In today’s Gospel, Jesus sets aside the law of Moses regarding Jewish divorce law. Jesus makes it clear that while “the law” allowed a man, in a rather simple manner, to divorce his wife and kick her out of his house, Jesus found it unacceptable.

In the first century Middle Eastern world women were basically the property of men. They had little or no identity aside from that which they had through their connection to male members of their family. They were either a man’s daughter, sister, mother, or wife.

Women rarely had an identity of their own which was not rooted in some relationship to a male. When a man
divorced his wife, she lost her identity within the community. When she had married her husband her primary identity came through him, no longer through her birth family. By the action of her husband, the divorce would have shamed her and cut her off from many ties in her community. She would have been seen as bringing shame on her family of origin and therefore likely not welcome in their home nor in the home of another man because the divorce would have brought shame upon her, given that they lived in an honor-/shame-based society.

For all practical purposes, the woman (and often her children) would be turned out into the streets to fend for herself and for her children. Scripture scholars point out that it is this reality that Jesus found so unacceptable. In this case the woman and her children became the “the very least of the society,” those for whom Jesus claimed the rest of the society was responsible. Jesus’ concern is about
the woman and the children.

Mosaic law allowed for divorce but without concern for what happened to the woman. There was no court that divided up the property of the couple in an equitable manner; it all went to the man. The man was the owner of all the property and objects contained in the home. Moses didn’t take into consideration the shame that would befall the woman when he wrote the law concerning divorce. Jesus, speaking to the Pharisees, a group of men, said that it was because of “the hardness of their hearts” that Moses allowed them to dispose of their wives in this manner.

Given Jesus’ teachings on the marginalized and the outcast of society, how do I respond to the needs of the “rejected ones” and those “turned out” by our society today? And for us men…how do we view a women’s place in our society and societies around the world and in the church? And, how do I view women in my personal relationships…and are my views of, and my treatment of women in line with Jesus’
teachings?
​
Blessings,
Fr. Tim

In last week’s Gospel the disciples quarreled amongst themselves over who was the greatest. This week, they are incensed at the audacity of an “outsider” who acts as though he is part of the “insiders”; acting as though he was part of Jesus’ inner circle of the twelve disciples. But Jesus cautions John not to be so quick in his judgment of the man casting out demons in Jesus’ name.

It seems, still today, that well-meaning and upstanding disciples are routinely aghast at the thought of including “less than upstanding members of our society” in “the family of God”.

“But Lord,” they say, then as today, “what about standards? What about criteria? ” They wonder how can you admit anyone, no matter what’s contained in their past, no matter how unsuitable their present? Remember that God allows the rain to fall on the fields of the just and the unjust…it is God’s choice not ours. Each Mass we pray for the souls of
the deceased whose righteousness only God knows! Maybe some people will decide not to be associated with the
Kingdom as Jesus presents it…they may believe they have attained righteousness all by themselves, through their own
efforts and wonder how Jesus can possibly ask them to share the Kingdom with sinners, tax collectors and the like?

People, even on their best day, with their best effort, could never attain the Kingdom…except for God’s grace!

Thank you God for “your amazing grace”! I don’ know about you but I’m relying on that nonexclusive, all-saving, grace…
yesterday, today and tomorrow!

When we believe behavior excludes people of goodwill who are doing the best they can, like Eldad and Medad, like the
man in the Gospel, such exclusion becomes the very antithesis of what Jesus demonstrated in his words and actions, and is
what is demanded of us as followers of Jesus Christ!

When we do what we do in God’s name for the good of others, we become equal in each other’s sight, as we always have
been in God’s sight. Discipleship is difficult. It challenges the way we live, the way we think and the way we view “others”
and the way we view the world around us.

Discipleship calls us to be our best selves, as God has created us to be, as God has dreamt us to be in the world…to love one
another, as Christ has loved us, and to care for the world, our common home.

