Jesus is going away. In today’s Gospel, he is going towards his death on the Cross. In the liturgical year, he is ascending back to heaven to take his seat at the Father’s right hand. Jesus says that he is going to send his disciples the Holy Spirit so as not to leave them orphans. But the Holy Spirit is not given instead of Jesus, a substitute to make up for his absence. Jesus himself will return to his disciples through the gift of the Holy Spirit. His disciples will know J

We are often told to ‘be true to ourselves.’ It can be found in the carefully curated images on social media that pose the question: “What version of myself do I want others to see?” It can be the common lived expression of “I just need to be true to myself.” Or it can be manifested in the ‘drop everything and reinvent your life’ narrative. Even in the “You do you”. These statements are portrayed as attractive. They sound freeing as opportunities of maturity, ownership,

We need a God who doesn’t need us. Our needs are big and simple: from God we need life and we need our mortality to be dealt with. If we have a God who needs us, he will be too weak to satisfy those needs. How could we follow someone who is looking to us for his needs, we who live just until our mortality gets the better of us. No, we need a God who doesn’t need us. The Lord warns us that whatever, whoever is not himself will steal, kill, and destroy us. That doesn’t hav