Just a Thought...or two...

November 25th, 2022

11/25/2022

This weekend we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent...the beginning of the church’s liturgical year... so Happy New Year!

Advent is truly a “wonder-filled” season. We look to the dark, deep blue night sky...shimmering with a million stars, each one a reminder of the dawn of creation...a reminder of the promise of the long awaited savior.

There is something about staring up at the night sky... something awe inspiring and spiritual in nature; it calls us to look beyond ourselves. Advent is a time to “make time”...in the midst of all the commercialism, in the midst of all of chaos that we call “the holiday rush”, we are called to slow down, to stand back and to reflect...to take time to allow the wonder of the Great Christmas Event to settle into our souls...to shake us loose from the ordinariness of our daily lives and allow ourselves to be wrapped up in the awe and wonder of the Incarnation...the fact that our God so deeply loves us and that God’s very self became human to prove that love to us. That love is for you... just as you are!

This amazing love is for all of God’s creation, for all peoples and for the earth itself! This Advent we find
ourselves in the midst of growing humanitarian crises as our sisters and brothers flee war and terror, not only in Ukraine but other places such as Northern Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Myanmar -- they wander the earth in search of a home. And here in our own country many immigrants, people of color, women, Jews, Muslims, people of the LGBTQ community and refugees are fearful of being targets of hate crimes.

As we reflect on the wonder and awe of God’s amazing love for the earth and for all humanity let us raise our voices and act in ways to make sure that all of our sisters and brothers feel respected and safe. Let us not allow this national moral crisis to paralyze us and convince us we can do nothing, for in Christ we can do all things.

What can I do this Advent to help those feeling particularly vulnerable and fearful? How can I reach out to build bridges across the chasm of those who seek an inclusive and kind society and those who seek to exclude and demean “the other”? Let us “prepare the way of the Lord” through prayer and action!

Advent Blessings,
Fr. Tim

November 20, 2022

11/18/2022

As our scriptures speak to the end times it can be scary or cause us to be fearful, but that is not the goal of the readings. The goal is always to point to God being in power, even when we cannot see it or understand how He is guiding the world.

Given the current state of our national politics as well as the state of politics around the globe we may be filled with anxiety and fear, not sure what to do or where to turn. It seems like the far-right factions are gaining power in an ever-growing number of countries around the world. Our sisters and brothers of color, Muslims, immigrants, refuges and women and many others all feel vulnerable and at risk in this environment of racist, misogynistic and bigoted violence and rhetoric aimed at holding them down and keeping them from advancing in society.

In so many neighborhoods across this country people feel they are no longer safe to simply walk down the street or take public transport. We are called by our discipleship to stand with them and make sure that all those who feel vulnerable and threatened know that they are safe with us and that we stand with them.

We are called to reach out to and to raise up all those who feel threatened. It is our Baptismal call. Just as Jesus went to the margins, so too we must guard the most vulnerable in every way we can. We need to make known our stance and we need to do so bravely and peaceably. Whether we do this through public protest, through advocacy, through legal actions, through prayer or through personal reaching out to those who are being targeted, we must, each one of us, find ways to stand up and against all forms of racism, bigotry, xenophobia and misogyny.

Today we celebrate Jesus Christ as the Sovereign of the Universe. So let us not despair, let us recall that regardless of how corrupt the world might look, how many nations are at war or threatening war, Christ is at work in the world...and that Christ works in and through US! Let us take his earthly life as the model for our lives and follow his command to build up the Reign of God by loving and protecting all of our sisters and brothers as well as the earth itself!

Filled with the Holy Spirit what concrete action can I take this week to show my support for all those who are feeling fearful and vulnerable? What movement or organization can I join with to fight against racism, bigotry, misogyny and xenophobia? How will I live my discipleship of Jesus Christ this week?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

November 6, 2022

11/4/2022

Have you ever noticed how in the Gospels Jesus seeks Happy 75th Anniversary of the Dedication of Our Lady Queen of Peace Church?! “For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.”

