Blog Archives

March 28, 2021

3/26/2021

Today’s readings carry the sorrows and the weight of the world. The false accusations, denials, betrayals, injustice and beatings Jesus faced are heart- breaking. Today’s Eucharist begins with great joy with palm branches in hand, we sing victorious hymns to commemorate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Like the crowds, we to welcome and rejoice in his reign. Similar to the disciples, we are also excited and filled with wonderful expectations. However when we listen to the passion of Jesus Christ, the mood of the crowds as well as that of the disciples changes swiftly. The crowds are fickle, cheering for Jesus one day and shouting “crucify him” the next day. Even many of his closest friends and followers sheepishly deny their knowledge of and association with him, and in cowardly fashion, abandoned him out of fear for their own safety.

Jesus, on the other hand is resolved to faithfully car- ry out his mission; the proclamation of the advent of the reign of God and of God’s lavish love and forgiveness poured out for each one of us, and for the earth itself...”for God so loved the world”. Through the suffering and death of Jesus we have been saved, forgiven, and our sins and guilt put as far from us as the East is from the West! We may wonder at times if God really loves us...and just how much. Today we are reminded how much -- as Christ spread his arms wide upon the cross, this is how much we are loved by God!

How do I live out my identity as the “beloved of God”? How can I share this message of God’s love and forgiveness with others? To whom am I being called to open wide my arms to embrace them in the midst of their need? Who are being crucified today...the millions of refugees, people, because of the color of their skin, people crucified for their im- migration status, who they love, what language they speak, what part of the world or country they were born in, their age, their gender, their intellectual or physical abilities? As I enter this Holy Week, whose burdens will I help to shoulder to the foot of cross as I journey with Jesus this week, and meditate up- on the gift of love and forgiveness which he has so lavishly poured upon me, and upon all of humanity?

Lenten Blessings,
Fr Tim

March 21, 2021

3/19/2021

Here we are in the fifth week of Lent, careening towards that horrible first “Good Friday”, and today we hear Jesus warn his disciples of what is about to befall him. Few people truly want to die, not even Jesus... “let this cup pass from me if it is your will”. But Jesus approaches with reverence and awe, knowing that he is heard and loved by the One who sent him. Jesus knows the cost of what is being asked of him and embraces it... and in embracing the cross, Jesus embraces us! Jesus uses the metaphor of the grain of wheat that must die to produce fruit to help us understand that death is not the end but rather a moment of transformation that bears new fruit!

The amazing thing is that in the midst of dying, as he hung upon the cross, Jesus knew he was not abandoned; that the One who sent him was with him. And precisely because he knew this he cried out to that One in prayer, praying Psalm 22, the opening verse which begins with “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That psalm does not end in abandonment and death but rather in triumph, “they will proclaim his righteousness, to a people yet unborn. He has done it!” For the faithful Jew, Jesus’ praying of the 22nd Psalm, as he died upon the cross, would have made total sense...the psalm moves from fear of abandonment to the proclamation “He has done it!”....I have not been abandoned!

It is also of note that the next Psalm, the 23rd Psalm, is the Psalm of the Good Shepherd...”The Lord is my Shepherd there is nothing I shall want...even though I walk through the valley of death”. The message is that even in the midst of suffering and death we are not abandoned; our God is with us! And we celebrate this each time we celebrate the Eucharist. We retell this very story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and are strengthened by His very presence to go into the world and proclaim the Good News!

We gather for Eucharist in good times and in bad -- in the midst of a horror of a pandemic, in the midst of sorrow and in the midst of joy -- strengthened in our discipleship to go forth as Christ-bearers into a wounded world desperately in need of forgiveness and healing.

We are called to be that healing presence, that presence of peace in the midst of fear and war, that presence of open arms in the face of rejection and discrimination. We are the ones called to continue the work of Christ in the world to- day. Be it working to end gun violence, or to end racism and bigotry or working towards a just immigration policy that recognizes the sacredness of family or speaking out to end all forms of discrimination based on gender, or age or sexual orientation or “otherness.”

