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 29, 2022

5/27/2022

 
As we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, I cannot help but reflect on the many ideas and concepts that swirl around this feast...some with unintended consequences! The word “ascension” itself congers up images of Jesus rising up into the clouds to join the Father and the Holy Spirit somewhere “up there”...far, far away. The problem with this image is it can lead us to believe that heaven is “up there” and we are “down here” and that God is far off and distant from us and distant from our lives.

This is in stark contrast to the heart and soul of the meaning and significance of the incarnation. The truth of our God having become “incarnate” (in the flesh) in Jesus means that God is with us...not some remote, disinterested deity watching us from afar.

We need to recall Jesus’ promise “I am with you until the end”! These simple words are most profound...there is no need for us to stand gawking skyward with our jaws hanging open. While the physical presence of Jesus Christ as a singular human and divine presence no longer walks the earth...Christ is here, as close to us as our own breath, keeping us alive to be his presence in our world. We need to recall last Sunday’s Gospel in which Jesus told the disciples that when we keep his word God makes us his dwelling place!

As we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus let us celebrate the presence of the Risen One in our midst! Before his ascension Jesus gave a clear command and mission to his disciples...to us. We are charged with preaching the “Good News” of Jesus Christ and to be that healing, loving and welcoming presence in a world filled with sickness, hatred, violence and exclusion.
Filled with the “real presence” we are sent forth to stand up and be the voice of the voiceless, to speak out on behalf of those who are silenced or ignored, to make sure that hatred, racism, bigotry and misogyny are not left unchecked.

Filled with the Holy Spirit we speak the truth of the Gospel to power, weather convenient or inconvenient, weather garnering us friends or marginalizing us, it is our call as disciples of Jesus Christ!

And in the midst of all of the mass shootings, surely we are called to raise our voices and speak to power and work together for common sense gun control laws that will help to bring an end to all these senseless evil acts by which so many children and adults have been murdered...who would not have been, had the shooter not had such easy access to weapons meant for mass destruction.

While we are surely called to hold in our prayers all of the children and adults who have been killed along with their families and loved ones, we must work together to build the political will to put in place the needed laws and protections to keep this from happening over and over again.

”How might I be a “healing, loving and welcoming presence” in my interactions with others? How can I “stand up” for the Gospel, in the public arena and in my personal life, possibly in connection to gun violence? How do I experience the real presence of God in my daily life?
​

Easter Blessings,
​Fr. Tim 


May 22, 2022

5/21/2022

 
Pretty much everyone has felt lonely, abandoned by friends or loved ones at some point in their lives. Most of us have felt fearful; wondering how we will make it through rough times with our children or parents, siblings or friends. Or, for African Americans and people of color -- they worry if they and their loved ones will make it through the violence spawned by racism and white supremacy that plagues our country, and our world.

Or, like the residents of Buffalo NY, who have suffered such horrible personal loss, wondering, how will they carry on?

Or we may have suffered or be suffering a terrible illness and wonder if we will be able to make it through it.

Today’s Gospel tells us that in the very midst of our “lost- ness”...suffering...fear or sense of abandon that we are never truly alone, we are not abandoned, we are not orphans....for the Risen Christ remains with us.

When I was little I used to think that Christ was with me....but only when I was doing something good or only when I was in holy or sacred places.

Oh, how wrong I was! Jesus proclaims to the disciples that no matter what they “feel,” not matter where they go, he will be with them. And, even more -- the Holy Spirit will be given to them and find a resting place within them.

We are the inheritors of this same promise. We are never alone; never abandoned! Our God is with us always...even when we can’t feel that presence or sense it, God is with us. Even in the midst of our worst moments, our most selfish actions, even in the midst of our greatest sin...God is present and loving us through that dark moment -- whether I acknowledge or embrace that presence or not! The “Presence” is still there! And each moment is charged with the possibility of different outcomes, precisely because of that “Presence”. But, only if I am open and present to it!

When I embrace that presence of that Divinity that dwells within me, then new and different possibilities abound for my life. Embracing that Divine Presence within me and embracing it in “the other” is how I can work to overcome the sins of racism and white supremacy. When I acknowledge and embrace God’s very presence in “the other” then I will truly see them as “God bearers”, they themselves, dwellings of God!

This message of the “Divine indwelling” is a critical part of the core message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, along with Christ’s great command, to “love one another as I have loved you”. These truths leave NO space for racism and white supremacy! None!

Let us continue to hold in prayer the victims and families, friends and residents of Buffalo New York in the midst of their sorrow and grief. But also let us work to find meaningful ways to fight systemic racism and white supremacy in our nation and in the world around us.

How do I respond to being loved so deeply and passionately by God? How do I share God’s amazing love for each person, with others who are different from me? When was the last time I heard the Holy Spirit calling me to something...or away from something, what was or will my response be?
​

Easter Blessings,
​Fr. Tim 


May 8, 2022

5/7/2022

 
The image of Jesus as the good shepherd is one of the oldest images in Christianity. I remember seeing it in the catacombs of Rome...painted on the walls of ancient caverns by a people from long ago. What is it about this image that has captivated the minds and hearts of Christians for centuries?

Surely for the post modern mostly urban culture of the West, this image may well seem a bit arcane and less accessible than it was to our ancestors. Jesus is depicted, through the use of this image, as a shepherd, who was, in that time and in that culture, a relatively unimportant and certainly not powerful figure.

The disciples and all those who followed Jesus around experienced Jesus as kind and gentle, like the “good” shepherd who watches over the sheep with great care and concern and even risks his/her own safety for the sake of the sheep.

This image of a kind and gentle god was somewhat unique, but then so was the idea of a god who would be willing to suffer and die for us.

I believe that this image of the Good Shepherd has endured precisely because of its radical departure of a more common image of a distant and disinterested and sometimes even vengeful god. One to whom you made sacrifices to appease his/her anger and rage for any possible slights or missteps against them you may have made, and thus survive for another day.

This image of “the good shepherd” tells us that our God loves us and cares for us and journeys with us as we travel through the valleys and hills of our lives. Our God, holds us in his hands!

But too, it may well speak to us of what we are called to be...in Christ’s image...”good shepherds” of the lost and vulnerable, the poor and the forsaken.

As disciples of Christ we are called to reach out to the poor, to reach out to the marginalized and the ones society dismisses or demeans.

And as we have just recently celebrated Earth Day, we recognize that truly “good shepherds” also recognize the importance of all of creation and our environment, for our sheep depend on a healthy ecosystem. So as “good shepherds” we are also called to care for creation, to be aware of how our lives impact the earth and the lives of others.

And so we ask ourselves: how am I being called to be a “good shepherd” in my family, in my school or place of work, in my community, in my nation, in the wider world? What am I willing to risk “as a good shepherd” for the sake of the flock... for the sake of creation...for building up of the Reign of God?
​

Easter 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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