Lay Guardians of the Sacred Liturgy - Without Borders

13/06/2026

From the Desk of Our Spiritual Director
Fr Lonnie Borg MSSP

Reflection on the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Exodus 19:2-6; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36-10:8
Theme: The Compassion of Jesus

God’s tender love and compassion for his creatures is the dominant theme of our Mass readings today. In our first reading from the book of Exodus, God’s loving care for the people of Israel is conveyed in a beautiful image: ‘I bore you up on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself’ (Ex 19:4)..

When the Israelites became discouraged as they wandered through the wilderness of Sinai, following their miraculous escape from Egypt, they needed to be reminded that God, who had intervened to facilitate their escape, would never desert them, but would accompany them always and make his people, ‘a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation’ (Ex 19:6). We, too, need to hear those same words of encouragement, especially when we feel overwhelmed by the burdens of life.

In our second reading, St Paul underlines the unconditional quality of God’s loving care for us. God’s love, says Paul, is not like that of people who only love those who deserve it, and who might be prepared to give their lives for those they consider worthy of such a gesture. Just how different, and infinitely greater, is the love of God is shown by the fact that he sent his Son to die for us while we were still sinners (cf. Rom 5:8). Paul encourages us not to let ourselves become slaves to our fears and doubts, but to be filled with ‘joyful trust in God’ (Rom 5:11). Just imagine, he says, that if God loved us when we were estranged from him, how much more will he love us now that we have been made citizens of his Kingdom? Our weaknesses and sins can never be stronger than his love. While we may be tempted to give up on him, he will never abandon us.

Our gospel reading from Matthew, gives us a lovely picture of the compassion of Jesus for the people he encountered in his ministry. The English expression ‘he felt sorry for them’ (Mt 9:36) does not even come close to capturing the depth of his feeling for the pain and suffering of the poor and oppressed people whose lives he wanted to transform. Far from observing the pitiable conditions of the people – ‘harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd’ (Mt 9:36) – with detachment or disinterest, he was moved from the depth of his heart to respond to their plight. He knows that the political leaders and the religious authorities of his time have no real concern for them. Their focus is on maintaining their privileged positions and feathering their own nests, while neglecting the hungry, the sick, and the oppressed of the land. Jesus, in contrast, identifies with his people’s sufferings. His compassion leads him, not only to embark on a personal ministry of healing and hope, but also to choose and select twelve of his disciples to collaborate with him in this mission.

The mission on which Jesus sends his twelve chosen disciples, is clearly an extension of his own ministry: ‘Go and proclaim the message: The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons’ (Mt7-8). The demons and illnesses symbolise all that is opposed to human life—physical, mental, spiritual (Mt 9:35). The authority that Jesus confers on the twelve is an authority, not over people, but over evil. It is the liberating power of his word, which can overcome evil and create a new world. As disciples of Jesus, we, too, are called and sent to continue his mission of healing and hope in the world of our time.

The gospel reading concludes with the directive of Jesus to his apostles: ‘You received without charge, give without charge’ (Mt 10:8). Those commissioned by Jesus do not work for personal benefit. They do not seek to become famous or revered, and especially not to enrich themselves. They are happy to be instruments in the service of their Lord and Master, and to strive to live by the words of Jesus, ‘Freely, freely you have received; freely, freely you give.” So now we go in His name, and do the same to one another.

Speaking to inmates and prison ministry volunteers at the Brians 1 Penitentiary June 10, Pope Leo reminded them that when faced with the temptation “to feel inferior and think it is not worth going on,” prisoners should lift up their eyes to God, who, “through the presence of so many people, never ceases to show you his love and closeness.”

“Even if anxiety and sadness mark certain moments of your journey, remember that life’s mistakes do not define a person’s identity,”

12/06/2026

HAPPY AND BLESSED FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS!

Today, 12 June, is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus started during the patristic period but it was not popularized until the 17th Century when Jesus appeared to a novice of the Visitation order in a monastery in Paray-Le-Monial, France. St Margaret Mary Alacoque confessed to his Jesuit confessor, Claude la Colombiere, SJ that Jesus visited her on four occasions from 1672-1675.

