“On that first day of the week, while it was still dark…Mary went to the tomb only to discover it empty….then she ran to Simon Peter and the other disciples.”

Mary was in a hurry to share what she had found; and by her sharing, a small community took up the search for Jesus…only to eventually have “Christ”…“The Risen One” reveal himself to them all.

Imagine what it must have been like: to have all your dreams and hopes beaten, tortured, nailed to a tree and die…all before your very eyes. And, THEN TO SEE “THAT ONE” ALIVE, RISEN FROM THE DEAD! HOW COULD IT BE?...AND, YET He is here in our midst…and “our hearts burn within us”!

Though we know well the Easter story, can we ever fully grasp its meaning? The stone has been rolled away…the tomb is empty for resurrected life cannot be contained!

Like the first believers, we so often must continue to live even with our dashed hopes, our suffering and our misunderstanding of God’s mysterious power.

Like the first believers, we come to the tomb and expect to find death, but instead we find signs of a new life that we cannot even begin to comprehend.

Like the first believers, we do not realize that all of history has been broken open and is now filled with the resurrected presence of the Risen One!

Even in the midst of war and famine, even in the midst of our own suffering and loss, the presence of the Risen One IS WITH US, AND NEVER LEAVES US. NO MATTER HOW ALONE OR FAR AWAY WE FEEL, JESUS NEVER LEAVES US!

It is this presence that gives us the strength to carry on and speak truth to power, to stand up for the poor and the marginalized and fight against evil in all its ugly forms that we know so well.

Christ has Risen…this is the day the Lord has made…let us rejoice and be glad!!!

Like Mary Magdalene and the other disciples let us actively seek the risen One in our midst…in the ordinary of our daily lives. For as surely as Christ appeared to the disciples, Christ now appears to us in our lives!

Let us keep our eyes, ears and hearts open to the presence of the Risen One. Let us, like Mary Magdalen, run forth to share the good news of Jesus Christ with all the world!

I pray you all, God’s most abundant Easter Blessings!
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Fr. Tim

Palm Sunday’s readings carry the sorrows and the weight of the world. The false accusations, denials, the betrayals, the injustice of it all, and the beatings Jesus faced are all 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 wonderful expectations. However, as we listen to the passion of Jesus Christ, we feel the mood of the crowds as well as that of the disciples swiftly changing. 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 him 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, forgiven our sins and our 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, the innocent Palestinians, Ethiopians and Eritreans, the people of 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, or for their age? Crucified for their gender, for their intellectual or physical abilities?

As I enter this Holy Week, whose burdens will I help to shoulder to the foot of cross and meditate upon and hold in prayer as I walk with Jesus on his passion journey? And as I meditate upon the gift of love and forgiveness which he has so lavishly poured upon me, how can I share it with those most in need of hearing how deeply and passionately they are loved by God, just as they are? And in that sharing, allow the love of God to transform me and my life ever more closely to the dream God has for me and my life.
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Lenten blessings,
Fr. Tim

Our Lenten journey is rapidly coming to its destination. The destination of our journey has been a renewed heart...to have allowed Jesus to shine his healing light into the dark corners of our hearts so that the light might drive out any darkness within us; so that we might come to reclaim our true identity as the "beloved of God"!

While it may sound all warm and fuzzy...the truth is the journey often takes us through dark woods and dangerous landscapes to seemingly deserted places.

The Scripture readings over these last weeks have tried to call us back into a deeper relationship with God. They have attempted to help us understand that no matter how far away from God we think we have traveled...no matter how lonely the road may have seemed...God has been with us all along the way.

The point of many of the readings has been God's steadfast love for each one of us...even in the midst of our turning away from God...even in the midst of our worst sin...God has loved us, deeply and passionately, without limits. Why? Because we are God's beloved!

Jesus' frustration and, quite frankly, anger was precisely because the religious leaders and elders of the people had either forgotten that they were the beloved of God or they had refused to believe it in the first place. They had forgotten or refused to believe that love of God and love of neighbor was what all of the law and the prophets hung upon.

Jesus' preaching of the Reign of God, the forgiveness of sins and God's deep and passionate love for each one of us threw the religious leaders into fits...that just didn't fit into their vision of the world. What about "The Law"? How could this man from Nazareth know more than them? They were, after all, the religious leaders and they knew all about God! Or so they thought they did.

As we race toward the end of Lent, let's take some time to reflect on being "the beloved of God"! How would deeply claiming my identity as "the beloved of God" change my life? What would I do differently...how would truly embracing this identity affect my relationships with others? How would it affect my personal and civic sense of responsibility to and for others...especially the poor, the outcast and marginalized of our society? How would embracing my identity as the beloved of God impact what and who I prioritize as most important in my life? And, what would I need to pick up or lay down in my life to live from this identity of the “beloved of God”?

Lenten blessings,
Fr. Tim 

And Happy International Woman’s Day and Woman’s Month!

“For God so loved the world”…one could argue that 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 us and loves this 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 each one of 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 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, in the midst of wars and injustices 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 am I praying, why am I fasting and why am I 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 subtle or outright racism, bigotry, or misogyny? How do I respond to anti- LGBTQ words or actions or anti-immigrant and refugee words and actions or just plain selfishness and refusal to care for “the other” as a child of God? And through what environmentally conscious acts can I show my understanding that God’s love is for all of creation?

As we just celebrated International Women’s Day on Friday and celebrate Women’s History Month, this month, how do I celebrate and give thanks for the lives, the gifts and talents of the all the women in my life and all the women down  through history, and today, who have, in both large ways and in small ways, “leaned in” and “persisted” in the face of misogyny and abuse, and have made our lives and this world a better place? To all women, young and not so young, thank you, for all you have done and all you continue to do!  Thank You! 

Lenten blessings,
Fr. Tim

As we careen towards the halfway point of our Lenten journey, I think it is good to take a moment and step back, take a deep breath and ask: What am I looking for this Lent?

To get closer to God? To clean up my act, so to speak? To feel more religious? Or, just to lose a few pounds? We have to be frank about our objective for this Lent 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 try to get closer to God. We can’t -- God’s right here! God dwells within 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’s what many of us struggle with.

If we find ourselves thinking that Lent is not working -- that the enchantment of “feeling our religion, feeling God” 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 meet and every place we go; to keep searching with our eyes, our mind and 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, in us and all around us!

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 them, 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 as we draw near to the one who is “other” to us, by God’s grace, our biases and preconceptions about them will dissolve and we will come to know them as sister and brother, as images of the Creator, as children of God.

So this Lent, let us ask ourselves, in whom is it most difficult for me to see the presence of God? What deeper reality is God calling me to this Lent? To whom am I being called to “draw nearer”?

And let us continue to hold the people of Palestine and Israel in our thoughts and prayers. Let us pray for a swift end to the war being raged between Israel and Hamas and for an end to the war by Russia against the people of Ukraine and for the U.S. and other countries of the world to increase their combined efforts -- to intercede to bring about peace in all the places wars are being waged around the world.

May our Lenten prayer be for peace. Peace in our hearts, in our families, our friendships, our schools, our workplaces, our nation and throughout the world. May the shalom of our God, in all of its fullness, be upon you all and upon all of the earth.

Lenten blessings,
Fr. Tim