The scene of the Wedding Feast at Cana unfolds as Mary seemingly “pushing” Jesus out into his public ministry, ignoring his reticence to perform a miracle in the midst of the crowd of guests gathered for the wedding feast. It seems that it was a moment when Mary called on Jesus to let his true identity shine forth for people to see! Jesus may well have felt that it was not the time but he responds to her request, eventually. For the Gospel of John  "signs" like the turning of the water into wine are very important as they point to the true identity of Jesus as both human and divine.

St Paul is also interested in our identity as members of the living Body of Christ. Paul challenges each one of us to reflect on what is our “gift”, What is our charism? The gifts that each person is given is given them, not for themselves but for the sake of the whole, for the Body of Christ.

On this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend I cannot but help to think his gifts of leadership, passion, vision and ultimately martyrdom…a man who shared all he had, his very life, for the sake of the moral soul of a nation. As the struggle for racial justice, equality and recognition the human dignity of all peoples continues, we must ask ourselves: What are my gifts that God has given me for the sake of this struggle? What gifts have I been given that I need nourished that they might grow for the sake of the whole Body of Christ? How do I put my gifts at the service of the Reign of God?

Blessings,
 Fr Tim

Today as we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John the Baptist, we call to mind the transforming power of discipleship. As we struggle to faithfully follow Jesus in our lives, our lives are transformed by the very struggle to be the presence of Christ in the world. Think for a moment about the baptismal ritual itself: first the calling out of the name in the midst of the assembly for all to hear…the sign of the cross traced on a forehead, a profession of faith, holy water poured and the sacred words are uttered…“I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of Son and of the Holy Spirit”…then an anointing with sacred oil…the passing of the “Light of Christ” and a white garment, symbol of a new life born of this ancient ritual.

But with this new life comes great responsibility…to live a life as a Christian…as a disciple of Jesus Christ. It is no easy task; to be a follower of Jesus Christ and live our baptism in concrete ways in our everyday lives. Our baptism calls us to put Christ at the center of our lives and to try and be a healing presence in a wounded world, by doing good works, being compassionate, and actively working for justice and peace in the world around us that is at war in so many ways. We are called to be healers of the wounds of divisions that separate us and cause us to be blind to the fact that we are all sisters and brothers, all of us, the children of God.

Is it outwardly evident that I am a disciple of Jesus by the way I live my life? What could I do in my life to follow Jesus even more closely than I already do to better live my call to discipleship received in my baptism?

God's Blessing,
Fr Tim

The word epiphany comes from the Greek; meaning to “appear”…or to be “revealed”. In some cultures the feast of Epiphany is referred to as “Little Christmas” or “the Feast of the Three Kings”, and is the day of exchanging gifts with friends and loved ones. Regardless of what we call it, it is a day on which we tell the story of the arrival of the magi who have come from afar to see the newborn king and to offer gifts. Epiphany is a time of celebrating the first acknowledgement of “a new beginning”…a time to celebrate the Reign of God bursting forth in the midst of creation! For sure we dwell for a while on the visit of the magi and the wonder of their journey…led by only a star that shown brightly in the deepest of the night sky. It is a time of wonder and awe…a time to allow ourselves to enter the story and reflect on our own journey… our spiritual journey.

For the magi the signs were in the heavens…a star that led them to Bethlehem, to a shabby little stable…where our God came among us as one of us. Perhaps the Magi’s real wisdom was that they knew that they didn’t know everything… they valued learning, they looked for signs, they paid attention to dreams…they expected God to talk to them… they believed that they encountered God in their daily lives. Ultimately the story of the Magi is a story of encounter, an encounter of the greatest kind…an encounter with God.

Am I open to “following a star”…to paying attention to the signs of God’s presence in my life? Where do I encounter God in the ordinary routine of my daily life? The Magi came bearing gifts…what gift of self might I offer to God?

Christmas Blessings,
Fr Tim

This is the time of year when it seems that everyone sings of peace on earth and good will toward all! Pope Paul VI proclaimed that if we want peace we need to work for justice. In this season of dreams of peace and good will…we are called to work for justice! Advent is a strange season…a season of hopes and dreams…a season of promises fulfilled and of promises yet to be fulfilled…a season of the Reign of God, that which is bursting forth and at the same time not yet fully here. Advent is counter cultural on so many levels…in a season when it seems the whole world begins to spin ever faster we are called to slow down…to spend time in prayer and reflection…to spend time thinking about the deeper realities of our lives.