God gives us the grace we need to live up to that dream that God has for us and for the world as a whole. And the Eucharist
helps strengthen us for the task of living out our discipleship to the best of our abilities. Through God’s grace we can help build up the Reign of God in the here and now through our “good works” for the sake of “the other” and for the sake of the
earth itself! Discipleship demands that we use the Gospel as “the lens” through which we view the world around and by
which we judge our actions and interactions in our daily lives.

In light of today’s Gospel let us ask ourselves, do I exclude anyone from my life because I have judged them to be undeserving or inferior? Do I look down on anyone or any group of people? Can I believe that God deeply and passionately loves all of us, just as we are, even those whom I might think unworthy? And what does this mean for my faith journey and my relationship with God?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

In the second reading St. James warns us that where there is jealousy and selfish ambition there is disorder and every foul practice -- it rings so true and sounds so familiar; we find it rampant in our politics and throughout our society today.

James goes on to say that wisdom is from above and is pure, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy and is sincere. And so, peace, gentleness and mercy are what we should strive for in our lives with each other.

In the Gospel Jesus catches the disciples in a moment of jealousy and selfish ambition, arguing amongst themselves who was most important, who was the greatest of the group.

He called them together and singled out a child in their midst (understanding that children were of the most vulnerable class and had no social status) and he told them that they must stop striving to be first, or to be the greatest and the most recognized.

As Jesus’ disciples we must focus on welcoming the vulnerable, the poor, the outcast and the weak, like the child. And when we do so, we welcome Jesus and we welcome the One who sent him!

In last week’s Gospel Jesus told us that unless we were willing to lose our lives for him and for the sake of the Gospel, we will not save our lives. Today we hear Jesus tell us that by reaching out to “the other” we save our lives.

Jesus calls us to refocus our lives not on ourselves, but on the poor and the vulnerable. Jesus calls us to look at the world with different eyes -- to look at the world through “Gospel eyes” -- to see the world as God sees it; to love the world as God loves it.

Jesus is calling us to love our neighbor as ourselves. And the reality is that “all people” are our neighbors! Regardless of where they live, or where they were born, or their race or their gender or their politics or economic or immigration status. They are all, by Jesus’ definition, our neighbors.

So, as we look around our country and our world, as Christians, as disciples of Jesus Christ, it would seem that an awful lot of our “neighbors” are in desperate need of our love and our help!

And so, I believe that in light of today’s Gospel and the social and political discourse in our country, I need to ask myself a few questions. Such as: What part of my world view and my view towards “my neighbors” could use more of a “Gospel centered view”? What might I need to change or modify in my life to actively live a more Gospel centered life? And finally, who is the most vulnerable person, or persons, in my life right now that need me to reach out to them, to let them know they are deeply and passionately loved by God and are not alone in this world…and how can I help manifest that love to them though my care for them?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

Throughout the Gospels Jesus is drawn to the outcasts, to the poor and the marginalized. We see him time and time again reaching out to the leper and those seen as unclean by society; to people that he should have avoided based on religious laws, but instead he embraced them.

It is precisely in his embracing of the “suffering ones” that I believe Jesus’ true identity bursts forth.

In today’s Gospel Jesus asks the disciples, who do people say that I am, they give many answers, but then he asks them, most importantly, “But who do you say that I am?”.

And Peter, correctly, responds, “You are the Christ!”, to which Jesus responds by telling them to keep it to themselves and not tell anyone who he really is.

Jesus then goes on to tell them that even though he is the Messiah, he is going to suffer greatly, be rejected by the religious leaders and ultimately be killed! He tells them that anyone who wishes to follow him must deny themselves and pick up their cross and follow him and whoever loses their life for him and for the sake of the Gospel will save their life!

Jesus is letting them all know that they too are going to be beaten, stripped and spit upon just like he will be as he will make his way to Golgotha. Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and to the cross was a journey of embracing all of those who suffer under the weight of their crosses, crosses placed upon them by human traffickers, by unjust immigration policies. An embracing of those who bear the weight of the crosses of systemic racism, bigotry and misogyny and social marginalization.