Jesus asked Margaret Mary to promote the celebration of the Eucharist on the First Friday of every month in honour of His Sacred Heart, an hour of Eucharistic adoration on Thursday night in memory of His agony in the garden, and to establish an annual Feast of the Sacred Heart on the Friday following the Feast of the Corpus Christi. In 1856, Pope Pius IX established the annual Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In succeeding apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, He revealed to Margaret Mary the secrets of His Sacred Heart and His twelve promises to those who will observe devotion to His Sacred Heart.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus became an integral part of the spiritual life of many Catholics. I was introduced to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by my beloved mother who was herself a faithful devotee and also to the devotion to the Mother of Perpetual Help. I was inducted into the Apostleship of Prayer, a world-wide organization of devotees to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, at an early age having the privilege of wearing the scapular of the AP. Eventually, I organized a Local Centre/Chapter of the Apostleship of Prayer (AP) in our new parish with the approval and delight of the National Director of the AP in the country.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart as it stands today includes the Morning Offering, First Friday Mass in honour of the Sacred Heart, the Thursday before the First Friday holy hour adoration and Benediction, enthronement of the Sacred Heart in households and the annual celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart in June. In 2018, the AP was renamed Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network, but many of the the countries retained the old name and operates as it has always did in the past.

12 Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

1. I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life.
2. I will establish peace in their homes.
3. I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
4. I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all, in death.
5. I will bestow abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.
6. Sinners will find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Lukewarm souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
9. I will bless every place in which an image of My Heart is exposed and honored.
10. I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart.
12. I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in My disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.

06/06/2026

For those who are in the vicinity of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, you are invited to Walk with Jesus. Procession begins at the Cathedral of St Stephen, Elizabeth Street, Brisbane CBD through to the City streets around the Cathedral led by Archbishop Shane Mackinlay. The Walk with Jesus procession is a living witness and testimony of thousands of Catholics of the existential reality of the presence of Jesus in the bread and wine offered at the altar during Eucharistic celebrations transforming the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. The appearance and taste of the bread and wine remain the same but the essence or substance becomes the Body and Blood of Christ in a process called transubstantiation made possible by the rites (prayers and actions) said and performed by the priest at the altar following the exact action and words of Jesus at the last supper when He instituted the Holy Eucharist.

LET US WALK WITH JESUS! This happens only once a year on the feast (Solemnity) of the Body and Blood of Christ. Let us be living witnesses testifying to the presence of Jesus in the bread and wine consecrated at the altar which we receive in Holy Communion.

See you there!

06/06/2026

From the Desk of Our Spiritual Director
Fr Lonnie Borg MSSP

Reflections on the Body and Blood of Christ
Readings: Deuteronomy 8:2-3.14b-16a; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58
Theme: Keeping Alive the Blessed Memory of Jesus

In his book, Why Go To Church?, Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., illustrates the importance of the Eucharist for the early Christian community with the following story.

In the year 304 AD [at a time when Christians were being persecuted for their faith], a number of Christians were arrested in North Africa for gathering together in the house of a Roman Official to celebrate the Eucharist. When the Roman Pro-consul of the area asked the official why he had allowed these people into his house, he replied that these people were his brothers and sisters. Hence he could not refuse them. And he added these striking words: ‘Without the Day of the Lord we cannot live’. Celebrating the Eucharist was what gave meaning to the lives of the early Christians. They would risk imprisonment, or even death, rather than try to live their lives without the Eucharist. This has been true for many Christian communities down through the centuries.

During his life on earth, Jesus’ favourite way of expressing his love for, and his desire to be one with people, especially for those who were rejected and unloved, was to share meals with them. Shared meals were, for the Jews, signs of acceptance and friendship. Like many of us, the Jews were rather selective about those with whom they shared meals. In seeking out sinners and tax collectors, Jesus was contravening their traditions. Most Jews invited only friends or powerful people to their meals. In eating with sinners, Jesus was making friends with those who had no friends. He was showing them respect and love. He was letting them see themselves in a new light and become a new people. Instead of a people despised and rejected, they were God’s beloved children and citizens of his Kingdom.

