Today’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus healing of the leper. In biblical times leprosy was a term used to cover a whole host of skin diseases and conditions. Many did not in fact have true leprosy. But unfortunately, they were nonetheless completely cut off from all family, friends and community. They became total outcasts, having to call out as they walked along “unclean, unclean”! Imagine the damage to the human psyche how brutally hurtful to the soul it all must have been to live with a belief of yourself as “unclean”; how isolating it would have been. Imagine the powerful impact that Jesus’ healing had on this man, it would have been completely and utterly life altering and transformative!

While Jesus had instructed him to tell no one about his healing he ran forth and told everybody he encountered about what Jesus had done and how he had healed him. But it is so easy to understand how he simply could not keep his mouth shut about what had happened to him. Suddenly he had his life back; he had his family back. He could once again enjoy the company of his friends and his community! He was no longer an outcast. He no longer had to identify himself as “unclean” and unfit and unable to be part of the human family!

And so, this Gospel begs the question: who are the lepers in our lives, in our communities, in our nation and in our world? Immigrants, refugees and migrants, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community  all these people are treated with disdain and contempt by hate groups, and people who fail to see their common human dignity, they fail to see that the ones they hate are the beloved children of God! Racists, white supremacists, misogynists, xenophobes all fail the most basic test of discipleship. Their lives are ruled by hatred of “the other” and they do not love their neighbor as their selves, let alone love their enemy, as Jesus commanded all of us to do as his disciples!

Living our discipleship means loving one another without limits or qualifications! It does not stand on how they treat us or how they think of us. It is about our attitude toward them, not what they do! Treating “the other”, especially the one who has offended me, as the beloved child of God is no easy task but being a disciple of Jesus is no easy life. It ultimately leads to the cross!

We must be willing to at least be open to the possibility of loving the one who hates and return their hate with Gospel love. To embrace them, not their hate filled words and actions or intentions. We can strongly and loudly, in the name of the Gospel, call out as “sin” their wicked words and despicable actions! But that does not mean that we hate them, as they are still the children of God! This is where it gets difficult to put what Jesus calls us to, into action! To live the life of a disciple.

We will fall down and fail but by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, we can rise up and start again!

We need to ask ourselves, who are the lepers in my life and how can I try to bring healing and wholeness to them?

How can I actively work to bring an end to all of these “isms” that divide, devalue and demean the human dignity of any of my sisters and brothers?

God’s Blessings,
Fr Tim

Scripture scholars recognize that by the end of the 5th century B.C.E. the prophets of Israel strangely fell silent…God seemed to have stopped raising up mouthpieces to speak his words to his people. And then Jesus comes along and not only spoke with authority and cast our demons but what he said touched the people deeply. His words rang true to their inner hearts, just as Jeremiah, one of the later prophets, had predicted.

Jesus spoke with the power of the Lord! Something that had long disappeared from the land of Israel…the prophetic voice that had gone silent was speaking once again but more powerfully than ever before. In today’s Gospel it is pointed out he was from Nazareth! The demon was trying to put down Jesus by calling out his “backwater” home town… recalling Nathanial’s words from John’s Gospel, ”could anything good ever come from Nazareth?” But finally, the unclean spirit recognizes Jesus as “The Holy One of God”! And the people are astonished by Jesus’ authority with which he taught and that even unclean spirits obeyed him!

But the religious leaders and the elders of the people would become fearful of Jesus and the power he exercised in word and deed. What they couldn’t see is what the “unclean spirit” was able to see, Jesus’ oneness with God! His power was from his identity as “The Holy One of God”!

Who are the prophetic voices we listen to today? And what are they calling us to?

Are you being called to be prophetic in word and action? Through our baptism each one of us has been anointed to be a prophet, to live prophetic lives, lives that challenge the injustices of the world, lives that challenge racism and bigotry and misogyny, lives that heal and bring wholeness to the wounded and suffering of the world. You and I, we are called to be prophets who speak out and act out on behalf of the immigrant and the refugee, to be builders of peace and makers of justice! This is our prophetic call received at our baptism and sealed in the power of the Holy Spirit! Now is the time to live our discipleship, to claim our prophetic role in building up the Reign of God, to live and to love as the children of God whom we truly are!