On his journey to the cross Jesus aligned himself with all the victims of abuse by clergy, by church leaders, and anyone abused physically, sexually or emotionally. He is the Son of the God, the one who the prophet Isaiah spoke of who would walk with the weak and vulnerable.

Just as he embraced those whom others recoiled from or found unworthy or “out of place”…we, as his followers, we are called to embrace them and welcome them.

We are called to reach out to those who are abused and marginalized and ignored by our society. Our discipleship in Jesus Christ calls us to stand together to call out and demand that their voices be heard and that they receive the justice they deserve.

In the midst of a nation so divided we are called to be voices of unity to those who are marginalized and threatened because of the color of their skin or their nationality or their gender or orientation. We are called to be voices of welcome to all those who are being turned away and chased down, villainized and deported. We are called to be voices of welcome to the stranger, to the immigrants and refugees who are seeking a new life in our country.

On the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, we are called to carry the cross of all of those who lost their lives in the attacks and in the ensuing wars and the families and loved ones they left behind, whose lives are forever scared and changed.

All the afore mentioned people are the crucified whose crosses, like Simon of Cyrene, we may help to carry, even if for just a few steps on their long journey. And in the carrying of their crosses, we may come to know them just a little better, to understand their suffering, and to see Christ present in them…whose cross might I help carry? And who might I let help carry the crosses of my life?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

In the second reading St. James speaks to us about the importance of showing the same impartiality to others that God shows to us. If God doesn't make distinctions between rich and poor, then who are we to do so?

In fact, if there is to be any partiality shown, it should be shown to the poor whom God chooses to be the people through whom the kingdom of God is passed on to, to the rest of humanity. Recall for a moment the words of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth: God will lift up the lowly, fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty handed!

Today in the Roman Catholic Tradition we call this “a preferential option for the poor,” a corner stone of Catholic Social Teaching. Throughout the Gospels we see Jesus doing the same. Jesus not only attracted but invited and reached out to the poor, the sick, the sinner and the social and religious outcast. These actions of Jesus are the Gospel roots for the preferential option for the poor.

Jesus’ message of God’s deep and profound love for all of us was most strikingly demonstrated in his care and concern for those who were marginalized and ostracized by his society.

He continually reached out to and raised up the “the least ones” of his society. Often enough they were people who others found a bit uncomfortable to be around…they were not the ones given seats of honor at banquets or at synagogues, they were the ones that most people would cross to the other side of the street in order to avoid contact with.

In the ancient world, very often sickness was tethered to sin; it was thought to be a punishment from God. Remember when Jesus and a group of his followers encountered the man born blind and they asked Jesus: who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, “Neither, this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” (John 9: 1-3).

So, the man we encounter in today’s Gospel was most likely thought to be a sinner by some and yet Jesus immediately responds to the request to heal him -- no questions about who he was or what his background was. Jesus responds with compassion and heals him and thus restores him to bodily wholeness and in doing so, restores him to his community for no one could any longer claim his illness as a sign of his sinfulness and shun him, cutting him off from family and community.

It’s completely understandable that we all want our lives to be prosperous and to be neat and tidy and full of agreeable people, but what do we do when “other things happen” and “other folks” show up in our lives…when we encounter the same kinds of marginal situations and people, the ones Jesus himself loved and welcomed? How do we respond?

In the midst of so much division, hurt and anger in our world, in our country and in our church, how is the Holy Spirit calling me to respond to the one who is “other”?

