Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church - Arlington, VA
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    • Our History
    • Staff >
      • Parish Administration & Communication
    • News and Bulletins
    • 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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October 22, 2023

10/20/2023

 
This weekend is World Mission Sunday. For many of us it conjures up images of missionary nuns and brothers and priests in habits chopping their way through jungles or climbing mountains or crossing raging rivers to carry the message of the Gospel to faraway places where the Gospel has not yet, or scarcely, been preached.

Many of us think of missionary activity as evangelization and the work of “
professional religious”. But in reality it is our work. Fr. Tony Gittins, a Spiritan and internationally recognized expert in the area of mission, likes to remind us that, “the church does not have a mission, rather, “The Mission” has a Church”, the church exists for the sake of the proclamation of the Gospel, even unto the ends of the earth!”

Pope Francis has said much the same by proclaiming that the church is missionary by its nature! Pope Benedict has said that the Gospel is not a thing but rather a person, the person of Jesus Christ! When we proclaim the Gospel we are proclaiming Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis has called us all to proclaim the Gospel passionately and creatively. He challenges us to preach the Gospel with our very lives not just with our words.

Discipleship is living the Gospel, living Christ in our daily lives in and through what we choose to value and what we choose to ignore. We preach Christ each time we put the needs of others before the needs of ourselves, each time we speak out on behalf of the ignored and voiceless, each time we speak out on behalf of the poor and the marginalized; the immigrant and refugee, then we preach Christ.

That is living our discipleship. Each time we stand with women who are sexually abused, harassed, or humiliated. Each time we call it out for what it is and work to put an end to it, we put our discipleship into action!

Discipleship is missionary by its nature and so we are indeed called to be missionaries who climb the mountains of racism and bigotry, who cross the raging rivers of misogyny and hack through the jungles of poverty and exclusion to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for while it may have been preached in many places, clearly it has not been well heard!

Where am I being called to preach the Gospel by how I live my life? What mountain am I being called to climb or rivers to cross or jungles to hack through to preach the Gospel, and to whom?

Let us all continue to pray for an end to the terrorism and war in Israel and Palestine, and in all the other war torn countries and regions around the world. And let us pray especially for the international community to help work to broker a lasting peace agreement for the people of Palestine and Israel.

​Blessings,
Fr. Tim 


October 15, 2023

10/13/2023

 
In this weekend’s Gospel we once again see the conflict between Jesus and the religious and civil leaders of the day. This parable follows on the heels of last week’s parable of the wicked tenants who killed the vineyard owner’s son.

In this parable Jesus likens the chief priests and the elders of the people to those invited by a king to a great feast but they chose not to come...
one went to his farm and another to his business; each one was too busy to be bothered with attending the great feast.

Some of those invited even beat and killed the messengers of the king who brought the invitation! And the King, angered at the people’
s behavior, disinvites them all and instead invites a whole new group of people.

Once again, Jesus is proclaiming that the chief priests and the elders of the people have been “
disinvited” to the great feast because of their bad behavior, because of their lack of faith and unwillingness to accept who Jesus really is and his message of God’s deep and passionate love for all peoples, just as they are. Because of Jesus’ public rejection of religious civil leaders in these moments like we have just heard, the plot to have Jesus killed takes shape.

The leaders are outraged that Jesus would have the audacity to tell them that they were not faithful to the covenant...
to the original invitation! And they were completely blind to the “new invitation” that Jesus was giving them, and they rejected the invitation and rejected Jesus himself.

They were also angry that he was inviting “
others” to the feast -- ”others” who were sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes...and even Samaritans! The lavish nature of God’s invitation was just beyond the understanding of the religious leaders and the elders of the people. They just couldn’t imagine a feast where “everyone” gets invited!

Like all parables there are many layers and multiple implications to this parable. But the central theme is that of God’
s invitation to the heavenly banquet and our response to that invitation, and as well, just how broad God’s invitation is, that it is extended to everyone. The lesson is that it is up to us to accept the invitation and come to the feast!

So, a few questions: Will I make time to accept God’
s invitation, or is my life just too busy? To what do I understand God to be inviting me to, and what does that look like in my life? And how do I feel, in my heart of hearts, about God inviting “the others”...tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners... to the banquet?

The deeper realities of this last question are central when reflecting on our attitudes toward violence, aggression and war in our society, and no doubt plays a huge role in the war between Hamas and Israel.

Let us all continue to pray for an end to the terrorism and war in the region and for the international community to help work to broker a lasting peace agreement for the people of Palestine and Israel.

Blessings,
Fr. Tim 

October 8, 2023

10/6/2023

 
God has entrusted the vineyard to us to care for and cultivate, and to produce fine wine! And in the sense of the parable, the fine wine is not just for ourselves but for the owner of the vineyard too. Yet, how do we care for the vineyard and with whom do we share the fruit of the earth? Do we recognize who “owns” the earth and all it contains?

Do we see ourselves as entrusted with a sacred trust or do we see the earth as something to be exploited for our own good, for our use without care of future generations without care of how the Creator/Owner feels for the land we abuse?

Many questions! But at the core of them all, I believe, seems to be one of identity and relationship. Understanding our identity as the beloved of God --
God’s daughters and sons, ALL of US -- and understanding that from that identity flows all our relationships!

And it is this reality that then is to inform all of the actions in our lives...
to live as the beloved of God!

But we find ourselves living in a vineyard filled with vitriol and division, a place where so many are out for themselves and what they can get out of life without any concern for how it hurts the other. Many businesses around the world overwork and underpay their employees forcing them to work in subhuman conditions for less money than it is humanly possible to live on.

As a Nation we proliferate the arms race and have too often threatened war rather than sit down to talk of peace and mutual cooperation. We reel from gun violence with one mass shooting after another in our country, and seem to make no headway in the fight against stricter gun laws to prevent such senseless acts of gun violence.

We claim that we value the dignity of all life and yet we imprison more people than any other developed nation, we own more guns per capita than any other nation and put more people to death and continue to deny basic healthcare to the most needy in our society while we round up productive, tax paying, undocumented women and men to send them back to countries where their chances of leading successful lives are far less than here.

The vineyard is not ours. It belongs to the Creator and we need to recognize that how we live on the earth and how we treat one another matters deeply to the One who made us and who made the vineyard!

During this Respect Life Month let us pray for an end to all forms of violence and disrespect of human life from conception to natural death. Let us pray for an end to systemic racism and bigotry, an end to misogyny and xenophobia and all actions that disrespect the dignity and sacredness of human life.

A prayer for the Synod in Rome: “
For the Church, in a new phase in the synodal journey, that the presence of the Gospel, alive and at work in her, may make her like the vineyard in the parable, a vital place where all women and men who seek meaning in their life find a place, a word, and a breath of hope, we pray”; come Holy Spirit come, fill the hearts of all your people!

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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