God’s Blessings,
Fr Tim

The theme this weekend, again, is God’s call and our response, but there is a focus on the urgency of responding…an urgency in building up the Reign of God…NOW! The Gospel tells of the disciple’s response to Jesus’ call, they respond without hesitation, dropping what they were doing and following him immediately. As disciples we too are called and expected to drop everything and follow Jesus…not only proclaiming the Gospel with our words but through our actions. Discipleship is about following “the way”…God’s way. And God’s way is “the way of love”… of being for the other as Jesus is for us…and this truly is the Good News. It seems more than we can do, and it would be without the Holy Spirit right there with us every step of the way, guiding us and gently pushing us along!

There is urgency in discipleship; we are not to tarry and be about many other things but rather to live in such a way that our very lives proclaim God’s amazing love for all people. It is such a monumental task, but we can, each one of us, each in our own way live it out…not perfectly, but with the willingness to listen for the call and respond to the best of our ability at that time, and if we fall, getting back up and trying again. The Good News is preached by our loving of each other, especially by our loving the poor, the marginalized, the immigrants, the “Dreamers” and the refugees, by loving the one who is “other” than us and loving those most in need of being loved…not just with our words but with our actions. We are called, as Pope Francis has said, “to draw close to them”! We are called to work for racial justice we are called to work for an end to white supremacy and white nationalism! We are called to be ambassadors of the Reign of God, where all of those previously mentioned negative realities cannot exist and are antithetical to the Reign of God. We are called to not just preach about it but making it present by how we live our lives…lives of peace-making and justice-building, guided by and built upon the principles, values, words and actions of Jesus Christ as proclaimed in his Gospels.

What Gospel values or principles are most evident in the way I live my life? What other Gospel values or principles might I work on manifesting in my life, so as to more fully proclaim the Good News? What part of the Gospel do I find most difficult to embrace and put into action in my own life?

God’s Blessings,
Fr Tim 

There is a clear theme of being called in today’s readings. In the first reading Samuel is called and called and called even a third time before it is made known to him that it is God who is calling him and finally he responds “speak Lord for your servant is listening.” The psalm, correspondingly, proclaims “here I am Lord; I have come to do your will.” And the Gospel reading we hear today tells of Jesus’ calling of the first disciples. As Jesus walked along the road, John the Baptist saw him and cried out “behold, the Lamb of God.” Several of John’s disciples leave him and begin to follow Jesus asking him where he is staying and Jesus responds “come and you will see”…and they follow him. It is interesting to note that when one of the disciples (Andrew) brings his brother to Jesus, Jesus immediately changes his name from Simon to Peter!

In the Bible when there is a name change, such as Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah or Saul to Paul, it often signals a significant change in the person and their relationship to God. It can also signal that their lives are about to change, that they are about to swerve from the road they are traveling down onto a new path…one specifically chosen for them by God. Peter’s name change is no less significant, he is about to become “the chief” of this, as of yet unformed, band of followers of Jesus. In Jesus’ act of changing Simon’s name he is calling him to come and follow him. If he accepts the name change, then he accepts the invitation to follow Jesus. I often think that it was so much easier for the disciples to hear the call and to follow since Jesus was right there, physically present to them. They could audibly hear his preaching, they could see, and read, his facial expressions and his hand and body gestures…but for those of us who come later to this band of followers…well it’s a little harder for us to know exactly what the call is and where it is leading us.

Sometimes the call is clear and well articulated, but sometimes it is not so clear or well-articulated. Sometimes it seems muffled and downright confusing. So we have to pay close attention and listen carefully…especially as there is so much competition for our attention. There are so many other voices that seem to all speak at the same time -- we can be like Samuel, a bit confused and not sure at first…but if we stay engaged and “make time” to listen for that small still voice of the Holy Spirit that dwells with in each one of us…then, perhaps, we will hear the invitation to “come and follow” and we will find the path we are being called to travel. In the end the invitation is clear, but the many “voices” of our lives and the world around us distract us and gain all of our attention and so we can find ourselves confused and unsure of the path to follow. But by refocusing our attention and making time to listen we can, like Samuel and Simon, “come and follow”.

The Gospel message is surely “the call”. It records Jesus’ words and actions, what he called his disciples to do, how to live, how to love one another and to welcome and love the one who was “other” and the one who was “the stranger”, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, to reach out to the poor and the marginalized. The Gospels are the “lens” through which we are called to view the world around us and through which we can judge and decide upon what action we are called to take. The Gospel is the Word of God and it seeks to speak to us, to call us to the path that we, as disciples, are called to follow.

