Jesus (and subsequently, John) uses the image of the vine to illustrate and explain his continuing connectedness to his disciples and their connectedness to God through him and their connectedness (and ours) to one another and to everyone whom they and we encounter. The challenge for us is to live and love as though we really value that connectedness. Our lives are about learning to bear, appreciate and reflect the beams of love, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald.

The real challenges of today’s gospel-reading are, in essence, to be met in the way we respond to a few simple, yet demanding, questions, reflects Christian Brother Julian McDonald. Do I listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd inviting me to shepherd and be shepherded? Am I prepared to spend my life reaching out to those with whom I am asked to share the blessings I have been given, for no other reason than that Jesus says to me: “I love you and you are mine!”? He says exactly that to everyone else as he invites us to be instruments of his love.

The story of the Risen Jesus appearing to his disciples on the Road to Emaeus highlights for us the need to allow the resurrected Lord to break into our daily living, reflects Christian Brother Julian McDonald. Perhaps some of the best places for us to understand ourselves and our role in the world and, indeed, to experience resurrection, are soup kitchen tables, budget cafe and family kitchen tables, where the people with whom we engage will mirror to us new insights and resurrection.

I believe that Jesus breathed God’s Spirit into the disciples, Thomas included, in that upper room where they had locked themselves away from real life, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald. I believe that same Spirit has been breathed into each of us. We know that we get glimpses of that Spirit at work in the love, generosity, compassion and forgiveness of people we encounter and, indeed in our acts of care and compassion towards others. The crucified and risen Jesus lives again in each of us. Maybe we have to get to know him a little better by first touching the scars we carry Then, we might be able to go out and start practicing resurrection.

We belong to a Church that will forever be in process. The process is not about changing the foundations on which it has been built. - the Good News of Jesus Christ and his life, death and resurrection. But it is about living that Good News in ways that will make an impact for good in a world that is also in the process of unprecedented change, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald.