Just a Thought...or two...

January 23, 2022

1/21/2022

Our liturgical year runs on a 3 year cycle -- years A, B and C. We began year C with the first Sunday of Advent which opens each new liturgical year. And year C uses the Gospel of Luke. This Sunday begins with the opening of Luke’s Gospel acknowledging that many others have undertaken recording the events of Jesus’ life by those who witnessed the events firsthand. Luke desired to do the same so that Theophilus would come to know the truth, mainly, that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, who had come into the world as its Savior, manifested by his life, death and resurrection.

Both the Gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Apostles were written for this same Theophilus, all so that he might come to believe in Jesus the Christ. It has been pointed out over the years by many scholars that some of the more well-known Gospel stories are only found in Luke. Two of the most famous I would venture to say would be the annunciation by the angel Gabriel to Mary and her subsequent visit to her cousin Elizabeth from which we receive the words of the amazing Magnificat! But not to forget other stories unique to Luke such as: the good Samaritan and the Lavish Father (the Prodigal Son).

Last week in John’s Gospel we had Jesus beginning his public ministry at the wedding feast at Cana and the miracle of the turning of the water into wine. Luke similarly places the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in the region of Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit, where he traveled about the area preaching in their synagogues and everyone praised him.

And then he heads to his hometown of Nazareth and Luke recounts this wonderful scene of Jesus going to his home synagogue and proclaiming the words of the prophet Isaiah.

Jesus proclaims these famous words of, arguably, one of the most important of the ancient prophets. That opening line; “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”... is a proclamation of Jesus’ true identity, just as at the wedding at Cana, by his miracle he revealed his true identity.

In this case it is Jesus’ words when he sits down; “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” This is the moment when Jesus tells all of his boyhood friends and neighbors that he is not who they think he is! No he is MUCH MORE. He is the ONE upon whom rests “The Spirit of the Lord”! Now that is an amazing proclamation! And it had to have been shocking and somewhat unbelievable to his kin and to those who had known him all his life. But we will hear more about that next week.

What is the Spirit of the Lord moving me to do with my life? To whom is the Spirit calling me to reach out to?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

January 16, 2022

1/14/2022

As the scene of the Wedding Feast at Cana unfolds, Mary seemingly “pushes” 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 to me 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 identity of Jesus as both human and divine.

St Paul is also interested in identity -- 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 charismatic leadership, bold vision, deep faith and ultimately, martyrdom...a man who shared all he had, his very life, for the sake of the very soul of a nation.

As the struggle for racial justice, equality, and recognition of the human dignity of all persons continues, we must ask ourselves what are my gifts that God has given me for the sake of this struggle?

God’s blessings,
Fr Tim

January 9, 2021

1/8/2022

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.

And so we ask ourselves...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?

Christ’s Blessings,
Fr. Tim

December 26, 2021

12/24/2021

Merry Christmas!

Certain images inspire wonder. They’re powerful beyond the simple contents of the scene.
In the nativity scene we have such an image: a serene new mother, a concerned father, and a vulnerable newborn child. Beleaguered travelers, forced to take refuge in a stable, and the child is carefully laid in a manger—a food trough.

The crude surroundings leave the new family barely protected from the elements, open to any and all who come their way. And yet it inspires wonder!

I believe that the purpose of wonder is to open our hearts. It’s to help us to see that there is more to life than we have come to expect. It tells us that coursing through human life there are elements of the divine.

The manger scene is both an invitation and a promise. The invitation is to leave our pursuit of worldly things behind and instead to enter into the Mystery. To be as vulnerable as this child and these parents. To be as open as these shepherds and as generous of heart as the three kings. To praise like the angels and pay attention like the townspeople. The resulting promise is that we will encounter God. We will discover not only that Jesus is God, but that we too share in God’s life—not only in the afterlife, but right here and right now.

AND SO, HERE’S A CHRISTMAS INVITATION, it’s an invitation in the very midst of this pandemic, in the midst of all the fear and suffering and loss, we are invited to open our hearts to the wonder of this Christmas moment.

