Blog Archives

February 28, 2021

2/26/2021

This Sunday we hear Mark’s account of the Transfiguration of Jesus. Right before the eyes of three of the disciples, Jesus’ true identity bursts forth and in one brief luminous moment, Peter, James and John are themselves forever changed...”transfigured”, with a growing awareness of the true identity of Jesus! I believe that each one of us have our own “moments of transfiguration”, moments in which we see or feel the very presence of God. They are moments when, deep inside, we come to know with certainty that God is present...that God is real.

These moments of awareness hold the potential to transfigure our lives into something new...something wonderful. The challenge is to learn “to live out of these moments”, keeping these moments alive in our hearts and minds allowing them to continually transfigure us more and more into the image and likeness of God. Each one of us carries within us experiences of the tenderness, mercy and love of God.

So often it is the chaos of our lives that “dim” the luminous moments of encounters with our God...we forget we ever had them in the midst of the rush and busyness of our daily lives. Not all of these “transfiguration” moments are happy or joyful, some of them come in the midst of great sadness, even in the midst of tragedy and death. I have had such “transfiguration” moments with people as they were dying, luminous in-breakings of Grace that transfigured the dying person, and me as well!

These transfiguration moments exist all around us in encounters with the poor and the marginalized, with the immigrant and refugee, with the one whom we see as “other”, there is God, waiting, wanting us to reach out and take “the other’s” hand and be transfigured.

Lent is a wonderful opportunity to look for transfiguration moments as well as to step back and recall those moments of grace when the fullness of God burst into our lives...when we realized that we were not alone... that there was something more to life, more than what we can see or touch...more than we can imagine...“God moments”!

When was my last “God moment”? How was I transfigured by that moment? What does that “God moment” call me to do, to be? Whose hand am I being called to reach out and grasp?

Lenten Blessings,
Fr. Tim

February 21, 2021

2/19/2021

In this Sunday’s Gospel, we hear of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert where he was tempted by the devil to choose worldly power and fame over his mission of compassion and forgiveness, and the announcement of the “in breaking” of the Reign of God. As we begin Lent it is appropriate for us to reflect a bit on our own lives, our own desert experiences and our own temptations. All of us as humans are tempted by pride, arrogance, selfishness, anger and greed...the real question is not if we have those temptations, but whether or not we give in to those temptations.

For some, who give in, they are led to disgraceful acts of greed and ego with catastrophic results. All we need do is read the headlines in the newspapers or listen to the nightly news...we know who they are and are able to judge their heinous acts...choosing profit over the lives of innocent children, manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.

But for most of us, our pride and greed is somewhat more contained...a white lie here and there...perhaps a small theft once in a while...a few carefully chosen harsh words meant to wound. Most of us are basically good people, trying to live as God has called us to live. In the recesses of our hearts we know we’ve been tempted...we’ve stood on the precipice of surrendering to our baser desires...enticed by money, recognition, or power to take advantage of situations or people, neglect of our responsibilities, or treat ourselves or others with disregard and disrespect. But take heart...the slippery slope toward sin does not a sinner make...St Paul in his letter to the Romans tells us that the “lie of sin” is that we think we can’t recover....that our sin makes us irredeemable...unloved and unlovable. Nothing is further from the truth!

We are assured over and over in the Gospels and the Psalms that nothing, no sin, can keep us from the love and forgiveness of God. God puts our sins as far away from us as the East is from the West!

Lent is an opportunity to walk into the darker corners of our heart and face our shortcomings and open ourselves to the Light of Christ...to allow Christ to transform us into the people that God dreams us to be. But how do we do that, individually, as a community and as a nation? How do we deal with our national sin of systemic racism and bigotry, as well as the sins of misogyny, the rejection of the immigrant, the refugee, the LGBTQ community, the poor, the mentally ill, the handicapped, the rejection of the one who is “other” than me?

Lent can be a time to look not only at our personal sin but at our nation’s “structural sin”! Lent can be a time to begin again — let us not allow the sins of our past and pre‐ sent to darken our future by thinking that all is lost! Instead let this Lent be a season of newness; a season of beginning again.

What can I/we do to let the light of Christ illumine the darker corners of our hearts and of our nation’s soul? What feelings or actions do I/we need to let go of to begin again, living a more Christ centered life that can lead us to take on the structural sins of our country? What can I do this Lenten season to build up the Reign of God by working for racial justice and for an end to white privilege.

Lenten Blessings,
Fr. Tim

February 14, 2021

2/12/2021

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

February 7, 2021

2/5/2021

Whenever I hear today’s Gospel -- the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and how she immediately gets up and starts to wait on them and feed them -- I always think ‘give her a break’, the woman was just sick in bed with a fever! But have you ever just gotten over the flu or an illness and you feel em- powered, you feel like you have to go and do something? It’s the story of so many of the people whom Jesus heals -- they run off telling all who will listen that Jesus has healed them, even when he has specifically told them not to tell a soul.

And then all the people start to gather at Peter’s house bringing the sick and the lame and Jesus says he and the disciples must move on to the next village, surely leaving a very disappointed crowd behind. He pushes on because he feels the pull of his mission to proclaim the bursting forth of the Reign of God! He feels the pull of the preaching of the Good News of God! It is that mission that Jesus gave to his disciples, to preach the Good News, even unto the ends of the earth!

One of our Spiritan theologians, Rev. Tony Gittins, CSSp, says that the church doesn’t have a mission as much as the mission has a church! The church exists for the sake of the mission Jesus gave to his disciples. And it is that mission that drives the church and gives it direction. It is that mission that drives all Jesus’ disciples!

How excited am I for living and preaching the Good News?

How does it drive my daily decisions and actions?

What parts of the Gospel do I find most challenging to put into action in my life?

God’s Blessings,
Fr Tim

February 28, 2021

February 21, 2021

February 14, 2021

February 7, 2021

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