The second reading from Paul this Sunday reminds us of our responsibility to care for the vulnerable populations in our society. In first century Palestine, widows and the orphans were the most vulnerable, the poorest of the poor. They had no one to watch out for them and the Law and the Prophets commanded that it was the responsibility of the rest of the community of Israel to care for them. The Psalmist reminds us that it is “the one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.” Jesus chastises the Pharisees and the Scribes for adhering to the “letter of the Law” and not living the “Spirit of the Law”. He turns their world upside down and confronts them with the truth that what is in a person’s heart is more important than simply adhering to precepts of the law.

The message of God’s Word challenges us to “do justice”, to allow the Holy Spirit, that dwells within us, to transform our hearts from deep within. Jesus challenges each one of us to become new creations and soar beyond the smallness and stinginess of our human societies and join in building up the Reign of God, a place where all people are valued, loved and cared for as sisters and brothers.

This message is so on spot as we struggle through the horrific and painful revelations of the clergy abuse and cover up scandal that tear at our very hearts. The bishops responsible for the cover ups put the reputation of the institution above the dignity, value and safety of the human lives of those children and adults who were abused. Those priests and bishops clearly would be called out by Jesus as hypocrites for preaching one thing and doing another, for condemning other peoples actions when their own were so heinous and sinful.

Let us continue hold the victims in our prayers and in our hearts. May they, by God’s grace find healing and rest from their struggles and pain. And may we, as the Body of Christ, stand together to calling the church leadership for meaningful and transformative change in her structures that will lead to a more inclusive role for laity, especially women, in leadership structures of the church.

And as well join me this week as I reflect on: How am I actively doing justice in my daily life? Who are the poor and vulnerable in my life that I am called to care for? What do I need to do in order let go and let the Holy Spirit take the lead in my life that I may be a person of hope in the midst of such dark and troubling times?

Blessing,
Fr Tim

“And some of them found his words too hard and just walked away”! Can you imagine it...there you are following Jesus all around Judea, watching him do astounding things...raising the dead, restoring sight to the blind, healing the sick...preaching the coming of the Reign of God...hanging on his every word, filled with a deep sense that somehow the whole world is about to change...and then he says something that is so bizarre, so totally out of bounds that even having seen him perform miracles, you just can’t be a part of it anymore and so you walk away from him and return to your former way of life!

That is what today’s Gospel says happened to some of Jesus’ disciples...what words could be so powerful? How disappointed they must have been...thinking they had found the Messiah, having personally witnessed Jesus’ astounding power, having been mesmerized by his words and vision of the Reign of God...until he told them they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood...it was just too much!

When I reflect on this Gospel reading I can’t help but think of all the times and ways in which “I have just walked away”...when I felt that it was all just too much! I have a sense that I am not alone in my walking away...but the wonder of it is that when I felt that way it seems that Jesus always calls me back! He’s not willing to let me be and just walk away. And curiously enough, given the context of this Gospel, it is usually Eucharist that calls me back! And it’s not just me, I hear it over and over again from people who have tried to walk away...but just couldn’t break loose from the “pull” of the Eucharist.

While we are free to walk away...God never just lets us go...God continues to follow after us...hunting us down like the “The Hound of Heaven”. I think it is also interesting to note that this total gift of self, by Jesus in the Eucharist, was precisely what caused some disciples to walk away...they left at Jesus’ total gift of himself to them! It was just too much for them to be able to comprehend and to accept... that we are so loved by God that God’s very self is made food for us. And it is that same God who searches us out when we walk away...bringing us back home.

And today in the midst of all the pain for all those children and adults who were abused by priests and religious and the bishops’ role in it all, the re-revelation, with more details than we can stomach to hear, it is the very presence of Jesus Christ who is here with us right this moment, weeping with us for those “little one”, the very same ones he drew to himself and warned against the disciples of maltreating and instead that they needed to become childlike in their humility if they wanted to enter into the Reign of God. Write to our bishop, to the president of the USCCB and write to the Pope -- make our voices heard. We need more than words of sorrow and contrition, as sincere as they are, we must write calling for meaningful and transformational change in how seminaries are run, how priests and religious are prepared for ministry. We need serious change in reporting structures and the laity, women in particular, must be intricately and meaningfully involved in the process of change and fully involved, with full voice in the new structures!

Blessings,
Fr Tim

Oh God, may your church be healed of this sin; our hope and salvation lies in You alone…

In the midst of the ongoing scandalous revelations of seventy years of the sexual abuse by priests of thousands of children and the cover up and complicity of the bishops, I am angry, disoriented and brokenhearted, as I am sure all of you are too. Over the past few days I have tried to keep myself together enough so as to be of some use to all of you as you struggle to make your way through this revelation of darkness and sin by the very people whom we we’re supposed to be able to trust and who we’re supposed to look to to be our leaders and walk with us in our lives with God. Instead they have wounded and broken the lives of all of these children and their families; on their hands is the blood of many of these children whose abuse was more than they were able to bear.