With all the violence and chaos that has erupted in our nation, and around the world, and here at home that threatens to get worse in the coming days we need to hold strong to the Word of God that has been spoken to us through the Gospels and to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to respond to it. Let us remember “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (Jn 1:5) In the midst of the pandemic and all of the political turmoil there is so much darkness, but The Light shines, and it shines within you and me, it shines within all of us as the community of The Light! Let us listen to the call of the Holy Spirit and let us use the Gospels as our guide for our response to the chaos swirling around us and let us not give up hope for a brighter day! Let our light shine by standing up against and working to root out the sins of systemic racism, white supremacy and nationalism! Let us live up the to clarion call of the Gospels to love God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves, fighting the great lie that one group of people is worth more or better than another! And let us pray for and work towards a more peaceful and just nation!

What are the competing voices of my life that make it difficult for me to really listen for God’s call to me? How can I best stand up to and fight against systemic racism, white supremacy and nationalism?

God’s Blessings,
Fr Tim 

The Christmas Season officially comes to a close with the celebration of the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. In the Jewish tradition water was seen as purifying and healing but John brings to the waters of baptism the concept of baptism as “an act of repentance”, and thus Jesus in choosing to be baptized by John identifies himself with the sinfulness of humanity when he accepts this “baptism of repentance”.

And it is in this very human act of Jesus humbling himself in repentance that his divinity is exposed. It is in this moment that Jesus hears the voice of God say you are my beloved child in whom I am well pleased! Who among us doesn’t long to hear those words…to be proclaimed “my beloved…in whom I am well pleased?” And the fact of the matter is that we are at our truest selves the “beloved of God”. And yet we struggle with accepting that identity, perhaps because we feel unworthy, too broken or too unimportant in the scheme of things to truly be “the beloved of God”. We live our lives based on who we think we are. We make decisions and choose to do or not to do, based on who and how we identify ourselves in relation to the world around us. So coming to embrace the reality that you are the “beloved of God” greatly impacts your life. It is in and through our identity as the “beloved of God” that we become “grace” to the world around us.

In accepting this identity we are transformed and all our relationships are transformed as well. When we begin to live out of the identity of being the “beloved of God” we begin to see the world differently and we begin to act toward ourselves and others differently…with less judgment, less selfishness and with more mercy. We begin to live with more openness to self and others and we become filled with more gratitude and generosity.

Embracing that we are the “beloved of God” changes not only how we see ourselves and how we see others, but changes what we give value to in life and what we believe to be important or unimportant in life; what we are willing to live for and what we are willing to die for.

In the midst of all of the hatred and division, the racism and misogyny, the anti-immigrant and anti-refugee and white supremacy that swirls throughout our nation, it is so vitally important to come to terms with who we are at our core, who God created us to be! Only then can we move away from the hatred and division, the racism and misogyny, the anti-immigrant and anti-refugee and white supremacy that cripples us as individuals and as a nation.

Standing in that place of grace, being the “beloved of God” changes everything! Do I accept my true identify as God’s beloved child? What self-image might I have to let go of to more fully accept being the “beloved of God”…and how might it change my life? And after the mayhem and death that we saw happen at the Capitol this past week, may each of us pray for the grace to accept our truest identity as a beloved child of God, and by this may we be the change this nation and the world so desperately needs!

God’s most abundant blessings to you all in this New Year!

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 a 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, or the three kings, who have come from afar to see the newborn king and to offer gifts.

Epiphany is a time of celebrating the 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 only by 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 into 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. So we must ask ourselves, am I open to “following a star”…to paying attention to the signs of God’s presence in my daily life? Where do I encounter God in the ordinary routine of my daily life, even in the midst of all the chaos of our national and international life, in the midst of this pandemic?

The magi came bearing gifts…what gift of self might I offer to God and others? Do I see and accept the gifts of those coming from foreign lands, like the magi who came from afar to honor the birth of Jesus?

I pray you all a most healthy and blessed New Year!

Fr. Tim

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...to open our hearts to the wonder of this Christmas moment. Let us all say a prayer of gratitude for the gift of 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 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 transform us, to give us new eyes to see the world.

I pray that each and every one of you have 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