I chose this quote from Dag Hammarskjold to be on the memory card from my religious profession and later on for my ordination memory card. I chose it because I believe it speaks of a profound gratitude to God and of a stance of openness towards God and towards whatever lies ahead in life and in death. And I think it is appropriate for today as we celebrate this anniversary and as we have just celebrated All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day.

November is traditionally a time in which we remember the dead. In some cultures people set up little home altars on which they place photos and mementos of their loved ones who have died and gone ahead of them to that which we call the afterlife, heaven.

We do not know exactly what lies ahead but yet we are part of it, promised resurrection through our baptism. As we careen towards the end of the liturgical year and towards the season of Advent, our readings turn toward “the last things”.
This is not meant to frighten us or cause us to be gloomy or sad; on the contrary, it is meant to offer us an opportunity to reflect on the transitory reality of this life in the context of the gift and the promise of eternal life. While none of us really knows exactly what it will be like, and the speculation has made for good reading over the centuries, some theologians today talk of it as something analogous to a glorious and knowable uniting, a joining with God in a new and spectacular way, beyond our wildest hopes and dreams! Heaven!

Down through history this belief in the resurrection has motivated many people to stand up and resist oppression and evil, not unlike what we heard in the first reading for this Sunday about the torture of the mother and the seven brothers.

And it is not unlike “what we have seen and what we have heard” in the lives of our Black sisters and brothers who during their nightmare of slavery clung to their faith in the God of their deliverance who would bring them home. And not unlike all of our Black sisters and brothers who lived through the hell of systemic racism, of post construction after the civil war and into the civil rights movement and right up to this very day where systemic racism still represses, holds down and steals the lives of our black and brown sisters and brothers.

And this systemic racism was the cause for a small group of 16 Black Catholics to band together in 1945 and ask Bishop Ireton to help them build a Black Catholic parish community in Arlington.

And Bishop Ireton reached out to the Spiritans and asked them if they would be willing to send a priest to be the pastor of this new parish in the midst of creation. And the Spiritans sent Fr. Joe Hackett, C.S.Sp., who the bishop appointed to became the first pastor. And that Black Catholic community gathered, in the home of one of the founding members, on Pentecost Sunday, May 20th, 1945 for the first Mass of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, but it was not until June 15, of 1947 that this Church building was completed and dedicated by Bishop Ireton.

And in that dedication was the celebration of the amazing labor of love and backbreaking hard work of those earliest Black Catholic members of this parish community, who built this church building in which we gather and celebrate each Sunday. They labored to create a safe and dignified worship space where they could gather and pray and celebrate the sacraments in dignity and without fear of acts of racist exclusion or segregation, or worse.

And as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the dedication of this church building we also thankfully celebrate the lives and faith of those earliest members of our parish community here at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church.

The readings today call us to ask ourselves what do I believe about heaven and the afterlife and do I fear death or dying? And, if I built a little home altar this November honoring my ancestors, whose photos and mementos would I place on it?

And given the current events of our times, our discipleship of Jesus Christ calls us to ask ourselves, in what ways can I stand up to the sin of systemic racism that was behind the need to found this very church in the first place.

Faced with the racism, bigotry and misogyny that beats down, holds back, and erases, and looks past our sisters and our brothers of color and seeks to deny them the dignity God has given them, we have to ask ourselves what action does my discipleship call me to in this day and in this place?

Amen!

Blessings, Fr Tim

October 30, 2022

10/28/2022

Have you ever noticed how in the Gospels Jesus seeks out social outsiders and religious exiles? Zacchaeus is despised by his neighbors because he has cozied up with the Roman occupiers and was extracting excessive taxes from his own people.

Roman tax collectors were not paid a salary so in order to make a living they had to extort money out of the people. They raised the official tax rate, they paid to Rome what was due to Cesar and kept the rest for themselves. Zacchaeus was not a popular man in town.

But Zacchaeus was not beyond being saved! Beneath all his greed, beneath all his sinfulness... Zacchaeus was open to the presence of God when God walked by!

