Palm Sunday’s readings carry the sorrows and the weight of the world. The false accusations, denials, betrayals, injustice, and beatings Jesus faced are heartbreaking.

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 too welcome and rejoice in his reign. Similar to the disciples, we are also excited and filled with wonderous 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 vigorously denied 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 carry 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 and 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 people of Ukraine, Ethiopia, Sudan and Afghanistan, the millions of refugees? People crucified because of the color of their skin, people crucified for their immigration status, for who they love, what language they speak, for what part of the world or country they were born in, for 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 upon the gift of love and forgiveness which he has so lavishly poured upon me, and upon all of humanity?

Holy week blessings,

Fr. Tim

This Sunday’s Gospel tells the story of the man born blind…familiar enough to most of us. But have we heard it so often that we miss the underlying themes, the story between the lines of the text?

We could focus on the miracle of “new sight” in the physical sense but we could go deeper and explore Jesus’ insistence that sin has nothing to do with physical sickness, disability or human tragedy…and in fact, that it is in the midst of tragedy and human suffering that God is present.

Jesus’ words and actions help us to see what the blind man saw…he saw the presence of the Living God! It is easy enough to just “see” the physical blindness of the man in the Gospel and “loose sight” of the spiritual darkness of his parents who, because of fear, fail to speak the amazing truth of their son’s healing.

Fear of speaking out and failure to stand up for truth and justice makes us blind and keeps us in spiritual darkness, as individuals, as communities and as a nation.

In the midst of wars and famine and international, and national crises for refugees and immigrants, we are called to be a people who look, and see…to be a people who do not turn away from the suffering of our sisters and brothers. But rather to be a people who stand with them in the midst of their suffering and work to bring healing to them through working for true and lasting justice for them.

When I look at the world around me, at all the suffering, am I able to see God’s presence in the midst of the suffering; perhaps in the people who are speaking out, and working for the people suffering? Am I called to be there, to be used by God like the “man born blind” to show forth God’s glory in the midst of a suffering world?

When have I felt God’s presence in the midst of suffering? Do I have “blind spots” in my life where I need to ask Jesus for sight, so I may see more clearly my sisters and brothers, as God sees them?

Lenten blessings,
Fr. Tim

When we hear today’s Gospel we might wonder what actually happened on that mountain? The scene we are presented with is quite dramatic: Jesus is transfigured with an “other worldly” brilliance that glowed like the sun. And two prophets, long dead, appear and converse with Jesus and then suddenly there comes the voice of God…speaking the same words that were heard at Jesus’ baptism…”this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”….but this time, God adds; “ listen to him.”

This is clearly an essential moment in the lives of the three disciples who witness this proclamation of Jesus’ true identity as the Son of God. And yet Jesus tells them to “tell no one the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Can you imagine how they must have been just “bursting at the seams” with desire to tell the other disciples…to share this amazing experience where they had seen long dead prophets and saw Jesus transfigured before their very eyes and then on top of that…they heard the “voice of God speak, to them”?!

Remember it was not just a proclamation of Jesus’ divine identity but also instruction from God directly to them to “listen to him!”

I think that Lent can be a time of honing our listening skills, of taking time to slow down in the midst of our chaotic lives and to listen… just listen for God speaking to us.

In our busyness and preoccupation, we so often miss the word spoken “to us” and spoken “for us” by God. In today’s Gospel Jesus took the three disciples apart up a mountain…a retreat of sorts…and there apart from the others they encountered God.

Taking time apart is certainly not easy in the world in which we live, but in order to remain centered and maintain some sense of being disciples of Jesus we all need to take time apart to sit with Jesus…and listen, listen to where he is calling us in our life.

Long before science told us that almost all forms of meditation are beneficial to the whole person; body, mind and spirit, Jesus made it clear that whether retreating to a deserted place or just going into our rooms, being apart for quiet prayer is essential… even Jesus took time apart to pray. So too we are called to take time apart to meditate…not to fill the silence with words but to just sit and listen and to rest in God. And then from that place of silence we can move to a place of informed action, Gospel action!

So let us hone our listening skills this Lent and commit to take time apart to sit with God and allow God to “transfigure us”, so that we might go out and transfigure the world! To transfigure the world by standing up, with and for the poor and the marginalized, working for real and lasting change in their lives and the lives of all who are suffering…wherever we encounter them.

If I am not already meditating can I add three, five-minute periods of meditation to my day? How bad do I want to hear God...and what God might be calling me to? If I am already meditating regularly, how has it affected my awareness of to what, and or to whom God is calling me to help?

Lenten blessings,
​Fr. Tim