Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church - Arlington, VA
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      • Parish Administration & Communication
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    • Just a Thought...or two...
    • Learning Alley
    • Gallery
    • Register with OLQP
    • Contact Us
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    • Live-stream Schedule & Special Mass Programs
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    • Formacion en la Fe 2023-2024 >
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      • Stephen Ministry
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July 30, 2023

7/29/2023

 
In today’s Gospel Jesus compares the Reign of God to an immense treasure...a pearl of great price. Who among us has not dreamt of finding such a treasure? Imagine the impact it would have upon your life.

How would you use it...what would you do differently within your life with this newfound wealth? Would you share it with friends and family, would you even tell them? Would you use it to help the poor and less fortunate?

But if the great treasure we stumbled across was not a buried chest of gold, or a pearl of great price but rather, the great treasure was the promise of eternal life, the Reign of God!

This is exactly what Jesus is challenging us to do — to think of how different our lives would be if we “lived” in the Reign of God...all the time, not just on Sunday while we are at Mass — every day, all the time!

Usually when we think of finding a treasure we immediately think of financial gain and how that would change our lives and the lives of our family. But in this case, we are challenged to think about how our lives would change from the point of view of how we love one another, how we care for each other...how we live the Gospel in our day to day lives. How we impact the lives of others, for the better.

Finding and falling in love with the Reign of God is the whole point of the parables we hear today. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, the former Superior General of the Jesuits, once wrote: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything”.
​

Blessings,
Fr Tim 

July 23, 2023

7/22/2023

 
Once again this week Jesus speaks to us in parables -- multifaceted gems that once tumbled around in our hearts, ruminated upon and yielded unbelievable insights into the Reign of God. While the disciples certainly preferred straightforward answers, Jesus obviously preferred parables.

Of the comparisons of the reign of God to a field, a mustard seed and the leaven in bread, I have always liked the comparison of the mustard seed and the Reign of God. This tiny, tiny little seed grows into a great bush, so large that the birds of the air make their nests in it.

If you take the parable at its face value it all seems quite lovely. However, there is a dark side farmers know well: the mustard bush is an invasive plant. It grows wildly and rapidly, quickly overtaking a garden, ruining the plants that had been planted with care and reducing their yield, if not completely choking them out.

Mustard bushes can be uncontrollable and rapidly spread across a farm if not quickly uprooted before going to seed. Surely this reality was not lost on Jesus; nor on those who heard him tell the parable. It seems that perhaps Jesus is presenting an image of the expansion of the Reign of God as something uncontrollable, invasive and fast growing!

Looking through the lens of this image…the Reign of God is not something that can be domesticated or controlled. By its very nature, it grows uncontrollably and burst forth offering refuge. I believe that many of us though would prefer something that we could contain and control… and domesticate!

But the truth is that the Reign of God is just that…“God’s Reign,”…not ours. We are part of it by our baptism and we are called to help water it so that it continues to grow and “invade” every crevice and furrow of this planet, but we don’t get to tame it.

Two thousand years ago Jesus’ vision of the bursting forth of the Reign of God was nothing less than radical. And, it still is today. We are called to be part of that radical vision -- to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned…to love one another as Christ loves us and to reach out and to care for “the other.”

Part of the Reign of God is the proclamation of the deep and passionate love of God for all peoples! And wasn’t it just this radical vision of the reign of God that Jesus preached that got him crucified? As his disciple, just how radical of a life am I willing live?

In a world that proclaims a “gospel of personal prosperity” -- tax cuts for the rich at the cost of healthcare cuts for the poor -- to what lengths am I willing to go in building up this radical vision of the Reign of God that Jesus preached? What concrete action can I take today to “water” the Reign of God? Where and how do I see the Reign of God bursting forth in imaginative and radical ways?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

July 16, 2023

7/14/2023

 
In today’s Gospel Jesus once again instructs the crowds with a parable, a parable about a sower and the seed. But this parable raises as many questions as it seems to have answers. One such question might be: who sows costly seeds among the weeds and the thorns, and why?