It should come as no surprise to us that Jesus’ last act before his death on the Cross was to share a meal with his disciples – his Last Supper. In the course of this meal he takes bread and wine, blesses them and gives them to his disciples saying: ‘Take and eat, this is my body; Take and drink, this is my blood. Do this in memory of me.’ Jesus commands his disciples to keep his memory alive by gathering together to break and share bread. And this is what we do every time we celebrate the Eucharist.

Jesus’ last meal with his disciples is inseparable from the sacrifice of his life on the Cross, his supreme act of love. Love is manifested supremely in self-sacrifice. ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (Jn 15:13). In celebrating the Eucharist we celebrate the blessed memory of Jesus’ passion and death. We also recall and affirm the values by which Jesus lived, and for which he died, and we commit ourselves to live by those same values: his passion for a world re-fashioned in the image of a loving God; his compassion for the poor and outcast; his mercy for, and forgiveness of, sinners; his hatred of hypocrisy; his abhorrence of violence and his commitment to peace.

In receiving the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, we become one, not only with Jesus, but with one another. As St Paul reminds us in our Second Reading today: ‘Though we are many, we form a single body because we share in this one loaf’ (1 Cor 10:17). This recognition of the oneness of all who partake of the Body and Blood of Christ is expressed in several ways throughout the Mass: the common acknowledgement that we are sinners; the common responses; the songs of praise; the Gloria; the Creed; the Acclamation of Faith; the Great Amen; and the sign of Peace. When St Augustine preached to his assembled congregation on the meaning of the Eucharist, he told them: ‘See what you are and become what you see: the Body of Christ… You are saying “Amen” to what you are: your response is a personal signature, affirming your faith. … Be a member of Christ’s body, then, so that your “Amen” may ring true!’

Every Eucharist ends with a sending on Mission: ‘Go in Peace to love and serve the Lord’. We are commissioned to bring the message of the Eucharist to the world. Just as Jesus has become our Food, giving himself completely to us, so we, too, must give ourselves for the sake of the world. Our celebration of this great feast of Corpus Christi reminds us of our constant challenge: to keep alive the blessed memory of Jesus by becoming, in the context of our time, his flesh and blood given for the life of the world.

So let us pray: ‘Lord, we thank you for the gift of your Body and Blood through which we are nourished and strengthened to share your love with our brothers and sisters. Amen’.

30/05/2026

From the Desk of Our Spiritual Director
Fr Lonnie Borg MSSP

Reflections on Trinity Sunday
Readings: Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18
Theme: ‘God of tenderness and compassion’ (Ex 34:6)

Some of you may remember the popular song, ‘From a Distance’. Composed by Julie Gold in 1985, it became a major hit for Bette Middler. It is a beautiful hope-filled anthem, envisioning a world of justice, peace and harmony, as seen through God’s eyes, from a distance. The refrain goes like this: God is watching us; God is watching us; God is watching us, from a distance’. Julie Gold’s lyrics remind me of a story I came across several years ago about a young boy who was intrigued by a colourful mural in the home of his aunt. It featured the biblical text: ‘You are the God who sees me’ (Gen: 16:13). Noticing her young nephew’s interest in the mural, the kindly aunt decided to explain the words to him. ‘Some people will tell you’, she said, ‘that God is always watching you to see if you are doing wrong. But this is not what the words mean. God is not watching you to catch you out, but because he loves you so much that he cannot take his eyes off you’.

Today’s gospel passage from John carries the same message. It presents a conversation between a Pharisee, and leading member of the Jewish Ruling Council, named Nicodemus, and Jesus. Impressed by the reports he has heard about Jesus, but fearful of reaction of his fellow-Pharisees, Nicodemus approaches Jesus under cover of darkness. In response to Nicodemus’ questions, Jesus makes the astounding declaration: ‘God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son … not to condemn the world but so that through him the world might be saved’ (Jn 3:16-17).

This is the heart of the Gospel – the good news of God’s unconditional love for the world. We are children of a God with unimaginable love and tenderness. The same truth is also affirmed in today’s first reading from the book of Exodus. Speaking with God, Moses, is assured, that however unfaithful and headstrong the chosen people have shown themselves to be, God remains the God of faithful love, ‘a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness’ (Ex 34:6).