I think these readings today beg the question: how do I show my preferential option for the poor? Who do I offer a seat at my table? We need to ask ourselves: on what realities or qualities do I judge the value of other people…by their clothes, or their occupation, by where they live, by their politics, by who they love, or by how attractive they are, by their physical abilities, or by their gender, or by where they were born, or by the color of their skin, or by their immigration status…? Or, filled with the Holy Spirit, are we able to see them as they truly are, based on the reality of their identity as children of God…our sisters, our brothers, “the beloved of God”, and then treat them and care for them as such? That is our call as disciples of Jesus Christ, and nothing less…to do as Jesus did!
​
Blessings,
Fr. Tim

This Sunday’s second reading from James reminds us of our responsibility to care for the vulnerable populations in our society. In first century Palestine, widows and the orphans were some of the most vulnerable; the poorest of the poor. They had no one to watch out for them and care for their needs, and both the Law and the Prophets commanded that it was the responsibility of the rest of the community of Israel to care for them. And today the Psalmist reminds us that, “the one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.” And of course, the implication here is that the unjust will not live in the presence of the Lord!

In the Gospel, Jesus chastises the Pharisees and the Scribes for adhering to the “letter of the Law” and not living the “Spirit of the Law”. He turns their world upside down and confronts them with the truth that what is in a person’s heart is more important than simply adhering only to the external precepts of the law. He points out how they have substituted human conventions for God’s laws. He accuses them of a disconnection between their outward pious practices and the true motivations of their hearts.

The prophet Micha, warned that rather than massive sacrifices of animals or even the offering of one’s first born, what God truly desired was “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”. Our practices should flow from our identity as the beloved children of God, returning to God that love that has been showered so freely upon us. Jesus commands us to love one another as he loves us and to do as he did, to treat each other with respect and dignity.

The message of God’s Word challenges us to “do justice”, to allow the Holy Spirit, that dwells within us, to transform our hearts from deep within.

Jesus challenges each one of us to become new creations and soar beyond the smallness and stinginess of our human societies and join in building up the Reign of God, a place where all people are valued, loved and cared for as sisters and brothers.

Join me this week as I reflect on: How am I actively doing justice in my daily life? Who are the poor and vulnerable in the world that I am called to care for? What do I need to do in order to let the Holy Spirit take a stronger lead in my life that I might live more justly, and live out my discipleship more authentically?

​Blessings,
Fr. Tim

“And some of them found his words too hard and just walked away”! Can you imagine it? There you are following Jesus all around Judea, watching him do astounding things -- raising the dead, restoring sight to the blind, healing the sick. He’s preaching the coming of the Reign of God, you’re hanging on his every word filled with a deep sense that somehow the whole world is about to change...and then he says something that is so strange, so totally out of bounds that even having seen him perform miracles, you just can’t be a part of it anymore and so you walk away from him and return to your former way of life!

That is what today’s Gospel says happened to some of Jesus’ disciples. What words could be so powerful? How disappointed they must have been thinking they had found the Messiah, having personally witnessed Jesus’ astounding power, having been mesmerized by his words and vision of the Reign of God...until he told them they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood; that he was the “bread of life come down from heaven.” It was just too much!

When I reflect on this Gospel reading I can’t help but think of all the times and ways in which “I have just walked away”; when I felt that it was all just too much! I have a sense that I am not alone in my walking away.

But the wonder of it is that when I have felt that way, Jesus always called me back! He’s not willing to let me be, and just walk away. And curiously enough, given the context of this Gospel, it is usually Eucharist that calls me back!

And it’s not just me, I hear it over and over again from people who have tried to walk away...but just can’t break loose from the “pull” of the Eucharist.

While we are free to walk away...God never just lets us go...God continues to follow after us...hunting us down like the “The Hound of Heaven”. I think it is also interesting to note that this total gift of self, by Jesus in the Eucharist, was precisely what caused some disciples to walk away -- they left at Jesus’ total gift of himself to them! It was just too much for them to be able to comprehend and to accept that we are so loved by God that God’s very self is made food for us. And it is that same God who searches us out when we walk away...bringing us back home.

And today in the midst of all the suffering, injustice and pain in the world, God is here with us right this moment, weeping
with us for all those who are sick and those who are suffering.

In the midst of wars and famine God is with them in the midst of their sorrow and suffering. And God touches our hearts to
reach out to them in their misery, to help them, to speak out on their behalf when and where their voices are silenced or
ignored!