While the Pharisees and town’s people had “written him off”...God had not! God came to his house! Think about that for just a minute...God sought out this sinner and offered him a new life...and Zacchaeus took it!

It is so easy to write people off...because of what they do or have done... the country they come from....how they look...the color of their skin... or who they love. There are all kinds of reasons we “write people off”...but God does not write people off!

There is always, always another chance with God. There is always another chance to come home, into the open loving arms of God. Welcomed back like the prodigal son or daughter!

This is a powerful Gospel about how God seeks us out, even when we are not at out best. Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house before Zacchaeus decided to turn his life around...Jesus took him as he was and decided to spend time with him “in the midst of his sinfulness”!

With God, all are welcomed, all are loved and forgiven, embraced and made whole by God’s love and mercy that is so freely poured out upon us, all we have to do is open up our hearts and accept it and allow its power to transform us into new creations, just like Zacchaeus was transformed in and through his encounter with Jesus.

Who have I “written off”...and why? What do I need to do to forgive them? When was the last time I climbed a tree to get a better look at God?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

October 23, 2022

10/21/2022

When I was little kid we had two elderly, rather eccentric, “aunts”, who loved to buy my sisters and brothers and me gifts for all sorts of occasions. One Christmas they came over to our house with an absolutely huge box of Whitman Chocolates. And being kids...we tore into the elegantly wrapped box of confectionary delights with the greatest of joy...only to discover that the “legend” had been removed from the lid of the box...so we had no way of knowing what was inside each of the smooth shiny milk chocolate squares.

Our “aunts” howled with laughter at our consternation. (We had a “house rule” that no one was allowed to “punch holes’ in the bottom of chocolates to find out what kind of filling was inside and you always had to eat whatever piece you took.) As we hovered over the huge box of chocolates trying to decide which piece we would risk trying...my little brother Kevin, who was only about five years old, gleefully said...“it’s like hunting for treasure...you don’t know what you’ll get until you bite into it...and then you’ll get surprised!”

Jesus’ parables are a bit like eating from a box of chocolates without a legend...you never really know what you’re going to get and by the time you discover what it is, it’s too late to refuse it.

Jesus’ parables draw comparisons between what we know and what we don’t know...conventional understanding up against gospel insight. First we say...oh yeah...I know this... and then a sharp corner is turned, and we swallow hard, and we see that the story has a “surprise filling”...not quite what we were expecting.

In today’s parable the Pharisee is supposed to be the righteous one and the tax collector is supposed to be the bad guy...but things are not always as we think they are supposed to be. The message is: we need to be careful about judging others. The fact is that we don’t know what is in someone else’s heart...only God knows. In the Gospels Jesus gives us a different set of rules for judging things to be acceptable or unacceptable...it is a different set of lenses through which we are called to view the world. These Gospel lenses “see” the poor, the immigrant and the marginalized as the beloved of God rather than “a drain on the system” or “foreigners” whom we should fear and send “back home”!

Looking at the world through “Gospel lenses” reveals a whole new way of seeing “the other” and seeing the world around us. What do “Gospel lenses” let me see about our current social and political debate on issues of systemic racism, immigration, refugees, and on issues of gender and misogyny and economic inequality, poverty and ecology. In what light do “Gospel lenses” let me see my sister and brother, Muslims and people of other faiths and political beliefs?

What challenges are presented to me by looking at the burning issues of the world around me, through “Gospel lenses”? And how deeply does that “Gospel view” impact my response to those issues?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

October 16, 2022

10/14/2022

Prayer has been “reverently” described as wasting time with God. I like to think of it as a “blessed” waste of time. Our Scripture this weekend offers us an opportunity to think about “prayer”; to think about our relationship with God.

Some folks are a bit hesitant to talk about their prayer life. Some think you need a degree in theology to talk about prayer. But I beg to differ…some of the most profound insights I ever heard about prayer and God’s action in our lives didn’t come from theologians or professional religious, they have come from ordinary people. Folks in the trenches of life who at times have found themselves lost in a dark wood only to encounter a light in the midst of the darkness. I have learned far more from people like you about prayer than from all the books I’ve read and the courses I’ve taken…and as well, from what I’ve learned from my own journey with God.