Today, Trinity Sunday, we are celebrating a mystery not a mathematical puzzle – the mystery of God’s unfathomable love. The God who dwells in inaccessible light and eternal glory comes to us in the face of Jesus and the activity of the Holy Spirit. The lyrics of Julie Gold’s song, to which I referred at the beginning of this homily, might seem to suggest that God is watching us from afar. However, the God revealed in the Bible is not some remote and distant deity, but a God who is close to us, and involved with us.
The God revealed in the life and ministry of his Son, Jesus, is a loving Father who is interested in, and cares for, all creatures from the smallest to the greatest—a passionate and compassionate God, capable of being deeply moved by the sufferings of his creatures.

In the words of Pope Leo, the Scriptures reveal a ‘God of Love who created the universe and generated a people, and as a Redeemer who became flesh, died and rose for us, and, as the Holy Spirit, transforms everything and brings it to fullness’. This is the God who is Father, Son and Spirit.

The Trinity is not just a dogma to be accepted in faith, or a formula to be recited in our liturgy. It is the heartbeat of our Christian way of life. It is ultimately about what it means to be human persons created in the image of the God of Love. To be human means to be like the God who created us, the God in whom all creatures live and move and have their being, and who are intimately connected with one another. It means to live in relationships of love and respect, not only for our fellow humans, but for all God’s creatures with whom we share the gift of life.

Living at a time when our humanity is threatened as never before, especially with the explosion of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we need to be reminded this fundamental truth, Pope Leo reminds us in his new encyclical. We need to choose, either the Tower of Babel or the city of God.

Our liturgy today invites each of us to acknowledge and deepen our participation in the Trinitarian communion of Father, Son and Spirit through our loving communion with one another and with all creation. I can think of no better way of responding to this invitation than by reciting and reflecting on the prayer, St Patrick’s Breastplate, mindful that God loves us so much he cannot take his eyes off us. I end with a few lines from this great prayer:

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity:
By invocation of the same,
The three in one and One in Three….

I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me;
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s hosts to save me.

23/05/2026

23/05/2026

From the Desk of Our Spiritual Director
Fr Lonnie Borg MSSP

Reflections on Pentecost Sunday
Readings: Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13; John 20:19-23
Theme: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (Jn 20:22)

Today, Pentecost Sunday, we come to the climax of our Easter celebrations. Today is the birthday of the Church as a Spirit-filled community sent out, in the name of the Risen Christ, to continue his mission on earth. Our readings today remind us of three important truths about the Church and its mission: first, that the Church is essentially missionary; second, that the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of Mission; and third, that the goal of mission is to create a unity that embraces diversity. A few brief words on each of these points.

First, the Church is, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, “missionary by its very nature” (AG, no. 9). Witnessing to the Gospel is the reason for its existence. This means all its members, all who are baptised in the Spirit, are ‘missionary disciples of Christ’ (Pope Francis). A Church that turns in on itself and stops being missionary is no longer the Church of Christ but simply a sodality, a group of like-minded people content to enjoy each other’s company. In his great Encylcical Letter, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis reminded us that that the true Church ‘is a Church that is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security’ (EG, n. 49).

Second, the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of this mission. We, the members of the Church, are simply her servants. We forget this truth at our peril, at the risk of becoming agents of an enterprise that has little for nothing to do with the message of the Gospel or God’s reign in the world. Catholics have been accused of paying mere token respect to the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Even if we consider this accusation unfair, we should ask ourselves: Do we put more trust in our resources and our expertise than in the action of God’s Spirit in our lives and in the lives of those among whom we work? Do we leave enough room in our various ministries for the Spirit, the ‘God of surprises’, the God who chooses the weak to confound the strong, the God whose light invariably enters through the cracks in our lives rather than through our successes and achievements? We need to remember that we are at the service of a task which always transcends our human capabilities.

