This weekend we find ourselves reflecting on several themes in the readings. This is due to us celebrating both World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and Labor Day. In the first reading from the book of Genesis we hear of the creation of the earth and the heavens as well the creation of Adam and the garden of Eden and human’s job to cultivate and care for the earth. We know the story well and know that the garden of Eden becomes the home of Eve and Adam, a place of beauty and harmony, at least for a time. It is theirs to labor in the garden and cultivate the land and care for it. Just as we too are called to do the same today, and yet, it seems that instead of caring for our common home, we have quite literally set it afire. We have polluted our rivers, lakes and oceans and deforested it and poisoned the land with pesticides. And we continue to pollute the very air we breathe. Pope Francis has called us to join together and to respond immediately to the environmental crisis we find ourselves living in at this very moment. Climate change is real and undeniable! We humans, by the manner in which we have lived have brought about this crisis and we must act NOW, working together with people from around the world to find ways to reduce our carbon footprint and find ways to decrease our consumption. We must work to clean our oceans, lakes and rivers. We must find ways to clean the land we have poisoned with chemicals and replant what we have deforested. We have to remember that the earth was made for us as a “common home”; a place that we are responsible to love and care for. Not a place to consume and use thoughtlessly without regard for the consequences of our actions. As we join with people around the world to celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, let us commit ourselves to live more simply and consume less, to become more conscious of what and how we consume and what impact that reality has on our planet and on our sisters and brothers.

And finally, this Labor Day weekend let us remember that “Catholic teaching holds that central to promoting the dignity of work and rights of workers is building solidarity with and among workers. The Church has long looked towards the important role played by labor unions in the effort to protect the needs and rights of workers in situations of inequality and injustice” (see Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 305, taken from USCCB Labor Day Pastoral Aid). Let us pray for workers’ rights around the world, for fair and just wages, healthcare, paid time off, family leave and safe working conditions.

Blessings,
Fr Tim

This weekend’s readings challenge us to understand “the other” as “ourselves”. The concept of “otherness” is a reality that allows for discrimination, persecution, racial and ethnic profiling …for hatred of “others”! When we fail to see our common humanity then we are able to believe that we are “different” from one another and then we see them as “other”. This concept of “other” often creates a situation where the one who is “other” is dehumanized and degraded. ​Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream…a dream where everyone was equal…where there were no “others”…only “us”! This dream of MLK’s was a “Kingdom dream”…the Kingdom of God…and he saw this dream because he had “Kingdom vision”…Martin Luther King lived as if “the Kingdom of God” was here and now!

In the Gospel we hear this weekend Jesus tells us to be very careful about who we believe is on the inside and who is outside…because we might be the ones who end up on the outside! It is a “cautionary tale” of “otherness”! Jesus is seeking to tell us that there is no “other”…we are all the children of God…including all the migrants and immigrants around the world, counting those at our southern border! We are all “sisters and brothers”! Each and every one of us is connected…as Martin Luther King proclaimed whatever happens to one of us happens to all of us! Imagine if we lived like that…that is what Jesus did for us on the cross! What am I willing to do to break down the barriers that separate me from “the other”? Do I really believe that “we” are all God’s children and loved equally by God? What does that mean for me? How might that challenge how I live my life? Who do I see as “other”?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

The readings this weekend are filled with challenge and excitement at the same time. It seems like we are revisiting the question of “the cost of discipleship” once again! In the first reading we have “the reluctant prophet” Jeremiah who when God calls him to speak a prophetic word to the people, responds with “truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy”. Jeremiah eventually finds his voice but it almost costs him his life when his prophecy leads to his being thrown into a cistern to die.

Then in the second reading St. Paul reminds us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses but there is a race that lies ahead of us and that running that race may cost us our lives. And in the Gospel Jesus recognizes that not everyone who has heard his word or seen his miracles will believe in him. He also recognizes that faith in him will be the source of division on all levels, both communal and familial. And yet his zeal and excitement for preaching the Reign of God is like a blazing fire already setting the world afire!