Let us all say a prayer of gratitude for the gift of deep and passionate love that God has for each and everyone of us...just as we are! Let us not squander this moment of wonder. Let us open our hearts to the poor and the marginalized, to the voiceless and the ignored, to women who are victims of assault and harassment, to the victims of racism and bigotry and hatred, to open our hearts to the immigrants and refugees, let us reach out to the brokenhearted and lost.

Let us not forget in the rush of the gift giving that in the end this is not about gifts but it is about our God becoming flesh, becoming our salvation and the salvation of the all world! Let us allow the wonder of the Incarnation to settle into our hearts and souls and to transform us, to give us new eyes to see the world as God sees the world!

I pray that each and every one of you has a “wonder-filled” Christmas and pray you come to know how deeply and passionately you are loved by God...just as you are!

Merry Christmas
Fr. Tim

December 19, 2021

12/17/2021

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 in some ways -- 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 in the midst of the pandemic.

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, The Creator of all things - visible and invisible - was “asking” you 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? As I say yes to God, can I say yes to the immigrants and refugees, yes to the women and girls assaulted and abused by the misogyny that is the very fabric of almost every culture in every country?

Can I say yes to refusing to participate in racism and bigotry in my words, actions and thoughts? Can I say yes to reaching out in love to even those who have hurt me or whom I have hurt?

Am I brave enough to risk it all like that young girl, from a dusty little backwater town, some two thousand years ago and say yes to God and to what God has in mind for me? Am I willing to risk, like Mary, and say “yes” to God, in the midst of the chaos, fear and sorrow of this pandemic, not knowing where it will lead me...just trusting that God will walk with me on the journey?

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim

December 12, 2021

12/10/2021

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, even in the midst of this pandemic!

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” (Joyful 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 for the coming of our long awaited Savior we do so by turning our attention to the poor, the marginalized, the immigrant, the refugee. In the midst of all of the vitriolic, hateful and racist actions we are called to stand up and speak out and act on behalf of our sisters and brothers who are maligned and victimized...often 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 are called to reach out to, in love, to all those who are suffering and rejected or despised, whom we recognize as our sisters and brothers!

Let us rejoice, repent and prepare by living our discipleship by reaching out to “the least 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 I share an extra cloak, if I have one, or share some extra food?

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim

December 3, 2021

12/3/2021

REPENT! Prepare the way of the Lord! These words of John the Baptist echo down through the centuries and are as pertinent to us today 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 it is very difficult 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 clearer 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? Let us prepare the way of the Lord by spreading love, mercy and forgiveness!

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim

November 28, 2021

11/24/2021

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 the 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.

It is a time meant to shake us loose from the ordinariness of our daily lives and to 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 one the largest humanitarian crises in recent memory, as we struggle through this pandemic that has claimed the lives of over five million people worldwide. And, in the midst of this horrible pandemic, 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 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 these humanitarian crises?

As I open my heart to the love of God this Advent season can I also open it to refugees and migrants and speak up on their behalf? How can I make sure my voice is heard amidst all the vitriolic anti racial justice hate speech?

This year let our Advent gift to the world be a promise to work for and pray for peace and justice. What could be of greater value for a world plagued by religious and political divisions and torn apart by terrorism and war...through prayer and action we “prepare the way of the Lord”!

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim

November 21, 2021

11/19/2021

Since 1969, by decree of St Paul VI, 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 points 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 closely, 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. For this is 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 famine, to fight for an end to systemic racism and all bigotry, to stand up against systemic misogyny and open our hearts and homes to immigrants, migrants and refugees and fight for their human rights...thus building up the Reign of God. Let us not be ruled by fear or violence or self-interest but rather let us be ruled by the “Sovereign of the Universe”, ruled by Love, itself!

Blessings,
Fr Tim

November 14, 2021

11/12/2021

One day the world will end...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, only His Father! 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 some 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 this weekend 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! As I said last week...God’s love for us as individuals is both lavish and passionate, it knows no bounds and it is the very reason for the incarnation of our God in Jesus Christ.

Jesus was the manifestation of God’s magnanimous love for us and through Him, God’s love and forgiveness was, and continues to be, freely poured forth upon each of us and indeed upon the entire world.

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 times. 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 gives glory to God.

When and where do I most feel 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

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