Third, the goal of Mission is to create a unity that respects and embraces diversity. Pentecost reverses the confusion of Babel (cf. Gen. 11: 1-9). As we see in our first reading today, people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Persians, Asians, Romans, Egyptians, Libyans, Cretans and Arabs) came together for this major Jewish feast but were unable to communicate with one another. However, through the gift of the Sprit, they were all able to understand the message of the apostles. ‘Surely, they said, all these people speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own language?’ (Acts 2:7-8). The miracle of Pentecost was a miracle of mutual understanding, a restoration of the unity that humanity lost at Babel.

The story of the first Pentecost prompts us to ask ourselves what gift of the Spirit, what language do we need today so that everybody can understand us. We know that there is such a gift, such a language. It is the language of love, a language that all people understand. irrespective of their ethnic or linguistic background? Love is the language of the Spirit, the only language capable of creating a unity that respects diversity, the language that, in the words of Pope Leo, ‘breaks down barriers between peoples and tears down the walls of indifference and hatred.

16/05/2026

From the Desk of Our Spiritual Director
Fr Lonnie Borg MSSP

Reflections on Ascension Sunday
Readings: Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23; Matthew 28:16-20
Theme: “Go therefore, make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:18)

Those who visit the Holy Land can visit the Chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. Located on a site traditionally believed to be the place where Jesus ascended into heaven after his Resurrection, it contains a slab of stone believed to feature one of his footprints! This image might give us the wrong impression that, in ascending to the Father, Jesus did a kind of vertical take-off into some remote region of the cosmos beyond the clouds, a place we think of as heaven.

When Luke tells us in our first reading today that Jesus ‘was lifted up, while they [the disciples] looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight’ (Acts 1:9), he is speaking metaphorically to convey the mystery of Jesus’ return to the Father. What we are celebrating today is not some mind-boggling physical feat never done before. It is, rather, in the words of Scripture Scholar, Cardinal Martini, ‘the fact that Jesus has gone ahead of us into God’s space, God’s new world, and is already ruling this present world as its Lord, and also interceding for us at the Fathers’ right hand’.

In our second reading, Paul explains the meaning of the Ascension when he tells us that God ‘has put all things under his [Jesus’] feet and made him, as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation’(Eph 1:22-23).

The significance of the Ascension for the disciples of Jesus is brought out in our Gospel reading from Matthew. On a mountain in Galilee, where Jesus had begun his ministry, he now addresses his disciples for the last time and launches a new phase of his Kingdom mission. He begins by stating that ‘all authority in heaven and on earth’ (Mt 28:18) has been given to him. Then, on the basis of this authority, he commissions his disciples to ‘make disciples of all nations’ (Mt 28:19), and assures them that he will be with them always, ‘until the end of time’ (Mt 28:20).

During his earthly ministry Jesus was reputed to have taught with authority, unlike the scribes and Pharisees. His words resonated with divine power and his actions manifested this power: healing the sick, casting out demons, calming storms, forgiving sinners and raising the dead to life. The authority of Jesus was not about imposing his will on others, but about overcoming the forces of sin and evil in the world, ushering in God’s reign, and communicating the ‘the fullness of life’ (Jn 10:10). Now, as Risen and Ascended Lord, his authority is supreme and all-embracing. In the words of one of the earliest Christian hymns, quoted by Paul, he is the One ‘before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord” (Phil 2:9-11).

As Lord of the universe, the Risen Jesus commissions his disciples to be his instruments in extending his life-giving ministry to the peoples of all nations. During his earthly life, Jesus’ ministry was limited primarily to the Jewish people. Now its boundaries are expanded to include all humanity. His commission to his disciples has universal scope. Jesus does not command his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all peoples, although this is implied. What he commands them to do is to ‘make disciples of all nations. Making disciples, of course, includes preaching and teaching [instructing], and confirming people in their identity as God’s children, ‘by baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Mt 28:19). But it involves much more than this.

A disciple is a learner—a student—a person committed to learning what the master has to teach. A modern parallel would be an apprentice – or a student musician asking a master musician to be his/her teacher. The disciple is expected not only to learn what the master teaches, but also to put it into practice. Making disciples is about bringing others to embrace a new way of living, to become devoted followers of Jesus, and to imitate his way of life. This is a slow process that cannot be rushed, a process that requires patience and personal involvement [accompaniment] on the part of the teacher.

