In today’s Gospel Jesus once again instructs the crowds with a parable, about a sower and the seed. But this parable raises as many questions as it seems to have answers. Ones such as, who sows costly seeds among the weeds and the thorns, and why? The good farmer, the successful farmer, sows seeds on good rich soil that has been prepared, fertilized and tilled and yields a rich and abundant harvest! So why does Jesus tell the parable of the farmer who scatters seeds on bad soil, indiscriminately, throwing it among the weeds and the thorns…why sow it there? What is his point?

Parables are meant to get us thinking…just as we think we understand the point of the story, upon further reflection another layer is revealed. Like a fine gemstone, as we mull it over and turn it around in our minds, we discover more and more facets of the story that at first glance may not have been so obvious. That is the amazing quality of the parable. In this parable, some interpret the sower as God and the indiscriminate sowing of the seeds as an example of God’s all-inclusive love for all peoples. The seed sown is “the Word” offered to everyone, regardless of the potential that they will accept it and allow it to grow within them…or not. Perhaps God sees possibilities of growth and abundant harvest and transformation amongst the thorns and rocky soil that we cannot even yet imagine! It seems to me that “the Word” being sown today is “the Word of Justice”, sown in the thorns and rocky ground of racism and bigotry. And “the Word” is crying out for racial justice in the midst of unjust structures that systematically favor one race over another: white privilege. And God’s “Word” will take root and grow, as we have seen it do in the hundreds of thousands of the Black Lives Matter protesters across this country and around the globe.

For Isaiah told us that God said “so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” That “end” is justice and equality for all God’s children! What are the “thorny or rocky” parts of my life where the seeds of the Gospel have yet to yield an abundant harvest? Where in the world is the rocky soil on which God has sown seed from which is springing new growth at this moment that both surprises and delights? Where am I being called to tend to “the Word” that needs to be cultivated and nurtured in the rocky and thorny world around me?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

Today’s Gospel invites us to “rest in Jesus”…to turn our burdens over to Jesus and allow the power of the Spirit, dwelling within us, to empower us to push on…ever forward…knowing that we do so not alone but with the presence of the very one who created us and loved us into being. Jesus does not dismiss the burdens of life. On the contrary, Jesus recognizes just how heavy they are and in the midst of the struggles of our lives he offers to be with us and help us. We are not asked to set our burdens down at the door of the church as we enter…but rather we are invited to bring them to the altar and place them side by side with the bread and wine which we offer to be blessed and broken, transformed and shared. This Jesus, the Christ, knows first hand of our human burdens and understands our suffering….we need not fear that our God does not understand, or does not care…the message of all of Jesus’ preaching and teaching was just the opposite: Our God knows us and deeply and passionately loves us and walks with us in the midst of our sufferings…Our God weeps with us when we weep and suffers with us when we suffer. Our God is out there with all the protesters demanding racial justice, crying out “my children’s Black Lives Matter”! And as the Body of Christ, we are invited to reach out to others whose burdens and pain overwhelm them…to be the compassion of Christ to them…to help carry their burdens and to walk with them in the midst of their suffering demanding racial justice for them and for all who suffer discrimination, racism and bigotry! All God’s children, all are made in the image and likeness of God, female and male, in God’s image!

Karen , Amy, John, Tim, White privilege (freedom, honored, favored) until that day when we who are white are willing to come to terms with our white privilege, our freedom, our honored status, our favored status, to sit in the discomfort of it and to own it and accept the social devastation and genocide that it has caused there will be NO RACIAL JUSTICE! News Flash, white people, take off our “white privilege blinders” that blind us to the TRUTH that being white in America, South America and Europe gives us a special status that non-white people do NOT get to enjoy as freely as we do! There are people who are shot for sleeping while black, driving while black, jogging while black, protesting while black, and I want to remind you all of our First Amendment rights! And so, I would like to point out that the “framers of the Constitution” put first the right to protest the government before the right to bear arms!

It’s all just too much…I cannot sit back, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, and remain silent, we have a president who is bent on dividing us as a nation on issues of racial equality, income inequality, lack of access to basic healthcare and quality education for our children, food programs that provide the most basic human needs as outlined in the Catholic Catechism! These are basic human needs that governments are required to provide according to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and repeated over and over again by our present Pope, Pope Francis. It is plain and simply the Gospel of Jesus Christ put into action! It is all there -- use your “Gospel lenses” to look at the situation and then make a decision…but really and truly, honestly, use your “”Gospel lenses” and apply them to what is happening today in our country, and ask yourself, that horrible, life-changing, re-centering question that no one really wants to HONESTLY ask themselves…”what would Jesus do” in the midst of the “Black Lives Matter” movement?