One thing I have come to believe is that God desperately desires us to engage with Him. God loves us deeply and passionately, just the way we are, and desires us -- for we are “God’s beloved”!

And because we are God’s beloved, God wants to communicate to us, to commune with us…and this communication and communing, we call prayer.

Prayer happens when we are willing to open our hearts and my minds to God’s presence right in the midst of the ordinariness of our daily lives. God seeks us out, but we have to stop running. We need to sit down and just “waste time” with God.

We must engage in the mystery of the Divine indwelling -- the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, within each one of us! Think about that. Sit with that sacred reality: that God is very truly within each one of us, as we are the temples of the Holy Spirit! How does that truth shape my life, shape my relationships with others? How does it shape my relationship with God, and with how I see and understand myself?

How much time have I “wasted” with God lately? What could I do to deepen my prayer life? How does God most often speak to me…through the celebration of the Eucharist, through listening to music, through nature, perhaps through a loving relationship I experience God’s love, maybe in and through caring for others, or simply by sitting in the silence?

Jesus exhorts us to “pray always, without becoming weary.” Can I fit 5 minutes, 3 times a day into my busy schedule to acknowledge God’s presence within me?

As we think about praying throughout the day, often people will say, my day is so full and it just gets away from me. One suggestion I have is to schedule it on your smart phone, just like you would schedule a meeting, or dinner or lunch with friends.

One way to pray throughout the day is to set an alarm on your phone or put a post it note in a place that you will see often throughout the day that reminds you to “take five”.

To take five minutes to acknowledge God’s presence within you and around you. A few minutes to ask for help if you need it, to reflect on what you are grateful for in your life in that day and to say “thank you” to God. It is about taking a few minutes to connect with God. It is a way of keeping God at the center of your day and at the center of your life. It can have an amazing impact on the quality of your relationship with God and with others.

Blessings,
Fr Tim

October 9, 2022

10/7/2022

Today’s readings deal with the theme of gratitude…of giving thanks. The word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek word for “the act of giving thanks”. Our Eucharist is first and foremost an action of giving thanks to our God.

The readings portray two remarkable foreigners. In the first reading we meet Naaman, a foreigner, a powerful commander of one of Israel’s enemy’s armies.

In the Gospel we meet a leper -- an outcast not only because of his leprosy but because he is a Samaritan, a foreigner. And not just any foreigner, a Samaritan! We have been over this many times. The Samaritans were considered to be almost “sub-humans,” out-siders not part of the House of Israel!

The actions of gratitude of the two foreigners are truly admirable, but the most remarkable lesson may quite possibly be found in the character of God. In the healing of both foreigners, complete “outsiders”, we see the universal scope of God’s salvation.

In both instances, we are shown that God’s love and salvation have no ethnic or racial boundaries or borders. God’s love is universal and without limits.

The only fitting response to God’s wondrous love for us is joyful thanksgiving and a willingness to emulate this love and healing by following Jesus’ example and command to love our neighbor as our sleves.

Jesus calls us to reach out to the leper, to the lost, the lonely, the outcast and the immigrant and the refugee… all those denied justice and whom the world despises.

We are called to embrace them all -- to be the loving arms of our God present in the midst of hatred, violence, racism and marginalization.

As we continue to reflect on this weekend’s readings, let us ask ourselves: What am I grateful for in my life? Who are the lepers, the outcasts, the marginalized in my life that I am called to open up my arms and embrace? And how can I embrace them?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

October 2, 2022

9/30/2022

What are your doubts and where is your faith strong?

We are often strong in faith in one area and weak or doubtful in another area.

In today’s Gospel we hear the apostles asking Jesus to increase their faith, a seemingly appropriate
request. But Jesus rebuffs their request.

Why do they need more faith? They were with Jesus in the flesh...they had seen his miracles firsthand...they had heard his preaching — what more did they need?

