Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church - Arlington, VA
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    • Staff >
      • Parish Administration & Communication
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    • Just a Thought...or two...
    • Learning Alley
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    • Our History
    • Gallery
  • Worship
    • Mass Times and Schedule
    • Live-stream Schedule & Special Mass Programs
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May 1, 2022

4/30/2022

 
In the readings this Sunday, the spiritual dynamic seems to be three- fold: God draws near, sensing our own unworthiness, we protest; grace overcomes our weaknesses, failings, and fear, resulting in abundance far beyond our imagining...and our nets overflow with God’s love for us!

In today’s Gospel, I am sure Peter remembers well, the cock crowed three times, and the other disciples know well they had abandoned Jesus in his last hours. But each one eventually opens their heart and responds to God’s call.

I always have to smile at Peter’s response to Jesus revealing himself to the disciples, yet another time...“Let’s go fishing”....the truth is, the disciples, dazed and confused return to that which they knew best... fishing! However, even the one thing that they thought they knew how to do, doesn’t work anymore!

Everything has changed...and then there are these appearances of Jesus, raised from the dead! He appeared to them and breathed on them and gave them the gift of the Holy Spirit, he gave them a mission and sent them out, just as he had been sent by God....and then they went fishing!

And so Jesus follows them and tries again to help them understand what their mission is and to what it is that he is sending them to do...he makes another attempt to guide them on their way.

Jesus tells Peter explicitly that he is to shepherd his flock...and for each time he denied he knew Jesus, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him.

And Peter eventually accepts this new role but with the knowledge that it will ultimately take him to a similar death as Jesus, who is asking Peter to take up “his” cross and follow him. The disciples are often presented as not fully understanding Jesus’ message and to what it is that Christ is calling them...but he is patient and calls them again and again...just as Christ calls us.

Over and over again, no matter how many times we find our nets empty and think all the fish are gone, Jesus comes to us and tells us to “try the other side”. Regardless of how many times we deny Jesus or refuse to throw our nets on the other side, Jesus is patient and will lovingly ask us again....with God there is always another chance! Where is God calling me to cast my nets? Imagine for a moment how they must have felt.

I think that we all know how Peter and the other fishermen felt. After a long and fruitless night they’re tired and disappointed...and they are confused about what has happened to Jesus, dawn arrives and the nets are empty. We’ve all invested time and energy into things that simply did not pan out; we’ve known failure in one guise or another.

In the midst of the daybreak of their disappointment, with empty nets in hand, Jesus called Peter to go back out there and lower their nets again. Disciples trust, even when their nets are empty, that there are fish out there to be caught. Jesus calls the disciples to action, to show their faith in him.

Even though Peter three times denied he knew Jesus, he was given the opportunity to three times proclaim his love for Jesus! We are called to measure our fruitfulness, not by individual success, but by our faithfulness to our call...our call to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Our trust remains not because of what we can do, but rather, in what God can do through us.

What is God calling me to in my life? When I hear God’s call how do I move from protest to grace? Am I willing to follow Jesus’ directive to “launch out into the deep”?
​

Fr. Tim 

April 24, 2022

4/22/2022

 
Doubt is a perennial reality of the Christian life and in today’s Gospel we see that it has been so since the very beginning. My grandmother used to say that “a little doubt is good for the soul”.When I experience doubt, it means that I am really engaging in and wrestling with the Christian mystery.

I think that Thomas gets a bit of a bad rap because we forget that Thomas is one of the very first human beings to ever hear of the resurrection of Christ. Imagine what it must have been like for the disciples. They had pinned all of their hopes on this man Jesus and then they saw him executed by the Romans. All their hopes hung on that cross and seemed to die with him. Then, in the midst of their trembling and fear, Jesus appears to them and imparts to them “his peace” -- the peace of the Risen Christ!

And then he breaths on them and gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift was to embolden them as he sent them out into the world to proclaim the Good News that death had been defeated, our sins were forgiven and even though our bodies die, we will live forever!

The peace of Christ is at the center of Christian life and of the Easter story. This peace is like no other peace. It is Christ’s peace. It is a transformative peace that flows forth from the Risen One...directly from God to us.

In this Easter season let us open our hearts and minds to the presence of the Holy Spirit who is calling us and emboldening us to proclaim the peace of Christ to all the world. And let us pray, may this “peace of the Risen Christ” settle upon Ukraine and all places of war and suffering.

