Sharing the Treasure: Reflections on the Sunday Gospels, Years A, B, C

Brendan Byrne SJ, ST PAULS, ISBN 9781925494211

Short reflections on Gospel passages may seem easy to write. Actually, they are quite demanding. In a couple of hundred simple words, they must explain to their readers the central message of the Scriptural passage and help them pray on it. In doing that they must point out distinctive features of Jesus’ world that are central to understanding it, and suggest how the passage might speak to our own world, while all the time leaving it open to the reader to follow where the passage leads them. To be able to do all this easily demands much knowledge and grace of expression.

In Sharing the Treasure, scripture scholar Fr Brendan Byrne brings a lifetime of study to his reflections on the Sunday Gospel readings. His book is a great gift to preachers, teachers and to people at prayer. His reflections are masterly in their conciseness, in providing necessary information about context, and in revealing the depth of meaning and the distinctive insights of each of the Gospels. To take one example, Australian readers who see thousands of sheep grazing on a property of many thousand acres might think absurd Jesus’ description of sheep who know their shepherd’s voice. Sharing the Treasure tells us that in Jesus’ time sheep were kept overnight in a common pen. When released in the morning they would respond to their own shepherd’s voice. Knowing this, we can appreciate the intimacy of Christ’s relationship to us and also appreciate the depth of our dependence on him.