The good farmer -- the successful farmer -- sows seeds on good rich soil that has been prepared, fertilized and tilled and yields a rich and abundant harvest! So why does Jesus tell the parable of a farmer who scatters seeds on bad soil, indiscriminately throwing it among the weeds and the thorns and the rocky soil...why sow it in these places? What is his point?

Parables are meant to get us thinking -- just when we think we understand the point of the story, upon further reflection another layer is revealed. I like to compare parables to finely cut and polished gemstones. As we mull over a parable and turn it around in our minds, we discover more and more facets of the story that at first glance may not have been so
obvious. That is the amazing quality of the parable.

In this parable, some interpret the sower as God and the indiscriminate sowing of the seeds as an example of God’s all- inclusive love for all peoples. They understand the seed sown is “the Word” offered to everyone, regardless of the potential that they will accept it and allow it to grow within them, or not.

Perhaps God sees possibilities of growth and abundant harvest amongst the thorns and rocky soil that we cannot even yet imagine! It seems to me that “the Word” being sown is “the Word of Justice” sown in the thorns and rocky ground of racism and bigotry. And “the Word” is crying out for racial justice in the midst of unjust structures that systematically favor one race over another -- white privilege. And God’s “Word” will take root and grow, as we have seen it do in the hundreds of thousands of the Black Lives Matter protesters across this country and around the globe.

For Isaiah told us that God said “so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” That “end” is justice and equality for all God’s children! 

What are the “thorny or rocky” parts of my life where the seeds of the Gospel have yet to yield an abundant
harvest? Where in the world is the rocky soil on which God has sown seed from which is springing new growth at this moment that both surprises and delights? Where am I being called
“to tend to the Word” that needs to be cultivated and nurtured in the rocky and thorny world around me?

The Word is offered equally to all, as is God’s love, lavished on all peoples!

And in today’s parable, maybe Jesus sees possibilities for growth, where we don’t yet see them.
​

Blessings,
Fr Tim 

July 9, 2023

7/7/2023

 
Today’s Gospel invites us to “rest in Jesus” -- to turn our burdens over to Jesus and allow the power of the Spirit, dwelling within us, to empower us to push on… ever forward…knowing that we do so not alone but with the presence of the very one who created us and loved us into being.

Jesus does not dismiss the burdens of life. On the contrary, Jesus recognizes just how heavy they are and, in the midst of the struggles of our lives, he assures us to be with us and help us.

We are not asked to set our burdens down at the door of the church as we enter. But rather, we are invited to bring them to the altar and place them side by side with the bread and wine which we offer to be blessed and broken, transformed and shared.

This Jesus, the Christ, knows first hand of our human burdens and understands our suffering. We need not fear that our God does not understand, or does not care. The message of all of Jesus’ preaching and teaching was the exact opposite: our God knows us and loves us deeply and passionately and walks with us in the midst of our sufferings; our God weeps with us when we weep and suffers with us when we suffer. And as the Body of Christ, we are invited to reach out to others whose burdens and pain overwhelm them… to be the compassion of Christ to them…to help carry their burdens and to walk with them in the midst of their suffering. As Pope Francis said, to “be a sign of mercy”.

Welcoming the stranger, the immigrant, the one who is “other”, is an authentic living out of our discipleship…it incarnates the Gospel in the midst of our community.

Ironically in our reaching out to others, often our burdens are lightened, our wounds begin to heal and we become more and more the living Body of Christ. We become the face of the mercy of God.

Do I have burdens or old wounds that I am holding on to and not giving over to Jesus, that getting rid of might allow me to be more available to my sisters and brothers in need? Whose burden or pain am I being called to help carry, and how might I do that? How might I become the face of mercy to those who are suffering?

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
[email protected]
Office hours: Mon-Fri, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm (closed on federal holidays)
  • ​Inclement Weather Policy
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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