​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 believe that we are “different” from one another and then we see them as “other”. And from this we can come to believe that we are superior or better than the one who is different from ‘my clan’, those who are like me.

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 that 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, precisely because we separated “others” out and made them “outsiders”!

Jesus tells us 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, like those at our southern border! Jesus is telling us we are all sisters and brothers, beloved children of God!

Regardless of the color of our skin, the place or circumstance of our birth, or our social status or our religious or political affiliation or our gender, each and every one of us is connected as a beautiful creation of God -- 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 would our world look like, what would our political conversation sound like? Would we be banning books in our schools just because they were written by people of color or because they tell stories challenging racism or books that raise up stories of inclusion and representation to our children? These books written in the hopes that they will help our children grow up to build a society where diversity is celebrated and those who are “other” are welcomed and made to feel loved and accepted -- as my sister and brother, just as they are, beloved children of God!

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, 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” Jerimiah 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”.

Jerimiah 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. But we nonetheless are called by our discipleship to “run the race.” That is, to actively live out our discipleship by our daily way of life.

And in the Gospel, Jesus recognizes that not everyone who has heard his word or seen his miracles will believe in him. Jesus 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! A cost that he wants his disciples to understand. He wants them 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 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.

Standing up and demanding racial justice and calling for an end to all forms of bigotry, misogyny and an end to the intolerance and rejection of immigrants and refugees, standing with the chronically underemployed, with Muslims and people of other faiths and with the LGBTQ+ community…standing up for the rights of others may get us called unpatriotic but it is clearly living out the call of the Gospel, living out Jesus’ call to discipleship!

Answering God’s call to be prophets in the midst of a self-centered and angry world is a tall order, but God does not ask of us that which we cannot do!

Living our discipleship, following God’s call is no easier for us that it was for Jerimiah 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 very presence of the Risen Christ…thus we are 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