As we are so fortunate to be able to gather around the table of the Lord, to be nourished by Christ’s very body, let us not
“walk away.” For filled by this Divine presence within us, we are emboldened to go forth from here and fight for all those
who suffer and are burdened; for that is our call as disciples of Jesus Christ! To do as Christ did!

​Blessings,
Fr. Tim

Have you ever seen the movie “Groundhog’s Day”? It’s a comedy; the story of a man who wakes up every day to the same day and the exact same set of events in the exact same sequence. Well… welcome to “groundhog’s day” -- at first it appears that we are hearing the same Gospel that we heard last Sunday and the Sunday before that! So, we find ourselves over halfway through our five week journey of reflecting on the gift of the Eucharist.

In Jesus’ world, the people with whom you ate were just as important as what you ate. Dietary restrictions defined membership in the Hebrew camps and daily life. Not only was what or how you ate important, but who you sat down to dinner with -- you ate with family. You ate with people who embraced your religious laws and customs.

If you invited a stranger to your table, you were implicitly offering not only a meal but shelter, and possibly protection, and extended-family status, and once you did, it was more or less, in perpetuity. Sharing a meal with someone could be a powerful sign of relationships.

Yet in the Gospels, Jesus freely feeds and eats with a variety of sometimes rather “unsavory” people. His table was open to all who were hungry…much like the figure of Lady Wisdom found in the first reading. We hear Lady Wisdom calling out in the streets: Anybody hungry? Come and eat!

She sets her table in advance of a guest list. She anticipates multitudes, sight unseen. The only requirement is that her guests come wanting what she has prepared…which is wisdom and understanding.

Yet one of the most difficult realities of the Eucharist is “understanding” … because it is a mystery beyond our grasp. While some Christians say it is just a symbol of Jesus’ presence and love among us, Roman Catholics believe in the “real presence” of Christ in the Eucharist we share each time we gather around the table of the Lord. Just as Jesus proclaimed to his disciples.

As I mentioned last week, the Catholic author, Flannery O’Connor, wrote that the Eucharist “is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.”

This profound statement of the centrality of the Eucharist in her life speaks to the importance that Jesus placed on it in today’s Gospel.

The meaning of the Eucharist refuses to be reduced to a mere statement of faith. The Eucharist is not an abstract idea. It is an experience of mystery that will always be beyond our struggle to articulate it.

As I have said before, the Eucharist is a raw and unmediated encounter with the very presence of Jesus Christ!

Just as it shocked the disciples, so too we should allow it to shock us…to wake us up to just how deeply and passionately we are loved by Jesus, who is willing to feed us with his very self that we might have eternal life.

If we are truly disciples of Jesus then we too are called to “feed” others…to respond to their hungers…not just for physical food…but to their hunger for justice, for peace, for respect of their human dignity! And we are able to do this precisely because of the indwelling of Jesus Christ within each one of us, which Jesus promises us in today’s Gospel!

At the end of our Eucharistic celebration, as Christ abides in me, how will this Divine indwelling impact my relationship with others?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

This Sunday we reflect on the Eucharist as we hear Jesus proclaim that what God asks of us is to believe in Jesus whom he sent into the world.

Jesus promises that the bread he provides does so much more than just satisfy our physical hunger — it satisfies our deepest human hungers. Jesus makes a clear connection between believing in him, as the one sent by the Father, and believing in his real presence in this “bread sent down from heaven” that we receive each time we gather around the table of the Lord.

Jesus wants the people to understand that this bread that he is offering is no ordinary bread. But rather “divine food” given because of God’s amazing love for them, God’s amazing love for us!

Over two thousand years later we still struggle to comprehend this mystery…Jesus’ real living presence in this bread, blessed, broken and shared. As a Eucharistic Community our gathering focuses on Jesus’ real presence in our midst…as we are gathered by his love.