Welcoming the stranger, the immigrant, the refugee, the one who is “other” from me, is an authentic living out of our discipleship. It incarnates -- fancy word for “makes flesh” -- the Gospel in the midst of our community. Ironically in our reaching out to others, often our burdens are lightened, our wounds begin to heal and we become more and more the living Body of Christ in all of its diversity, in all of its colors, sizes and shapes.

Do I have burdens or old wounds that I am holding on to and not giving over to Jesus, that getting rid of might allow me to be more available to my sisters and brothers of color? Whose burden or pain am I being called to help carry right NOW?...How might I do that?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

​Jesus asks for total loyalty from his disciples! Allegiance to what ends? Jesus was clear that he expected his followers to “be all in”, to choose him over their mothers and fathers, over their sisters and brothers and even over their daughters and sons. This must have sounded absurd! Who could do that, they must have asked? To choose Jesus over your family was to make a choice that would mean that you would lose the ones who would care for you in old age, or in the event of illness, choosing Jesus would mean your future would immediately become much more precarious! Your family is where your personal identity came from. What was Jesus asking of his followers? It seems that Jesus was asking his disciples to put him at the center of their lives and from this center to move outward to others. He was asking them to become “his family”! These words of Jesus’ taken in the context of the fullness of his message to love God with our whole selves and our neighbor as ourselves gives us insight into what he is suggesting. If indeed we are able to place Christ at the center of our lives we will be less self-absorbed, less harsh towards others and more kind, generous and lov-ing. By consciously and reflectively living Christ centered lives we become more and more rooted in our relationship with Christ and ultimately, our relationships with our sisters and brothers can blossom and become fuller and deeper, more authentic human encounters with our sisters and brothers. When we do this, racism and bigotry cannot ex-ist in our lives and will be rooted out of our institutions, both secular and sacred. By placing Christ at the center of my life I prioritize my life in such a way that the priorities of the Gospel become the priorities of my life, that Gospel values of justice, peace and the integrity of creation are no longer simply “nice ideals to work for” but rather “fundamental imperatives” around which I build my life, create family and live out my relationship with God and others. Am I putting anything or anyone ahead of Christ and my relationship with God that I need to reconsider so as to live a more Christ centered life….so as to re-center my life! How does my relationship with God impact my rela-tionship with my family and with others? How might strengthening or deepening my relationship with God im-pact my relationship with my family and others?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

In this weekend’s Gospel Jesus warns against fear. Fear has been the cause of the destruction of entire peoples and cultures; the cause of one war after an-other and still we do not learn just how disastrous for humanity fear-mongering can be. Poets, philosophers and mystics alike all have warned that it ultimately leads to the deadening of the soul and disconnection from the human family. Several years ago Pope Francis warned that wherever there is fear, there will always be someone who will manipulate it to their own good. "Because fear, besides being good business for merchants of weapons and death, weakens and destabilizes us, destroying our psychological and spiritual defenses, anesthetizing us to the suffering of others and, in the end, making us cruel." We find ourselves in the midst of a fear-ridden country, with some people shouting of calamity (racial justice and equality) that is about to beset us all, and yet Jesus who found himself in a not too dissimilar geopolitical situation (think the Roman occupation of his native country) called his followers not to fear but to have faith….to not to give into fear!

We too are called to not allow ourselves to be ruled by fear and allow it to turn us into cruel people who think of our-selves first and only, and leave the less fortunate to fend for themselves. Pope Francis has said that mercy is the “best antidote” to fear! And in the same speech, he called for us to partner that mercy with courage. We need courage to do the right thing in the face of fear which causes communities to want to build walls instead of bridges and makes peoples choose open conflict rather than embrace the differences of others. In a very real way we are called to “walk towards our fears” and not run from them. Walking towards our fears takes courage. But, we must not forget that we do not walk that journey alone -- we walk with Christ! We are called to walk with our black and brown sisters and brothers and demand an end to the systemic racism that is woven through the very fabric of our country! We all must speak up and act to bring about an end to the systemic racism in our institutions both secular and sacred! For those of us who are white, we must sit in the discomfort of confronting our white privilege and how it is the very root of the systemic racism that pervades our institutions and our society and call it out for what it is and for what it has done to our sisters and brothers of color. Not until we have done this can we live the great command of Jesus, to love our neighbor as ourselves. What personal biases am I being called to walk towards or to sit with and name? Might I pray to draw courage in facing my own biases, with the Holy Spirit guiding me?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

