As we celebrate All Saints and All Souls days this weekend, we pause to remember all those who have gone before us and spent their lives building the nation, the freedoms and rights that we enjoy today, even as they are at this very moment under threat! “For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.”

This afore mentioned quote from Dag Hammarskjold, I believe, speaks of a profound gratitude to God for what has been, and of a stance of openness towards God’s powerful presence within us and our lives, and speaks of an openness towards whatever lies ahead in life and in death. And I think it is appropriate for us as we celebrate All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day.

November is traditionally a time in which we remember the dead. In some cultures people set up little home altars on which they place photos and mementos of their loved ones who have died and gone ahead of them to that which we call the afterlife, heaven.

We do not know exactly what lies ahead but yet we are part of it, promised resurrection through our baptism. As we careen towards the end of the liturgical year and towards the season of Advent, our readings turn toward “the last things”.

This is not meant to frighten us or cause us to be gloomy or sad; on the contrary, it is meant to offer us an opportunity to reflect on the transitory reality of this life in the context of the gift and the promise of eternal life. While none of us really knows exactly what it will be like, and the speculation has made for good reading over the centuries, some theologians today talk of it as something analogous to a glorious and knowable uniting -- a joining with God in a new and spectacular way, beyond our wildest hopes and dreams! Heaven!

Down through history this belief in the resurrection has motivated many people to stand up and resist oppression and evil, not unlike what we heard in the first reading for this Sunday about the torture of the mother and the seven brothers. Not unlike today!

And it is not unlike “what we have seen and what we have heard” in the lives of our Black sisters and brothers who during their nightmare of slavery clung to their faith in the God of their deliverance who would bring them home. And, not unlike all of our Black sisters and brothers who lived through the hell of systemic racism of post construction after the civil war and into the civil rights movement and right up to this very day…where systemic racism still represses, holds down and steals the lives of our black and brown sisters and brothers, and who are being denied as DEI initiatives are dismantled across the nation at the insistence of this political administration.

And on this first Sunday of Black Catholic History Month, we recognize that it was this very same systemic racism that was the cause for a small group of 16 Black Catholics to band together in 1945 and ask Bishop Ireton to help them build a Black Catholic parish community in Arlington.

Which caused Bishop Ireton to reach out to the Spiritans and asked them if they would be willing to send a priest to be the pastor of this new parish in the midst of creation. And the Spiritans sent Fr. Joseph Hackett, C.S.Sp., whom the bishop appointed to became the first pastor of OLQP. And that Black Catholic community gathered, in the home of one of the founding members, on Pentecost Sunday, May 20th , 1945 for the first Mass of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, and on June 15, of 1947 this Church building was completed and dedicated by Bishop Ireton.

And in that dedication was the celebration of the amazing labor of love and backbreaking hard work of those earliest Black Catholic members of this parish community, who built this church building in which we gather and celebrate each Sunday. They labored to create a safe and dignified worship space where they could gather and pray and celebrate the sacraments in dignity and without fear of acts of racist exclusion, or segregation, and worse.

And as we continue to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of this parish and 78th anniversary of the dedication this church building we also thankfully celebrate the lives and faith of those earliest members of our parish community here at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church.

The readings today call us to ask ourselves what do I believe about heaven and the afterlife and do I fear death or dying? And If I built a little home altar this November honoring my ancestors, whose photos and what mementos would I place
on that altar?

And given the current events of our times, our discipleship of Jesus Christ calls us to ask ourselves, in what ways can I stand up to the sin of systemic racism that was behind the need to found this very parish in the first place.

Faced with the racism, bigotry and misogyny that beats down, holds back, and erases, and looks past our sisters and our brothers of color as well as immigrants and refugees… and all those marginalized and excluded by our society and seeks to deny them the dignity God has given them, we have to ask ourselves: what action does my discipleship of Jesus Christ call me to in this day and in this nation so torn apart by hatred of “the other?” How will I speak out? What action will I take to make my voice heard?