The commission of the Risen Lord to his still fearful and confused disciples must have seemed overwhelming, impossible even. But Jesus assured them that they will not be alone. To enable his disciples to carry out his commission, he assures them of his continuing presence with them. Jesus remains Emmanuel – God with us – as much after his ascension as before. Yes, his physical presence among them ceases. This was limited to the period of his earthly life. Now, as Risen Lord, he is present to them through his Spirit, a presence without limitation.

Significantly, Jesus did not say “I will be with you” but rather “I am with you”, promising an always-current presence. And so, the disciples of Jesus will not be overwhelmed, but rather emboldened and empowered to carry out the commission they have received. And we, too, his disciples today, struggling to continue his mission in these uncertain and turbulent times will not be overwhelmed, for he who has sent us remains with us “until the end of time”.

Click on the image to see it in full.

09/05/2026

From the Desk of Our Spiritual Director
Fr Lonnie Borg MSSP

Reflections on the 6th Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts 8:5-8,14-17; 1Peter 3:15-18; Jn 14: 15-21
Theme: ‘I will not leave you orphans; I will come back to you’ (Jn 14:18)

These words of Jesus capture the feelings of loneliness and abandonment all of us may have experienced at some time of our lives. These were also the feelings of Jesus’ disciples when he told them that the time had come for him to return to his Father. We see that Jesus responds to his disciples with words or comfort and assurance.

Jesus promises his disciples that he will not abandon them: ‘I will not leave you orphans; I will come back to you’ (Jn 14:18). He is returning to the Father but only to be with them in a new way, through the gift of the Spirit: ‘I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate (Counsellor) to be with you for ever, that Spirit of truth whom the world can never receive’ (Jn 14:16-17). In identifying the Spirit of God as the ‘Spirit of truth’, Jesus is highlighting an essential role of God’s Spirit in the lives of his disciples and in our lives too, namely, to be courageous truth-tellers, witnesses to the truth of Jesus Christ and his gospel of love. This role of the Spirit is underlined again in chapter 15 of John’s Gospel: ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, he will be my witness. And you too will be witnesses, because you have been with me from the outset’ (Jn 15:26-27).

As disciples of Jesus we, too, are called and empowered by God’s Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Jesus, to be witnesses to the truth – the truth that sets us free (cf. Jn 8:32), the truth that enables us to live as God’s children. This is surely a calling particularly relevant in our time.

We live in a world that has scant regard for truth. With the advent of digital technology, and its impact in the field of communication, the lines between fact and fiction, truth and fantasy, are becoming increasingly blurred in every sphere of life.

In the field of politics, political leaders subject us to what one commentator has termed ‘a bunch of self-serving lies’. More and more, we inhabit ‘virtual worlds’ constructed by our imaginations, worlds in which we become the sole arbiters of what is true, just, wise and loving. As Pope Francis reminds us in his Encyclical Letter, Fratelli Tutti, ‘Today everything can be created, disguised and altered’ (FT 47) – surely a frightening scenario! Being witnesses to the truth of Christ in such a world is certainly challenging.

The vocation to be truth tellers has nothing in common with arrogant claims to be in possession of the full truth about God and his plans for us. Indeed, we are no more possessors of the truth, than we are possessors of God’s Spirit. It is God’s Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who possesses us, and we must be truth-seekers if we are ever to be truth-tellers. In the words of a modern martyr, Bishop Claverie of Oban, Algeria, murdered by Muslim extremists in 1996: ‘No one possesses the truth, everyone is searching for it….One does not possess the truth, and I need the truth of other seekers. This is my experience with the thousands of Algerians, whose existence I share and whose questions are my questions.’ He was mentioned by Pope Leo in his recent visit to Algeria.

We received the Holy Spirit when we were baptised and confirmed, but we may not have had a profound experience of its presence in our lives. In this Easter season, as we continue to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, we pray that the Spirit may be more fully present to us and within us, so that we become more committed truth-seeking witnesses of Christ. And so, may we be more effective instruments in the transformation of our world into ‘a new earth and a new heaven’, where all people feel at home and no one is an orphan.