Part of this season’s story is about a young girl living in a male dominated world where women were treated as property, but she breaks free from the bonds of obscurity and insignificance and becomes the heroine. A young girl named Mary said “yes” to an impossible proposition…”yes” to what must have seemed totally absurd. Imagine yourself in Mary’s place…a heavenly visitor telling you that God her/himself, The Creator of all things…visible and invisible…was “asking” her to be the mother of the long awaited Messiah. The whole idea that God would choose to become human, one like us, and enter into our world as a vulnerable and innocent child is almost too much to comprehend. And yet she said “yes”…and her yes changed the world forever! To this very day…right now…her yes is still changing the world because the Risen Christ is in our midst! Because of her yes we can profess “we are the Body of Christ!”

What is God calling me to say yes to as a member of the Body of Christ? Am I willing to risk, like Mary, and say “yes” to God not knowing where it will lead me…just trusting that God will walk with me on the journey? As I say yes to God, who am I being called to journey with?

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim

Rejoice! Exult! Be Glad!…for your God rejoices over you! The prophet Zephaniah extols us to “shout for joy”, to be glad and exult with all our hearts for our God has removed all our guilt and we have nothing to fear! The prophet boldly proclaims that our God is in our midst and that God rejoices over us and sings joyfully because of us!

This Sunday is known as “Gaudete Sunday” and we light the rose colored candle on the Advent wreath as a sign of our joy. And we are joyful because of the love our God has for us. In the Gospel we hear that when the people responded to John the Baptist’s call to repent, they asked “what should we do?” John’s response was “if you have two cloaks, share with the person who has none…and whoever has food should do likewise.”

So as we rejoice, repent and prepare we do so by turning our attention to the poor, the marginalized, the immigrant and refugee. In the midst of all of the vitriolic, hateful and racist language we are called to stand up and speak out and act on behalf of our sisters and brothers who are being maligned and victimized by supposed “Christians”! Our baptism, by water and the Holy Spirit, calls us to prioritize our lives around our discipleship of Jesus Christ. By keeping Christ at the center of our lives we find direction and are emboldened to become, more and more, manifestations of Christ’s presence in the midst of a wounded world to which we reach out, in love, to all those who are suffering and rejected or despised…we call them our sisters and brothers!

Let us rejoice, repent and prepare by living our discipleship by reaching out to “the lest ones”….speaking out and acting out on their behalf….and thus we will be ready for Christ’s coming. What will I do this week to rejoice, repent and prepare? With whom will is share an extra cloak, if I have one?

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim

REPENT! Prepare the way of the Lord! These words of John the Baptist echo down through the centuries and are as pertinent to us as they were to those who first heard them. John came from the desert crying out to the people, calling them to a moment of metanoia”…literally “a turning around”. The Voice of John the Baptist cries out to us in the midst of the rush and chaos of the Advent season, calling us to a conversion of heart. He announces the breaking forth of the Reign of God in our very midst. But can we hear him amid the cacophony and the clamor of our busy and overscheduled lives? I think not…not unless we are willing to step back, to sit down and to spend a moment reflecting on our lives and our relationships. We need to ask ourselves if we are “living” our discipleship.

The Scriptures for this Sunday speak of a new time for the people of Israel, a time of great hope…a new reign that is breaking forth. In this new world, mercy and justice will flourish and the wicked and unjust ones will be banished forever. But as we look around it seems as if we are a long way off from the “peaceable kingdom”. Wars rage and political unrest swirl around us like the biting winds of a cold December night. Millions of our sisters and brothers desperately seek refuge with no home in sight. Terrorists strike the innocent and fill us with fear…it all seems so bleak.

Where is the Reign of God bursting forth? It is waiting to burst forth from within each one of us! The Reign of God bursts forth every time we respond to a person or a situation in a Christ-like manner. Are we brave enough to “turn around” to answer the call of John the Baptist…to allow the love of God to soften our hearts and enlighten our minds? As Christians are we willing to really “live” the Reign of God through our daily actions? What would that look like…what would I have to change in my life for me to be a living sign to others of the bursting forth of the Reign of God, bringing love, mercy and forgiveness into a world so full of anger, violence and fear?

Advent Blessings, 
Fr Tim

Happy New Year! ...no, I’ve not lost it…today we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent…the beginning of the church’s liturgical year. Advent is truly a “wonder-filled” season. We look to the deep blue night sky…shimmering with a billion stars, each one a reminder of the dawn of creation… 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 a huge humanitarian crisis as our sisters and brothers flee war, violence and terror, they wander the earth in search of a home. As we reflect on the wonder and awe of God’s amazing love for the earth and all humanity let us raise our voices and our hands to make sure that these refugees, and all who wander the earth in search of finding “home”, be taken in. Let us not allow fear to rule our lives, but rather the love of Christ!

