Happy New Year! ...no, I’ve not lost it…today we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent…the beginning of the church’s liturgical year. Advent is truly a “wonder-filled” season. We look to the deep blue night sky…shimmering with a billion stars, each one a reminder of the dawn of creation… of the promise of the long awaited savior. There is something about staring up at the night sky… something awe inspiring and spiritual in nature, it calls us to look beyond ourselves.

Advent is a time to “make time”…in the midst of all the commercialism, in the midst of all of chaos that we call “the holiday rush”, we are called to slow down, to stand back and to reflect… to take time to allow the wonder of the Great Christmas Event to settle into our souls…to shake us loose from the ordinariness of our daily lives and allow ourselves to be wrapped up in the awe and wonder of the Incarnation…the fact that our God so deeply loves us and that God’s very self became human to prove that love to us. That love is for you…just as you are! This amazing love is for all of God’s creation, for all peoples and for the earth itself!

This Advent we find ourselves in the midst of a huge humanitarian crisis as our sisters and brothers flee war, violence and terror, they wander the earth in search of a home. As we reflect on the wonder and awe of God’s amazing love for the earth and all humanity let us raise our voices and our hands to make sure that these refugees, and all who wander the earth in search of finding “home”, be taken in. Let us not allow fear to rule our lives, but rather the love of Christ!

Just as the Holy Family was made refugees by the tyrant Herod, so too these sisters and brothers of ours stand at our southern border, they flee violence and war, let us work to make sure they find a “home” too! Let us not allow the immensity of the crisis to paralyze us and convince us we can do nothing for in Christ we can do all things. What can I do this Advent to help in the midst of this humanitarian crisis?

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim

​Since 1969, the end of the liturgical year is punctuated by the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (previously known as “the Feast of Christ the King”). The raising of its status to a “Solemnity” and the expansion of the title point to a deepening of the understanding of the cosmic nature of the “Christ Event” and its impact in not only human history but of its impact on all created reality! Perhaps “Sovereign of the Universe” would be a less patriarchal title and convey the same reality.

Today throughout the church we focus not just on Christ’s sovereignty over all creation but on Christ’s love for each of us and indeed God’s love for all creation. The second reading helps to hone the true image of “this Sovereign”…the glory is to be given to the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his very life. And if we listen, we can hear the echo of the Good Shepherd in Jesus’ final words in today’s Gospel…“everyone who belongs to the Truth listens to my voice.” And so we listen to Christ’s voice in our lives and make Christ the sovereign of our lives. Not as one who lords it over us but as the One who came that we might have eternal life….the One who remains in us and we in Christ…who was, who is, and who is yet to come!

This understanding of Christ as Sovereign of the Universe holds the power to draw us into the enormity of the mystery of the Divine act of creation itself, a holy and selfless act of Love…and we are the progeny of this ever expanding, creating Love. In a world with far too many despots and tyrants who rule by force and fear, we are called to build up the Reign of God, that all creation might flourish and blossom, a Reign built on love and mercy. So in the midst of reflecting on the sovereignty of Christ in our lives let us pray for and work towards solutions that help to end war and violence, and open our hearts to their victims, thus building up the Reign of God. Let us not be ruled by fear or violence but rather let us be ruled by the “Sovereign of the Universe”, Love, itself!

Blessings,
Fr Tim

The liturgical year is coming to an end and so we start to ponder the reality that one day the world will end and Christ will return…but when? Some Christians routinely (and wrongly) announce the return of Christ…they seem to forget that Jesus clearly said that no one, not even “He” knew when the world would end! And yet they continue to claim to know the date and time. Remember the “Jesus is coming on May 21st” billboards that dotted the highways a few years ago?

Today’s Gospel is not about “knowing” when Christ will come…but rather about being ready when Christ does come! Am I ready? At the center of the readings is a message of total reliance upon the mercy and love of God. It is about keeping our hearts and minds open to God’s presence in our daily lives and in the world around us! The psalmist reminds us that God is our portion and cup, our inherence and therefore our hearts are glad and our souls rejoice…for we are God’s beloved!

By keeping God at the center of our daily lives we indeed will be ready if the world were to end in our time. Because of the love and mercy of our God we need not fear “the end” for we will be transformed into beings that shine like the stars in the heavens! Through Christ we have inherited eternal life and each of us is a part of “the great cloud of witnesses” who give glory to God. When and where was the last time I felt the presence of God in my life? How do I actively engage in keeping God at the center of my life? How do I give glory to God in my life?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

The women in our readings today, the widow of Zarephath and the widow in the temple treasury, gave not from their surplus but from their want…each one gave all that she had. That fact that they are widows living in a patriarchal society with no male relatives mentioned points towards an understanding that they were on their own with no one to guard them or provide for their needs. Widows had little or no social standing in the patriarchal society they lived in. Widows and orphans were the most vulnerable class of people in this society and there were scriptural edicts that they were to be protected, but obviously their poverty and dire situations proved that these edicts were not followed.

The Widow of Zarephath is blessed by God for her generosity with a flour jar and an oil jug that never runs out and she and her son survive the drought. And the widow at the temple, unaware that she is being watched, is hailed by Jesus as a woman with the most generous heart, unlike those who were rich and made a scene of their gifts. And Jesus diminishes the value of their gifts because of the size of their wealth. So the lowly widow, who gave from her want, becomes the heroine of the story.

There are so many examples of people in our world today who give like the women in today’s scripture, not just money but their time and talent. They see a need and they respond to that need…foster parents, hospice and healthcare workers, firefighters, police officers, military women and men, teachers, parents who sacrifice so much for their children to have a safe and good life. The list goes on and on, and includes YOU, each time you reach out in kindness to help someone in need, each time you think of the other instead of yourself, each time you seek to feed the stranger with your last bit of flour and oil you are that widow, each time you offer more than you have to really offer to aid someone in need or to a good cause you are that widow with the most generous heart that Jesus pointed out to his disciples in the temple. When was the last time I “acted as the widows did”?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

So what is the greatest commandment…loving God with your whole being and your neighbor as yourself…which Jesus says is worth more than all burnt offerings and all sacrifices! A very powerful statement to be sure…but it seems we still haven’t got it! We still put all kinds of rules and regulations and pious practices ahead of this “one”, clearly stated, commandment. Even though Jesus was so very clear about it, it seems that we still insist on putting all these other “things” ahead of this one straight forward commandment.

Imagine if we were to order our lives around this singular commandment, imagine how the world might be…imagine if we focused on truly loving God and our neighbor…if that was the singular organizing principle of our lives, of our church, of our world! Our whole world view would change…we would see migrants and immigrants not as strangers and threats, but as sisters and brothers. We would see the poor, the needy and vulnerable not as taxing on our resources, but family in need, and respond out of love. Our primary motivation no longer focuses on just ‘what I can get or do for myself’ but looks to God and to my neighbor. Suddenly the wellbeing and safety of “the other” takes on a whole new significance in my life in “the Kingdom of God”!

So my stance on issues like just war theory, euthanasia, abortion, equal access to education, just wages, affordable housing, equal access to healthcare, compassionate care of the elderly, infirmed and mentally ill and the list goes on...all these issues are viewed through the lens of this one commandment of loving God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves. It would call me to learn to let go of all my biases.  Imagine the social and political impact it would have in our country and around the world if all Christians or even if just a majority of Christians began to work towards building up Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom of God!

And of course imagine the impact it would have on the church itself, if all the priests, deacons, nuns, brothers, bishops and cardinals used this commandment as their primary lens through which they exercised every aspect of their ministry, it would be transformative! Clericalism and careerism would be replaced with servant leadership which would bring about an end to the ongoing leadership scandal in the church.

Within our country all our political discourse would radically change, poverty, racism, the marginalization of others, would all be things of the past…imagine! Jesus did...no he commanded that it be so! This is his vision of “the Kingdom of God”, and it is the challenge that Jesus places before us as his disciples…for us to put love of God and love of neighbor first!

What would my life look like if I set aside all my resentments and grudges and pettiness and chose to accept and love people just the way they are regardless of how wrong I believe them to be? What do I need to let go of in my life so that God and neighbor can be first? How do I best show my love of God? How do I best show my love of neighbor? What might I need to change in my life to make Jesus’ commandment more fully the standard by which I live?

Blessings,
Fr Tim