The Body and Blood of Christ are not only something we “get” when we go to Mass…it is what we become! We believe in the “real presence” of Christ in the Eucharist and while we will never fully understand how this is, we gather each Sunday, around the “table of the Lord” to be nourished…and to be changed…changed, ever more fully, into the Body of Christ. Through our receiving the Body and Blood of Christ…Christ lives in us and we in Christ and thus we become the Body of Christ.

This “indwelling” of Christ in us both as individuals and as community has enormous implications for our lives….individually and communally. We become “the Body of Christ” present in the world and called to be the visible compassion and love of Christ reaching out to the immigrant, the refugee, to those discriminated against and treated unjustly because of the color of their skin or where that came from, “to be for” all those who suffer and who are in need. As Christ was “for the world” so too we are to be “for the world”. Our daily actions, our work, our relationships all of them must reflect Christ. Our lives should be a living witness to the words, actions, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are called to live our lives in such a way that we become visible, tangible signs of God’s amazing and passionate love for all people, to stand up to the systemic racism that pervades our society, that has been woven through the fabric of our country over the last 400 years.

I believe that to refuse to sit in the discomfort of confronting the reality of racism in our country and our own white privilege is to deny the primary message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s deep and passionate love for ALL people, just as they are, the beloved of God! When we embrace that all who are “other” from us are the “BELOVED” of God then there is no place in our hearts for racism and bigotry. How does my life reflect my being part of the Body of Christ? When I leave Mass what do I take with me into the world? What am I being called to “pick up” or “lay down” in my life that I might, more fully, live as a member of the Body of Christ and work to bring an end to racism and bigotry?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

As we celebrate the feast of The Most Holy Trinity my mind returns to an 8th grade classroom and a tall red haired nun, in full habit, named Sister Mary Janelle. I recall her patiently helping my classmates and myself as we wrestled with the concept of the Trinity, three Persons who were at the same time separate but one. As she went through theological gymnastics trying to help us understand, ultimately she conceded that it was a mystery…mystery with a capital “M”. At the time my classmates and I felt it was a bit of a “cop-out” on her part…but now almost 50 years later I have come to see her wisdom, and have come to be comfortable with, and truly enjoy the concept of mystery. We live in a society that demands to know all things, to have concrete explanations for everything. But the reality is that ultimately God is beyond our under-standing.

Today I realize that I am part of a religious tradition that has passed on a faith…a faith filled with mystery and awe in our God. There is a “consensus of our ancestors” that harbors “revealed truths” that are essentials of our faith that will always lie just beyond our capacity to fully understand. The Holy Spirit has been sent into our hearts to lead us headlong into the Mystery…to live out in concrete terms what we say we believe even though we do not fully understand. Our lack of understanding has no impact on the Mystery itself… the Mystery desires us and loves us just as we are…conflicted and wrestling with our faith. One of the most important realities is that we remain engaged…wrestling with our faith…engaged with God!

But when all is said and done what is most important is that we remain engaged in the struggle for understanding…and we open our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit, the bringer of wisdom. And what wisdom and understanding is the Holy Spirit trying to bring us today in the midst of the light that is being shined on the darkness, of the SIN of the systemic racism and bigotry that is woven into the very fabric of our nation?

Fr. Bryan N. Massingale, PhD, is the James and Nancy Buckman Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Fordham University in New York. He is also the Senior Ethics Fellow in Fordham’s Center for Ethics Education. Massingale is a past convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium and a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. He is the author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church.

