This is the time of year when we sing songs of peace on earth and good will toward all! St. Pope Paul VI proclaimed that if we want peace we need to work for justice.
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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, a reality 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 chaos that swirls around us.

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 for a moment 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 calls me to in my life as a disciple of Jesus Christ?

Am I willing to risk, like Mary, and say “yes?” Am I willing to risk like Joseph and say “yes” to God, in the midst of the chaos, fear and sorrow of wars, famine, and political upheaval, and 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…and knowing that…that will make all the difference in the journey?

Advent blessings,
Fr. Tim

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 3rd Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete” Sunday…from the Latin word “to rejoice”…rejoice for the Lord’s coming is near! The readings this Sunday have both a sense of expectancy and joyfulness.

The prophet 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, and 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 the 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 unhoused, the immigrant, people of color, Muslims, Jews, women and girls, members of the LGBTQ community, who in this current state of political chaos, many of them feel fearful and despised and in danger just 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 deeper meaning to us as disciples of Jesus Christ, 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? What words of truth will I speak to power on behalf of the marginalized, and what actions of justice will I take in defense of those who are in danger because of the political chaos in our nation at this time?

O, God let us, through our words and actions, prepare the way of the Lord!
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Advent blessings to you all,
Fr. Tim

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 of turning around,” taking a new direction in one’s life. 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! They came to ready themselves for an encounter with the Christ; 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. Our relationships with migrants and immigrants.

We need to reflect on our relationships with the unhoused and the hungry, 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 or 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 you 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 and deceit 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 bursts 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 have a “metanoia moment” 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 “live” the Reign of God through our daily actions? What would that look like…what would I have to change or to 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”!
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Advent blessings,
Fr. Tim