Perhaps they were fearful of their doubts. Perhaps they saw that some in their group had more faith than others. Perhaps the one who asked wanted to impress Jesus or possibly he was struggling with his own faith in Jesus.

Regardless of the reason for the question, Jesus responds basically telling them all that however much faith they have, it was sufficient to do all things.

I often have conversations with folks about faith and doubt, sometimes people express a sense of shame or embarrassment at what they perceive as “a lack of faith”. And yet in today’s Gospel Jesus tells us that even faith the size of a mustard seed is sufficient!

That leaves all kinds of room for doubt...but Jesus focuses on the power of that “tiny faith” and the reality that even with a little faith great thing can happen! Doubt is the other side of the coin of faith.

My takeaway from this Gospel is that while we all have doubts, just like the apostles, the faith we do have is sufficient to do what we have been called to do! To put our discipleship into action!

In and through the power of the Holy Spirit, that lives within each one of us, we can indeed respond by living the Gospel way of life, building up the Reign of God through working for justice and building peace in the world.

What are my doubts, and where is my faith strong? What actions will I take this week to live out my discipleship?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

September 25, 2022

9/24/2022

In this weekend’s Gospel Jesus tells the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. What is most interesting to me is that this is the only parable in which the main character is actually named. Usually in parables the characters remain unnamed so we are more easily able to insert ourselves into the story. But Jesus breaks with the tradition and calls the principle character by name: Lazarus.

Jesus speaks of a real person -- someone who mattered, someone who mattered to God...even though he seemed not to matter to those around him.

The parable of Lazarus is yet again a statement of how much the poor and vulnerable are loved and valued by God even though they are not by those around them.

Throughout Scripture prophets call attention to the poor as the “blessed ones” of God. The people of Israel were continually warned against maltreating the poor, the marginalized and the alien. So often we hear people speak of the poor and the homeless as some kind of blight or an inconvenience that they can’t be bothered with and are not responsible for.

In our nation today, bigotry, racism and bias put black lives at risk, threaten Muslims, immigrants and refugees and marginalizes them all. These attitudes devalue God given human dignity!

In today’s Gospel Jesus clearly warns us of the consequences of just such attitudes!

As we reflect on the Gospel this week, let’s reflect on how we respond to the “Lazarus’” we encounter in our lives.

How do we as individuals and as a faith community show that we value and care for the poor and marginalized of our community? What are the social and political ramifications of this Gospel for us today? In the midst of widespread gun violence, racism, Islamophobia, anti- immigrant and anti-refugee sentiments, what is the “Gospel response” we are being called to respond with to these situations?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

September 18, 2022

9/16/2022

Today we hear a few words from our old friend Amos. The prophet Amos was outraged and ashamed at how the poor and the needy and the foreigners were being treated by the people of Israel. He condemned them for what today we would call human trafficking and cruelty to the poor.

The book of Amos warns that God would punish the people for their selfishness and obsession with becoming rich. A few chapters before the reading we heard today, Amos proclaims; “Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; then it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

Jesus also took up the topic of being obsessed with the accumulation of wealth, particularly when others were in such great need. Jesus warns us that we need to be “whole-heartedly” devoted to God and if we divide our heart between God and money we will lose out in the end.

Now the reality is that we all have to be concerned with making a living and providing for ourselves and our families. But how much is enough? At what point does “making a living” becomes focused on “getting rich” and then begins to take over all our time and thoughts and becomes the only measure of the success in our lives?

Being rich is not a sin...it is what we do or don’t do with what we have that can be sinful. Keeping God at the center of our lives will help us decide how to use what we have and with whom to share our wealth. It seems the Gospel is calling us to reflect on our relationship with our “stuff” and our relationship with God and our relationships with others.

How much of my “stuff” really matters to me? Would I feel freer if I had less stuff? When was the last time I talked to God about how I share my time, money and talent with others, especially the poor, the underprivileged, the underrepresented, the marginalized, the immigrant and the refugee? These are the people whom Jesus reached out to, and calls us, his disciples to do the same.

Blessings,
Fr Tim

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