Faith in Jesus, risen by the Father, didn’t spring naturally and spontaneously in the hearts of the disciples. Before meeting him, full of life, the Gospel writers talk about their confusion, their search around the tomb, their questions and uncertaint

WHAT’S GOD DOING ON A CROSS? According to the Gospel story, those who passed by Jesus on the cross at the top of the hill of Golgotha ridiculed him, laughing at his powerlessness. They tell him: «If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross». Jesus doesn’t answer their provocat

REVOLUTION IGNORED They bring to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. Everyone knows her destiny: be stoned to death according to what’s written in the law. No one talks about the adulterous man involved. As always happens in a machista society, the woman gets condemned and the man walks

THE OTHER SON Without doubt, the parable of Jesus that’s most captivating is the one about the «good father», wrongly called «the parable of the prodigal son». It’s precisely this «younger son» who has always attracted the attention of commentators and preachers. His return home and t