Jesus’ extravagant gift of himself to us is not just for us…but for the sake of the world — for this suffering world caught up in the midst of wars, unimaginable poverty and famine, with millions of lives at risk because of climate change and political turmoil. But there is hope in the midst of all this distress, and the hope is the amazing transformative power of the love of God!

We are called to be the real manifestations of hope for all those people in our lives who are fearful, lonely and sick, to reach out to them, to be the “real presence” for them and to them.

The real challenge for us is to understand that as we gather for Eucharist. It is not just for our personal salvation…but that we are commissioned and sent forth to take that real presence of Jesus Christ out into a wounded world. We are called to be “Christ-bearers” bringing the healing presence of Jesus Christ to all those we meet but especially to those most in need: the marginalized, the immigrant and migrant, the disenfranchised minorities subjected to systemic racism, bigotry, misogyny and intolerance. We are emboldened to speak truth to power, both secular and religious — we are called to speak out against the sins of our nation and of our church.

This “real presence” within us emboldens us to be true disciples of Christ in action in the world building up the Reign of God through acts of kindness and generosity so the world might be, not as people in their brokenness have made it, but as God has dreamt it to be — a world of peace and justice, a world of equity and harmony where all people’s dignity is honored and respected!

And where the earth itself is respected and cared for! And so I believe we need to ask ourselves: for whom have I recently been “the real presence” of Jesus through acts of kindness and generosity? How do I share this “real presence” with my family and friends? To whom in my life is God calling me to be “the real presence” to, so that they might know how deeply and passionately they are loved by God?
​
Blessings,
Fr. Tim

This Sunday we reflect on the Eucharist as we hear Jesus proclaim that what God asks of us is to believe in Jesus whom he sent into the world.

Jesus promises that the bread he provides does so much more than just satisfy our physical hunger — it satisfies our deepest human hungers. Jesus makes a clear connection between believing in him, as the one sent by the Father, and believing in his real presence in this “bread sent down from heaven” that we receive each time we gather around the table of the Lord.

Jesus wants the people to understand that this bread that he is offering is no ordinary bread. But rather “divine food” given
because of God’s amazing love for them, God’s amazing love for us!

Over two thousand years later we still struggle to comprehend this mystery…Jesus’ real living presence in this bread, blessed, broken and shared. As a Eucharistic Community our gathering focuses on Jesus’ real presence in our midst…as we are gathered by his love.

Jesus’ extravagant gift of himself to us is not just for us…but for the sake of the world — for this suffering world caught up in the midst of wars, unimaginable poverty and famine, with millions of lives at risk because of climate change and political turmoil. But there is hope in the midst of all this distress, and the hope is the amazing transformative power of the love of God!

We are called to be the real manifestations of hope for all those people in our lives who are fearful, lonely and sick, to reach out to them, to be the “real presence” for them and to them.

The real challenge for us is to understand that as we gather for Eucharist. It is not just for our personal salvation…but that we are commissioned and sent forth to take that real presence of Jesus Christ out into a wounded world. We are called to be “Christ-bearers” bringing the healing presence of Jesus Christ to all those we meet but especially to those most in need: the marginalized, the immigrant and migrant, the disenfranchised minorities subjected to systemic racism, bigotry, misogyny and intolerance. We are emboldened to speak truth to power, both secular and religious — we are called to speak out against the sins of our nation and of our church.

This “real presence” within us emboldens us to be true disciples of Christ in action in the world building up the Reign of God through acts of kindness and generosity so the world might be, not as people in their brokenness have made it, but as God has dreamt it to be — a world of peace and justice, a world of equity and harmony where all people’s dignity is honored and respected!

And where the earth itself is respected and cared for! And so I believe we need to ask ourselves: for whom have I recently been “the real presence” of Jesus through acts of kindness and generosity? How do I share this “real presence” with my family and friends? To whom in my life is God calling me to be “the real presence” to, so that they might know how deeply and passionately they are loved by God?

​Blessings,
Fr. Tim