All of these are sins we are called to call out and work to eradicate from our society. Just as Jesus opened wide his arms on the cross so as to embrace the entire world in his love, so too we are called to open wide our arms and embrace “the other”! Who is “the other” that I am being called to embrace, to include, to stand with, and to walk with?

Lenten Blessings,
Fr Tim

March 14, 2021

3/12/2021

“For God so loved the world”...these words that we hear in today’s Gospel set up for us, for all that follows in the Gospel of John...all of Jesus’ words and healings and miracles... everything...yes even the cross, or should I say “especially the cross”!

In the Gospel of John everything needs to be viewed and understood through this reality...that all of God’s saving actions have happened, and continue to happen, precisely because God so deeply and passionately loves the world! I know you hear me say this over and over again but please understand this is the reason that I do what I do...it is why I am still here today...to share this amazing truth that you are deeply and passionately loved by God...just as you are!

Now, I could do a reading of today’s text using strictly a historical critical methodology or perhaps the textual critical method or even a sociological methodology...but all of them fail in the awesomeness...yes I just said “awesomeness”...of this reality that God is, above all else, love! Yes, the very essence of that Divinity which created all that exists...is love! And we are the object of that Love! Imagine what our lives could look like if each one of us lived as if we were the “beloved of God”!
So in this fourth week of Lent it may seem peculiar in the midst of all of the suffering in the world, in the midst of this heart breaking pandemic, in the midst of our own pain and sorrow to talk of God’s audacious love for us...but I think not. Yes, in the midst of all of the pain and suffering of the world and of our lives we need, very much, to reflect on how deeply and passionately we are love by God! In the midst of our Lenten prayer, fasting and almsgiving we need to ask ourselves “why”...why are we praying, why are we fasting and why are we giving alms...because I am so deeply and passionately loved by God?

What do I have to do to open my heart wider to God’s love for me? Do I really believe that God loves all people equally...even my enemies? How can I share God’s deep and passionate love for all human beings with others? Based on God’s love for all of us how do I respond to situations of racism, sexism, ageism or xenophobia, homophobia? Through what environmentally conscious acts can I show my understanding of God’s love of all of creation? I think these are some important questions for me to spend some time meditating on and then acting on.

Lenten Blessings,
Fr. Tim

March 7, 2021

3/5/2021

As we careen towards the halfway point of our Lenten journey it is good to take a moment and step back, take a deep breath and ask...what are we looking for this Lent? To get closer to God? To clean up our act? To feel more religious? or just to lose a few pounds?

We must be frank about our objective, because we’re bound to find what we seek. The right answer might not be what we think it is. We don’t have to get closer to God. We can’t: God’s right here. God dwells in us, temples of the Holy Spirit!
Getting closer to God’s will might be a better goal, because that alignment is often very far off, it is what most of us struggle with. If we find ourselves thinking that Lent’s not working, that the enchantment of “feeling our religion” isn’t happening this year, then maybe the answer is to practice a new consciousness.

What if we all tried to spend one hour a day trying to be consciously aware of God in every person we met and every place we go? Keep searching with our eyes, our mind, our heart. If we practice believing what we profess—that God is in our midst— then we are much more likely to awaken to the presence of the Divine! At the very least it will begin to change how we see and relate to other people as we practice seeing and believing the Divine presence within each one of our sisters and brothers, regardless of how they may treat us!

This is what Pope Francis is hoping will happen as we draw near to immigrants and refugees, to all those who are marginalized....that we will come to know them as sister and brother, as images of the Creator, as children of God. In whom is it most difficult for me to see God? What deeper reality is God calling me to this Lent? To whom am I being called to “draw nearer”?

Lenten Blessings,
Fr. Tim

March 28, 2021

March 21, 2021

March 14, 2021

March 7, 2021

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