Fr. Tim

As I have often mentioned, I think Jesus’ parables are like finely cut gem stones; as you tumble them around you see there are many facets to them…and you see that they are not always exactly what they first appeared to be. The story often has twists and turns and by the time you discover what is really going on, it’s too late to refuse the invitation to the new reality being presented through the telling of the parable.

Jesus’ parables draw comparisons between what we know and what we don’t know…conventional understanding up against gospel insight. First we say… oh yeah…I know this…and then a sharp corner is turned, and we swallow hard, and we see something new…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. The message of this parable is that 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,” or worse…to a country they did not come from, with no family, or support system, only guaranteed suffering !

Looking at the world through “Gospel lenses” reveals a whole new way of seeing “the other” and seeing the world around us. What do “Gospel lenses” let me see about our current social and political debate on issues of systemic racism, DEI, immigration, refugees, and on issues of gender and misogyny and economic inequality, poverty and ecology.

In what light do my “Gospel lenses” let me see my sister and brother Muslims, Jews, and people of other faiths and political beliefs?

What challenges are presented to me by looking at the burning issues of our chaotic nation through “Gospel lenses”? And how deeply does that “Gospel view” impact my response to those issues? What words and actions does this “Gospel view” call me to in today’s world?

Fr. Tim

Jesus calls us to “pray always, without becoming weary.” Prayer has “reverently” been 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 reflect on our relationship with God.

One thing I have come to believe is that God desperately desires us to engage with Him. 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 communication and communing, we call prayer. Prayer happens when we are willing to open our hearts and 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.

We are called to engage in the mystery of the Divine indwelling, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, within each one of us! Think about that; sit with that sacred reality, that God is very truly within each one of us, as we are the temples of the Holy Spirit! How does that truth of Divine indwelling shape my life, how does it shape my relationships with others, how does it shape my relationship with God, and with how I see and understand myself?

How much time have I “wasted” with God lately? What could I do to deepen my prayer life? Especially now in the midst of
this political chaos that we are struggling through. We need to draw nearer to God more than ever, to draw strength and
guidance on how to navigate this chaos. 

How does God most often speak to me…through the  celebration of the Eucharist, through listening to music, through nature, perhaps through a loving relationship I experience God’s love, maybe in and through caring for others, or simply by sitting in the silence?

Jesus exhorts us to “pray always, without becoming weary.” So, can I fit 5 minutes, 5 times a day into my busy schedule to acknowledge God’s presence, just to turn my attention to God’s presence within me and around me?

As we think about praying throughout the day, often we say, my day is so full and it just gets away from me. One suggestion might be to schedule it on your smart phone, just like you would schedule a meeting, or dinner or lunch with friends. Or put a post-it-note in a place that you will see often throughout the day that reminds you to take five minutes to acknowledge God’s presence, within you and around you. A few minutes to ask for help if you need it, to reflect on what you are grateful for in your life, in that day and to say “thank you” to God.
It is about taking a few minutes to connect with God. It is a way of keeping God at the center of our day and at the center of our life. It can have an amazing impact on the quality of our relationship with God and the quality of our relationships with others.
Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray always because he knew that it would continue to deepen their relationship him and transform their lives. And it can do the same for us, especially in these dark and difficult times.

May God’s most abundant blessings be upon us and our nation and may our leaders minds and hearts be opened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as they govern and make decisions for our country’s future.
Fr. Tim

Today’s readings deal with the theme of gratitude…of giving thanks. Actually 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 God.

The readings portray two remarkable foreigners. In the first reading we meet Naaman, a non-Israelite, a foreigner and a powerful commander of an ememy army. He comes to Israel seeking a mriacle cleansing of his leprosy, but he scoffs at the cure that is offered by the prophet Elisha. Although he needed encouragement, he finally follows the prophet’s words and is made clean and comes to faith and to believe in the God of Israel.