Jesus knows that discipleship comes at a cost and he wants his disciples to understand just what they may have to pay for their discipleship. Putting our discipleship into action and standing against unjust political policies that hurt the immigrant, the poor or the marginalized, speaking out for gun control any of these realities may get us labeled unpatriotic. Questioning the ethics behind a particular practice at our work place may get us labeled difficult or insubordinate. Standing up to a bully at school on behalf of another may get us labeled all kinds of nasty things meant to shun us. Living our discipleship is no easier for us than it was for Jeremiah or for Paul, we need to remember that we do not run the race alone but that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses and filled with the vary presence of the Risen Christ…thus are we able to set the world ablaze by manifesting the Reign of God by what we say and do! What is the cost of my discipleship? How will I show forth my discipleship this week?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

In the first two readings this weekend we are reminded that we walk by faith and not by sight…Abraham and Sarah journeyed an unknown path to an unknown land following the invitation and promise of God to become the parents of a new people…who would become as countless as the sands on the seashore. In the Gospel, once again Jesus encourages and admonishes the disciples to focus on the Reign of God and not to seek security in the things of this world… and to be ready when the “Master” returns because much will be demanded from the one to whom much has been given.

This weekend’s readings suggest our faith is based on a God who has so generously blessed us…and the future to which we are called is beyond our wildest dreams! But we live, now, in a world that is filled with fear and insecurity where millions of people are made refugees, a world where the majority of all human beings go to bed hungry each night. We live in a world rife with corruption and oppression of the poor…and yet these are the very people who walk in faith…who continue to journey toward that “promised land” believing that God’s Word is more powerful than the cruel hand of any dictator or the sufferings caused by being poor and without power in a world that seems not to care.

How will they be led to “the promised land”…who will feed them in their hunger? The Gospel answers these questions…we are the stewards of “the household” left in charge “to distribute the food allowance at the proper time.” We are the ones called to shelter the homeless, to welcome the stranger and to offer freedom to the oppressed! We are called “to be” the Reign of God! It is our responsibility to reach out to all those in need and all who are suffering and lend a hand…to pull them up out of their poverty and suffering…to do as Jesus did! And this will require, for most of us, that we shift our focus in life from “securing the things of this world” to “seeking the Reign of God first”.

Imagine for a moment what the world would look like if we all truly sought the Reign of God first…imagine…I think we wouldn’t be dealing with mass shootings and all the gun violence nor would we have the humanitarian crisis that we do on our southern border! We wouldn’t be living in a country torn apart by fearmongering, racism, bigotry and misogyny. If we all made building up the Reign of God a priority our world would look very different! In what ways do I seek the Reign of God first in my life? What might I have to change in my life to make “building up the Reign of God” a greater priority? What are the greatest social sins that I see today that hold back “the Reign of God from bursting forth…and what can I do to change that social sin?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

Today’s Gospel parable asks us to consider our wealth and how we use it. 1st Century Palestine was a “limited goods” society; so amassing great quantities of “stuff” meant that someone else did not have enough. It was not a capitalist society of consumers in the same way as we are today. The parable is about the rich man who focuses his life on acquiring more and more for himself while ignoring the Reign of God and the needs of others. He has ignored what is important to God and focused only on himself and his possessions.

The second reading also warns against greed and calls for us to focus on Christ and the Reign of God. Whereas the first reading cries out that all of life is suffering and empty and is written through the eyes of someone who lives as if God didn’t matter. But Jesus has called us to live with God at the center of our lives. And so the meaning in our lives is found in God and not in the possessions we accumulate.

Often we hear of people whose lives are burdensome under the weight of their possessions, as if they are “owned by what they own”. Our consumerist society tells us that we need to consume, to buy more and more “stuff” and in and through having more “stuff” we will find happiness. But we all know the truth, happiness is not found in “stuff” but rather through relationship with God and with one another. Academic study after study has shown that the accumulation of wealth does not make people happier; on the other hand, clearly poverty causes great suffering. And this is ultimately Jesus’ point about the man in today’s Gospel -- instead of thinking of God (who commanded that the poor be cared for), instead of thinking of his neighbors and those who labored in his fields, he thought
only of himself.

Do my possessions ever get in the way of my relationship with God or with others and my ability to care for the poor and those in need? How do I keep God at the center of my day? What is the difference in my life between what I want and what I need?

Blessings,
Fr Tim