When I was a little kid we had two elderly, rather eccentric, “aunts” who loved to buy my sisters and brothers and me gifts for every occasion imaginable. One Christmas they came over to our house with an absolutely huge box of Whitman Chocolates. And being kids…we tore into the elegantly wrapped box of confectionary delights with the greatest of joy…only to discover that the “legend” had been taken out of the lid of the box...so we had no way of knowing what was inside each of the smooth shiny milk chocolate squares. Our aunts howled with laughter at our consternation. (We had a “house rule” that no one was allowed to “punch holes’ in the bottom of chocolates to find out what kind of filling was inside and you always had to eat whatever piece you took.) As we hovered over the huge box of chocolates trying to decide which piece we would risk trying…my little brother Kevin, who was only about five years old, gleefully said…“it’s like hunting for treasure…you don’t know what you’ll get until you bite into it…and then you’ll get surprised!”

Jesus’ parables are a bit like eating from a box of chocolates without a legend…you never really know what you’re going to get and by the time you discover what it is, it’s too late to refuse it. Jesus’ parables draw comparisons between what we know and what we don’t know, conventional understanding up against gospel truth. First we say…oh yeah…I know this…and then a sharp corner is turned, and we swallow hard, and we see that the story has a “surprise filling”…not quite what we were expecting.

In today’s parable the Pharisee is supposed to be the righteous one and the tax collector is supposed to be the bad guy…but things are not always as we think they are supposed to be. We need to be careful about judging others… the fact is that we don’t know what is in someone else’s heart…only God knows. In the Gospels Jesus gives us a different set of rules for judging things to be acceptable or unacceptable…it is a different set of lenses through which we are called to view the world. These Gospel lenses “see” the poor, the immigrant and the marginalized as the beloved of God rather than “a drain on the system” or “foreigners” whom we should fear and send “back home”! Looking at the world through “Gospel lenses” reveals a whole new way of seeing “others” and the world around us. What do “Gospel lenses” let me see about our current social and political debate on issues of racism, immigration, refugees, Muslims, misogyny and poverty?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

Prayer has been, “reverently”, described as wasting time with God…I like to think of it as a “blessed” waste of time. Our Scripture this weekend offers us an opportunity to think about “prayer”…to think about our relationship with God. Jesus calls us “to pray always without becoming weary.” Some folks are a bit hesitant to talk about their prayer life…some think you need a degree in theology to talk about prayer. But I beg to differ…some of the most profound insights I ever heard about prayer and God’s action in our lives didn’t come from theologians or professional religious, they have come from ordinary people… folks in the trenches of life who at times have found themselves lost in a dark wood…only to encounter a light in the midst of the darkness. I have learned far more from people like you about prayer than from all the books I’ve read and the courses I’ve taken…and as well, I’ve learned from my own journey with God.

One thing I have come to believe is that God desperately desires us to engage with Him/Her. God loves us deeply and passionately, just the way we are, and desires us for we are “God’s beloved”! And because we are God’s beloved, God wants to communicate to us, to commune with us… and this we call prayer. Prayer happens when we are willing to open our hearts and my minds to God’s presence…right in the midst of the ordinariness of our daily lives. God seeks us out but we have to stop running…we need to sit down and just “waste time” with God.

How much time have I “wasted” with God lately? What could I do to deepen my prayer life? How does God most often speak to me…through Eucharist, music, nature, a loving relationship, caring for others, sitting in the silence? Can I schedule
just 5 to 10 minutes, 3 or more times a day into my busy life to “waste time” with God?

God’s Blessings,
 Fr. Tim

Today’s readings deal with the theme of gratitude…of giving thanks. The word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek word for “the act of giving thanks”. Our Eucharist is first and foremost an action of giving thanks to our God. The readings portray two remarkable foreigners. In the first reading we meet Naaman, a foreigner, a powerful commander of one of Israel’s enemy’s army. In the Gospel we meet a leper, an outcast not only because of his leprosy but because he is a Samaritan. The actions of gratitude of the two foreigners are truly admirable, but the most remarkable lesson may be found in the character of God. In the healing of both foreigners, we see the universal scope of God’s salvation. In both instances, we are shown that God’s love and salvation has no ethnic or racial boundaries or borders. God’s love is universal and without limits. The only fitting response to God’s wondrous love for us is joyful thanksgiving and a willingness to emulate this love and healing by following Jesus’ example. Jesus calls us to reach out to the leper, to the lost, the lonely, the outcast and the immigrant and the refugee…all those denied justice and whom the world despises. We are called to embrace them all…to be the loving arms of our God present in the midst of hatred, violence, racism and marginalization. What am I grateful for in my life? Who are the lepers, the outcasts, the marginalized in my life that I am called to open up my arms to and embrace?

God’s Blessings,
Fr. Tim

In today’s Gospel we hear the apostles asking Jesus to increase their faith, a seemingly appropriate request. But Jesus rebuffs their request. Why do they need more faith...they were with Jesus in the flesh…they had seen his miracles first hand, they had heard his preaching…what more did they need? Perhaps they were fearful of their doubts, perhaps they saw that some of them had more faith than others within their group. Perhaps the one who asked wanted to impress Jesus or possibly he was struggling with his own faith in Jesus. Regardless of the reason for the question, Jesus responds basically telling them all that however much faith they have, it is sufficient to do all things.

I often have conversations with folks about faith and doubt, so often people express a sense of shame or embarrassment at what they perceive as “a lack of faith”. And yet in today’s Gospel Jesus tells us that even faith the size of a mustard seed is sufficient! That leaves all kinds of room for doubt…but Jesus focuses on the power of that “tiny faith” and the reality that with even a little faith great things can happen!

​My takeaway from this Gospel is that while we all have doubts, just like the apostles, the faith we do have is sufficient to do what we have been called to do! In and through the power of the Holy Spirit, that lives within each one of us, we can indeed respond to the Gospel way of life, building up the Reign of God through working for justice and building peace in the world. In this moment in our nation that we find ourselves we need more than ever to rely on our faith that God is present with us, in the suffering of our sisters and brothers and gives us the strength we need to respond to their suffering. What are my doubts and where is my faith strong? What actions will I take this week to live out my discipleship, to build up the Reign of God?

God’s Blessings,
Fr. Tim