Have I accepted Christ’s peace in my own life? How can I show forth Christ’s peace in my daily life...how can I share it with the world around me?
​

May the peace of the Risen One be with you always,
Fr. Tim 


April 17, 2022

4/15/2022

 
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 ran off in a hurry to share what she had found; and in her sharing, the disciples began the journey that would eventually lead to an encounter with “The Christ”... “The Risen One”.

Though we know well the Easter story, do we ever fully grasp its meaning? The stone has been rolled away...the tomb is empty for the resurrected One 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 life-giving presence of the Risen One!

This is the day the Lord has made...let us rejoice and be glad!!! Like the disciples, let us actively seek the risen One in our midst...in the ordinariness of our daily lives.

For as surely as Christ appeared to the disciples, Christ now appears to us in our lives -- even in the midst of death, sorrow and pain, Christ is present, and this is what heals us and helps us carry on!

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

I pray you all,
the Risen Christ
’s most abundant Easter Blessings.
Fr. Tim
​

...Christ is present,
and this is what heals us

and helps us carry on! 

April 10, 2022

4/8/2022

 
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 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 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, forgiven 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?

Lenten Blessings,
Fr Tim

April 1st, 2022

4/1/2022

 
I find it interesting that nine years ago on the fifth Sunday of Lent was the first Sunday of Pope Francis’ pontificate and in the first reading that Sunday, as today, the prophet Isaiah told us that God said “see I am doing something new!”

And on this Sunday, amid all of the disgrace and scandal within the church the Gospel tells us of a woman caught in the midst of adultery, (my question is, where is the man?) dragged through the streets, demeaned and “disgraced”...screamed at and taunted, knowing all the time that she was about to be stoned to death!

Undoubtedly she could feel the intense violent energy of the crowd that was gathering around her...how desperate she must have felt knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it.

And yet Jesus stopped it...drawing in the sand...some scholars say, writing out the sins of the very people who had condemned her and were about to stone her, supposedly all “in the name of God.”

Jesus told the religious leaders they had it wrong...ultimately challenging “their laws” that demanded such violence. There has been much written about this Gospel story, about it being a story of second chances...a story of new beginnings.
​

Some scholars argue about the final line of this Gospel, as most translations have Jesus saying “neither do I condemn you, be on your way and sin no more.” However scholars point out that some ancient Greek texts do not actually contain the Greek words that would be translated, “sin no more” but rather these ancient texts in question use an archery term meaning “to take better aim”.

It would seem then that Jesus encouraged the woman to be on her way and to take better aim with her life. Perhaps this is a moment in the church for “the Church” to “take better aim” as she moves forward into the future.

Perhaps, with the help of the Holy Spirit, this upcoming synod could be a moment of openness of truly listening to each other, a moment of new insights, through the power of the Holy Spirit making new, as we heard of in the first reading: “See, I am doing something new.”

Perhaps it was no coincidence that on the first Sunday of Pope Francis’ pontificate, the Gospel story was about a “woman”, demeaned and disgraced, about to be violently murdered...a Gospel story about the place and treatment of women in Jesus’ culture and society and Jesus’ refusal to participate in the systematic oppression, misogyny and violent treatment of women.

I believe that this Gospel story does in fact call us to question the place and status of women in the church and in the world! Perhaps there is a lesson here for all of us, especially men and in particular the clergy and religious leaders!

In today’s Gospel...just as Jesus challenged the “law” and the religious leaders...so too we are called to do the same!

We live, still, in a world where women are bought and sold...where they are leered at, but not listened to...where true lasting and substantive justice and equality remain denied to women and especially women of color. It was all on full display these past days in the Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s appointment to the Supreme Court.

And while the official church has been vocal on civil and human rights abuses of women around the world she remains far too silent on the just and meaningful place and role of women within the church!

And so we should ask ourselves, especially, those of us who are men, how do I treat women in my life? What do I really think about the role of women in church and society? Do my views on women and their role and place in church and society truly reflect Gospel values? What would Jesus think about my views? And let us all try to take better aim with our lives...
​

Lenten Blessings,
Fr Tim 

    Author

    Fr. Tim Hickey, C.S.Sp.

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Our Lady Queen of Peace
2700 South 19th Street
Arlington, Virginia, 22204, USA
703-979-5580 Office
703-979-5590 Fax
office@ourladyqueenofpeace.org
Office hours: Mon-Fri, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm (closed on federal holidays)
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Weekend Mass Schedule
Saturday: Vigil Mass at 5:30 pm
Sunday: 8 am, 9:30 am, 11:15 am, 1 pm (Spanish),
​6 pm (young adult)

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