Just as the Holy Family was made refugees by the tyrant Herod, so too these sisters and brothers of ours stand at our southern border, they flee violence and war, let us work to make sure they find a “home” too! Let us not allow the immensity of the 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 in the midst of this humanitarian crisis?

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim

​Since 1969, the end of the liturgical year is punctuated by the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (previously known as “the Feast of Christ the King”). The raising of its status to a “Solemnity” and the expansion of the title point to a deepening of the understanding of the cosmic nature of the “Christ Event” and its impact in not only human history but of its impact on all created reality! Perhaps “Sovereign of the Universe” would be a less patriarchal title and convey the same reality.

Today throughout the church we focus not just on Christ’s sovereignty over all creation but on Christ’s love for each of us and indeed God’s love for all creation. The second reading helps to hone the true image of “this Sovereign”…the glory is to be given to the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his very life. And if we listen, we can hear the echo of the Good Shepherd in Jesus’ final words in today’s Gospel…“everyone who belongs to the Truth listens to my voice.” And so we listen to Christ’s voice in our lives and make Christ the sovereign of our lives. Not as one who lords it over us but as the One who came that we might have eternal life….the One who remains in us and we in Christ…who was, who is, and who is yet to come!

This understanding of Christ as Sovereign of the Universe holds the power to draw us into the enormity of the mystery of the Divine act of creation itself, a holy and selfless act of Love…and we are the progeny of this ever expanding, creating Love. In a world with far too many despots and tyrants who rule by force and fear, we are called to build up the Reign of God, that all creation might flourish and blossom, a Reign built on love and mercy. So in the midst of reflecting on the sovereignty of Christ in our lives let us pray for and work towards solutions that help to end war and violence, and open our hearts to their victims, thus building up the Reign of God. Let us not be ruled by fear or violence but rather let us be ruled by the “Sovereign of the Universe”, Love, itself!

Blessings,
Fr Tim

The liturgical year is coming to an end and so we start to ponder the reality that one day the world will end and Christ will return…but when? Some Christians routinely (and wrongly) announce the return of Christ…they seem to forget that Jesus clearly said that no one, not even “He” knew when the world would end! And yet they continue to claim to know the date and time. Remember the “Jesus is coming on May 21st” billboards that dotted the highways a few years ago?

Today’s Gospel is not about “knowing” when Christ will come…but rather about being ready when Christ does come! Am I ready? At the center of the readings is a message of total reliance upon the mercy and love of God. It is about keeping our hearts and minds open to God’s presence in our daily lives and in the world around us! The psalmist reminds us that God is our portion and cup, our inherence and therefore our hearts are glad and our souls rejoice…for we are God’s beloved!

By keeping God at the center of our daily lives we indeed will be ready if the world were to end in our time. Because of the love and mercy of our God we need not fear “the end” for we will be transformed into beings that shine like the stars in the heavens! Through Christ we have inherited eternal life and each of us is a part of “the great cloud of witnesses” who give glory to God. When and where was the last time I felt the presence of God in my life? How do I actively engage in keeping God at the center of my life? How do I give glory to God in my life?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

The women in our readings today, the widow of Zarephath and the widow in the temple treasury, gave not from their surplus but from their want…each one gave all that she had. That fact that they are widows living in a patriarchal society with no male relatives mentioned points towards an understanding that they were on their own with no one to guard them or provide for their needs. Widows had little or no social standing in the patriarchal society they lived in. Widows and orphans were the most vulnerable class of people in this society and there were scriptural edicts that they were to be protected, but obviously their poverty and dire situations proved that these edicts were not followed.

The Widow of Zarephath is blessed by God for her generosity with a flour jar and an oil jug that never runs out and she and her son survive the drought. And the widow at the temple, unaware that she is being watched, is hailed by Jesus as a woman with the most generous heart, unlike those who were rich and made a scene of their gifts. And Jesus diminishes the value of their gifts because of the size of their wealth. So the lowly widow, who gave from her want, becomes the heroine of the story.

There are so many examples of people in our world today who give like the women in today’s scripture, not just money but their time and talent. They see a need and they respond to that need…foster parents, hospice and healthcare workers, firefighters, police officers, military women and men, teachers, parents who sacrifice so much for their children to have a safe and good life. The list goes on and on, and includes YOU, each time you reach out in kindness to help someone in need, each time you think of the other instead of yourself, each time you seek to feed the stranger with your last bit of flour and oil you are that widow, each time you offer more than you have to really offer to aid someone in need or to a good cause you are that widow with the most generous heart that Jesus pointed out to his disciples in the temple. When was the last time I “acted as the widows did”?

Blessings,
Fr Tim