In the Gospel we meet a group of ten lepers whom Jesus cleanses. One of lepers was an outcast not only because of his leprosy but because he was, as well, a foreigner. And not just any foreigner, a Samaritan! As we know, the Samaritans were considered to be almost “sub-humans”, out-siders, not part of the “tribe” of Israel! And yet, it is a Samaritan leper who returns to give thanks to Jesus for curing him.

The actions of gratitude of the two foreigners are truly admirable, but the most remarkable lesson may quite possibly be found in the character of God. In the healing of both foreigners, complete “outsiders”, we see the universal scope of God’s salvation. For each of these foreigners came to faith through God’s amazing love for them that brought them healing. And given the “social outcasting” nature of their disease, they were not just physically healed, but healed deep in their souls as they were restored to their families and their communities from whom they would have been estranged due to their leprosy.

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 is without limits.

The only fitting response to God’s wondrous, limitless love for us is a joyful thanksgiving and a willingness to emulate this love and healing by following Jesus’ example in the way we choose to live our daily lives and embrace our sisters and brothers, regardless of their status in our lives. A pretty tall order, but nonetheless, the call of the the Gospel, a life of sacrifical love of other.

Jesus calls us to reach out to the leper, to the lost, the lonely, the outcast and the immigrant and the refugee…to all those denied justice and whom the world despises and “makes other” that we are to make sister and brother!

In the midst of all of the chaos that swirls around us and all of the “othering” that is happening in our country at this moment…we are called to embrace those who are being attacked and marginalized…to be the loving arms of our God present in the midst of hatred, violence, racism and misogyny. And to be voices of compassion and inclusion, speaking out to our elected leaders demanding they protect the poor and vuneralble of our society.

We must demand our elected leaders protect all those who are threatened with political retaliation, threatened because of the color of their skin or their political ideology, threatened because of who they love or where they were born or because of their religious affiliation. The Gospel demands us to speak out on behalf of all those whose lives and rights are being threatened, in obvious as well as in more insidious ways.

As we continue to reflect on this weekend’s readings, let us ask ourselves: what am I grateful for in my life? Who are the lepers, the outcasts, the marginalized that I see in my life that I am called to open up my arms and embrace? And how can I embrace them?

Blessings on the journey,
Fr. Tim 

Where is your faith strong and what are your doubts?

We are often strong in faith in one area and weaker or doubtful in another area. 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 heard his astounding words, they had seen him perform amazing miracles firsthand. What more did they need?

Perhaps they were fearful of their doubts. Perhaps they saw that some in their group had more faith than others. Perhaps the one who asked for more faith wanted to impress Jesus or possibly he was struggling with what he believed about who Jesus was. Regardless of the reason for the question, Jesus responds telling them that however much faith they have, it was sufficient to do all things. A truly powerful response to what may have been a fear-fueled request. He told them that they already possessed all the faith they needed. He told them that the tiniest amount of faith could do amazing things.
I often have conversations with folks about faith and doubt. Sometimes 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 room for doubt…but Jesus focuses on the power of that “tiny faith” and not the doubt…and the reality that even with a tiny faith, great things can happen! Doubt it seems is the other side of the coin of faith.

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! To put our discipleship into action, to live the call of the Gospel!

We live in truly fearful times that cause so much doubt about the future of our country, our freedoms, our jobs, our personal and national security, our children’s and grandchildren’s futures. There is so much worry and doubt, but in the midst of all the chaos that swirls around us, let our faith in Jesus -- even if as tiny as a mustard seed -- be the rock we cling to in the midst of this chaos.

Let us allow the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, guide us and embolden us to resist the chaos and to work together for what we know is right, for what we know is true, for what we know is equitable and for what we know is just! Knowing we do not struggle alone, that the very presence of Divinity dwells within each one of us -- that is what makes all the difference in our struggle for a more peaceful and just nation and world.
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Blessings on the journey,
Fr. Tim