These ongoing revelations not only here in the United States but in Chile and Australia and other countries rock the very foundations of our institutional church. And, as I struggle in the darkness with all this sin, I focus on my belief that we are the church, we are the Body of Christ and at its deepest level my faith is not in the leadership but in God’s amazing love for each one of those children and for each one of us -- a love which is unshakable. I pray for healing for those abuse victims who are still alive and for justice for all of them; that any living perpetrator and any bishop who was in any way complicit be brought to justice.

My prayer and my hope is that this will truly rock the foundations of the institution to force change so that this sickness and sin may be wiped clean from our church. But the disorientation, anger and brokenheartedness for those children remains and I am left with having to place myself in God’s hands, and in yours, praying that together as a community of faith we are able walk through this darkness and sin, as we cry out for justice from the institutional church for all those children who were abused and whose lives were stolen from them.

May all of the victims rest in God’s loving embrace, both living and dead and may God grant us the grace that the sins of the priests and bishops will not destroy our faith in God and in God’s abiding presence within each one of us. May God’s grace guide us as we walk through this horrible darkness and by that grace may we all find hope and healing. Amen.

 Fr Tim

If today’s Gospel sounds familiar, a bit like last week, your right on target. During the coming weeks we will continue to hear Gospels that speak of the Eucharist, Jesus as the Bread come down from heaven, for the sake of the world! The genteel southern writer, Flannery O’Connor, shocked her companions when in conversation about the Eucharist, she objected, “Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.” In one of her letters, she wrote that the Eucharist “is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.”

The meaning of the Eucharist resists taming; it refuses to be reduced to a mere statement of faith. The Eucharist is not an abstract idea. It is an experience of mystery that will always be more than our struggle to articulate it can say. It is a “more” that is always shocking. It is a raw, unmediated encounter with the very presence of Jesus Christ! Just as it shocked the disciples so too we should allow it to shock us…to wake us up to just how deeply and passionately we are loved by Jesus…willing to feed us on his very flesh that we might have eternal life.

Elijah was told by the angel “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you”. The Eucharist is “bread for the journey” of our lives. It is meant to feed us spiritually, to make us more and more the Body of Christ present in the world. It gives us the strength to be and to do in the world as Jesus has commanded us to do, to love one another as He has loved us. If we are truly disciples of Jesus then we  are called to “feed” others…to respond to their hungers…not just for physical food…but to their hunger for justice, for peace, for respect of their human dignity! Filled with the Eucharist, how will I take it out into the world to share that presence with others? Who are the hungry in my life? What do they hunger for and how can I feed that hunger?

Blessings,
 Fr. Tim

This Sunday we reflect on the Eucharist as we hear Jesus proclaim that what God asks of us is to believe in Jesus whom he sent into the world. Jesus promises that the bread he provides does so much more than just satisfy our physical hunger. It satisfies our deepest hungers. Jesus makes a clear connection between believing in him, as the one sent by the Father, and believing in his real presence in this “bread sent down from heaven”. Jesus wants the people to understand that this bread that he is offering is no ordinary bread but rather is “divine food," given because of God’s love for them.

Over two thousand years later, we still struggle to comprehend this mystery -- Jesus’ real living presence in the bread blessed, broken and shared. As a Eucharistic Community our gathering focuses on Jesus’ real presence in our midst as we are gathered by his love. The extravagant gift of himself to us is not just for us but for the sake of the world. The real challenge for us is to understand that as we gather for Eucharist, it is not just for our personal salvation but that we are commissioned and sent forth to take that real presence of Jesus Christ out into a broken and wounded world. We are called to be “Christ-bearers”, bringing the healing presence of Jesus Christ to all those we meet but especially to those most in need: the marginalized, the immigrant and migrant, the disenfranchised minorities subjected to racism, bigotry and intolerance.

We are emboldened to speak truth to power, both secular and religious. We are called to speak out against the sins of our nation and of our church. This “real presence” within us emboldens us to be true disciples of Christ in action in the world building up the Reign of God so the world might be, not as we have made it, but as God has dreamed it to be -- a world of peace and justice, a world of equity and harmony where all people’s dignity is honored and respected!

To whom have I recently been “the real presence” of Jesus? How do I share this “real presence” with my family and friends? To whom is God calling me to be “the real presence” so that they might know how deeply and passionately they are loved by God?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim