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January 1, 2023

12/30/2022

Today we celebrate Mary, the woman from whom was born the son of God, the Savior of the world. We hold up and celebrate her great yes — a yes she offered even though she was afraid and not sure what was to unfold in her life by saying yes to God’s plan.

In the first reading we have the beautiful blessing that God gives to Moses for the people, which includes the gift of “shalom”. The Hebrew word shalom means so much more than “just” peace as we may often think of it.

Shalom carries with it the ideas of happiness, good health, prosperity, friendship, and wellbeing — so very much more than only the absence of violence and war. And surely is not the child who laid in the manger, visited by humble shepherds the very manifestation of this fulness of shalom, the Shalom of God.

In Luke’s nativity scene there are no Magi or royal visitors with kingly gifts; only humble shepherds sent by an angel to see for themselves so that they too might join the heavily hosts and sing glory to God in the highest and shalom to all the peoples of earth!

As we continue to celebrate the wondrous Incarnation and Mary’s incredible YES, and on this World Day of Peace let us pray for God’s gift of “shalom” to fall gently upon the face of the earth; that our swords might be beaten into plowshares and our hatred, fear and distrust of “the other” might, by the grace of God’s Shalom, be turned into something holy so that God’s dream for our world might burst forth.

I pray you all the fullness of the shalom of God in this coming New Year!

Fr. Tim

December 25, 2022

12/23/2022

Merry Christmas!
Certain images inspire wonder. They’re powerful beyond the simple contents of the scene. In the nativity scene we have such an image: a serene new mother, a concerned father, and a vulnerable newborn child. Beleaguered travelers, forced to take refuge in a stable, and the child is carefully laid in a manger—a food trough.

The crude surroundings leave the new family barely protected from the elements, open to any and all who come their way. And yet it inspires wonder! I believe that the purpose of wonder is to open our hearts. It’s to help us to see that there is more to life than we have come to expect.

It tells us that coursing through human life is the presence of the divine. The manger scene is both an invitation and a promise. The invitation is to leave our pursuit of worldly things behind and instead to enter into the Mystery. To be as vulnerable as this child and these parents. To be as open as the shepherds and as generous of heart as the three kings. To praise like the angels and pay attention like the townspeople. The resulting promise is that we will encounter God. We will discover not only that Jesus is God, but that we too share in God’s life—not only in the afterlife, but right here and right now.

And so, here is a Christmas invitation, it’s an invitation in the very midst of this pandemic, in the midst of all the fear and suffering and loss to open our hearts to the wonder of this Christmas moment. Let us all say a prayer of gratitude for the gift of profound love that God has for each and everyone of us...just as we are!

Let us not squander this moment of wonder. Let us open our hearts to the poor and the marginalized, to the voiceless and the ignored, to girls and women who are victims of assault and harassment, to the victims of racism and bigotry and hatred, to open our hearts to the immigrants and refugees, let us reach out to the brokenhearted and lost.

Let us not forget in the rush of the gift giving that this is not about gifts but it is about our God becoming flesh, becoming our salvation and the salvation of the all world! Let us allow the wonder of the Incarnation to settle into our hearts and transform us, to give us new eyes to see the world and all its wonder.

I pray that each and every one of you have a “wonder- filled” Christmas, and pray you come to know how deeply and passionately you are loved by God...just as you are!

Merry Christmas
Fr. Tim

December 18, 2022

12/16/2022

This is the time of year when it seems that everyone sings of ‘peace on earth and good will toward all’! Pope Paul VI proclaimed that if we want peace we need to work for justice.

In this season of dreams of peace and good will we are called to work for justice! Advent is a strange season...a season of hopes and dreams...a season of promises fulfilled and of promises yet to be fulfilled...a season of the Reign of God, that which is bursting forth and at the same time not yet fully here.

Advent is counter cultural on so many levels. In a season when it seems the whole world begins to spin even faster we are called to slow down, to spend time in prayer and reflection, to spend time thinking about the deeper realities of our lives in the midst of the new “tridemic”.

Part of this season’s story is about a young girl living in a male dominated world where women were treated as property. But, she breaks free from the bonds of obscurity and insignificance and becomes the heroine. A young girl named Mary said “yes” to an impossible proposition. ”Yes” to what must have seemed totally absurd. Imagine yourself in Mary’s place: you are going along in your normal day and suddenly an angel, a heavenly visitor, appears out of nowhere, telling you that “God”, The Creator of all things, -- visible and invisible -- was “asking” you to be the mother of the long awaited Messiah!

The whole idea that God would choose to become human -- one like us -- and enter into our world as a vulnerable and innocent child is almost too much to comprehend. And yet she said “yes”. And, her yes changed the world forever!

To this very day... right now...her yes is still changing the world because the Risen Christ is in our midst! Because of her yes we can profess “we are the Body of Christ!”

What is God calling me to say yes to as a member of the Body of Christ? As I say yes to God, can I say yes to the immigrants and refugees, yes to the women and girls assaulted and abused by the misogyny that is the very fabric of almost every culture in every country? Can I say yes to refusing to participate in racism and bigotry in my words, actions and thoughts? Can I say yes to reaching out in love to even those who have hurt me or whom I have hurt?

Am I brave enough to risk it all like that young girl, from a dusty little backwater town, some two thousand years ago, and say yes to God and to what God has in mind for me?

Am I willing to risk, like Mary, and say “yes” to God, in the midst of the chaos, fear and sorrow of wars, famine, pandemic, economic insecurity, not knowing where my yes will lead me...just trusting that God will walk with me on the journey of my life and never leave my side, knowing that, that will make all the difference in the journey?

Advent blessings,
Fr. Tim

December 10, 2022

12/9/2022

This Sunday we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath...it is meant to mark the week as special; for centuries, in the west, the color pink has been associated with” joy”!

This Sunday is called “Gaudete” Sunday…from the Latin “to rejoice”…for the Lord’s coming is near! The readings this Sunday have both a sense of expectancy and joyfulness.

Isaiah tells us that the desert will break forth in bloom and we will see the splendor of God and the weak and the fearful of heart will be made strong. The blind will see, the deaf will hear and mute will sing…all the ransomed will return and there will be gladness and joy among the throngs of people as they enter Zion.

Wow…what a vision of the Reign of God bursting forth on the earth! As we think about this vision of the Reign of God, and we look around at all the suffering and war and famine and injustices…our joyfulness can quickly turn to sadness and feelings of being cheated out of Isaiah’s vision of the Reign of God…OR…instead of feeling cheated or sorry for myself, I can stand up and work with the Holy Spirit to make that vision a reality. Remember the Angel Gabriel’s words, for nothing is impossible with God.

I can work to build up the Reign of God in the midst of the injustices and fear and violence by speaking out and standing up on behalf of the homeless, the immigrant, people of color, Muslims, Jews, women and girls, members of the LGBTQ community, many of whom feel fearful and despised because of who they are and where they come from.

Each one of us is called to be the voice of the prophet crying out in a wilderness, to lay down our weapons of war and destruction and to build the peaceable kingdom.

As we reflect on “Gaudete Sunday” and its meaning let us commit to joyfully building up the Reign of God. What will I do this week to build up the Reign of God? Who will I stand with this week?

Advent blessings,
Fr. Tim

December 4, 2022

12/2/2022

REPENT! Prepare the way of the Lord! These words of John the Baptist echo down through the centuries and are as pertinent to us as they were to those who first heard them.

John the Baptist came from the desert crying out to the people, calling them to a moment of “metanoia”...literally “a moment turning around”. And “at that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins”.

They came to repent and be baptized, to begin again with God, to prepare the way of the Lord! To ready themselves for an encounter with the Christ, and an encounter with God in the flesh -- the Incarnation!

The Voice of John the Baptist cries out to us in the midst of the rush and chaos of the Advent season, calling us to a conversion of heart. He announces the breaking forth of the Reign of God in our very midst. But can we hear him amid the cacophony and the clamor of our busy and overscheduled lives? I am afraid not...not unless we are willing to step back, to sit down and to spend a moment reflecting on our lives and our relationships. Our relationships with family and friends, with coworkers and classmates, with neighbors and our relationships with migrants and immigrants. We need to reflect on our relationships with the homeless and the hungry, and with all those on the margins of society: the unseen, the ones who are “Other” than us because of the color of their skin, their gender, who they love, where they were born. We need to make time this Advent to reflect on our relationships with how we view and treat “Others” who are the beloved of God...just as you are the beloved of God whether or not you believe it, whether or not you accept it, it is your core identity. Embrace it this Advent, embrace being the beloved of God, just as your are! It will change your life.

We need to ask ourselves if we are “living out of this identity, as the beloved of God”? In the Scriptures for this Sunday Isaiah speaks of a new time for the people of Israel -- a time of great hope, a new reign that is breaking forth.
In this new world, mercy and justice will flourish and the wicked and unjust ones will be banished forever. But as we look around it seems as if we are a long way off from the “peaceable kingdom”. Wars rage and political unrest swirl around us like the biting winds of a cold December night.

Millions of our sisters and brothers desperately seek refuge, with no home in sight. Terrorists strike the innocent and fill us with fear...it all seems so bleak.

Where is the Reign of God bursting forth? It is waiting to burst forth from within each one of us! The Reign of God burst forth every time we respond to a person in need or pain or a hurtful or harmful situation in a Christ-like manner.

Are we brave enough to “turn around” to answer the call of John the Baptist...to allow the love of God to soften our hearts and enlighten our minds? As Christians are we willing to really “live” the Reign of God through our daily actions? What would that look like...what would I have to change or continue to do in my life for me to be a living sign to others of their identity as the beloved of God, just the way they are, and in doing so show them the bursting forth of the Reign of God in the midst of a hurting and fearful world?

And in doing so...“prepare the way of the Lord”!

Advent blessings,
Fr. Tim

January 1, 2023

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