He recently wrote an article for National Catholic Reporter entitled “Amy Cooper knew exactly what she was doing. We all do. And that's the problem.” :

“In short, she decided to call the police on a black man for nothing more than politely asking her to obey the park's rules. And made up a lie to put him in danger.
He knew what she was doing. And so do we. The situation is completely "legible" as my academic colleagues would say. What did she and rest of us know? Why did she act as she did?
She assumed that her lies would be more credible than his truth.
She assumed that she would have the presumption of innocence.
She assumed that he, the black man, would have a presumption of guilt.
She assumed that the police would back her up.
She assumed that her race would be an advantage, that she would be believed because she is white. (By the way, this is what we mean by white privilege).
She assumed that his race would be a burden, even an insurmountable one.
She assumed that the world should work for her and against him.
She assumed that she had the upper hand in this situation.
She assumed that she could exploit deeply ingrained white fears of black men.
She assumed that she could use these deeply ingrained white fears to keep a black man in his place.
She assumed that if he protested his innocence against her, he would be seen as "playing the race card."
She assumed that no one would accuse her of "playing the race card," because no one accuses white people of playing the race card when using race to their advantage.
She assumed that he knew that any confrontation with the police would not go well for him.
She assumed that the frame of "black rapist" versus "white damsel in distress" would be clearly understood by everyone: the police, the press and the public.
She assumed that the racial formation of white people would work in her favor.
She assumed that her knowledge of how white people view the world, and especially black men, would help her.
She assumed that a black man had no right to tell her what to do.
She assumed that the police officers would agree.
She assumed that even if the police made no arrest, that a lot of white people would take her side and believe her anyway.
She assumed that Christian Cooper could and would understand all of the above.
(And she was right. He clearly knew what was at stake, which is why he had the presence of mind to record what happened).
I am not a mind reader. I have no access to Amy Cooper's inner thoughts. But I know, and we all know, that without these assumptions, her words and actions — her lies — make no sense. We also have to admit that her assumptions are not unreasonable. In fact, we have to admit that they are well-founded. They match what we know to be true about how the country works and about how too many white people think.
All of this was the almost instantaneous reasoning behind her actions. By her own admission, she acted out of reflex. No one taught Amy Cooper all of this. Likely, no one gave her an explicit class on how whiteness works in America. But she knew what she was doing.
And so do we. We understand her behavior. We know how our culture frames whiteness and folks of color. We know how race works in America.
The fundamental assumption behind all the others is that white people matter, or should matter, more than people of color. Certainly more than black people. That black lives don't matter, or at least not as much as white lives. That's the basic assumption behind Amy Cooper's decisions, actions and words. That's the basic assumption that links Christian Cooper with COVID-19, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Omar Jimenez.
Amy Cooper knew that. We all know that. So who taught her? Who taught us?” Now what are you and I going to do about it? That is my question!”

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

Happy Pentecost to all of you, sometimes called the birthday of the church!

Happy 75th Anniversary to Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish Community! and thanksgiving for those original 16 brave and Spirit-filled Black Catholic founders who dreamed of a parish where they could worship in truth and dignity!

And Happy Birthday to the Spiritan Community who along with those first 16 Black Catholics helped found this parish. The Spiritans were founded on Pentecost Sunday in 1703 and so it is no coincidence that Fr Joseph Hackett chose that the first Mass was held on Pentecost Sunday in 1945 at the home of Lawrence and Jessie Butler. And from that small Spirit-filled group of Black Catholics, Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Parish was born and today we celebrate our 75th anniversary!

Congratulations to all of you, our current parishioners and to all of those who came before us who have all opened themselves to be led by the Spirit and join together as a family of faith and live our discipleship of Jesus Christ by living out Jesus’ clarion call to love one another as I have loved you. And we are able to do that because we are filled with the Holy Spirit!

St. Augustine said that the Spirit blows where the Spirit wills…not exactly comforting if you are someone who likes things neat and orderly or if you prefer to have life all figured out and neatly pack-aged. Most of us would prefer to see life’s decisions as right or wrong, good or bad…as if everything in life were black and white. The problem with life is that most of the time we are living in the grey, everything is not black and white! This is where the Holy Spirit offers counsel, the challenge is to be open to The Spirit’s counsel! The Holy Spirit blows where it wills and inspires and guides whomever it chooses, whenever and wherever S/he chooses. Most of us get use to a particular routine and we find comfort in doing things in a particular way and we find discomfort when our routine gets changed by outside influences or when we are forced to do things in a different or new way. It is no different in the church, we all get comfortable in the way we worship, in the way we pray, in the way we sing, in what we sing, and then when change comes we suddenly are set off center and we feel “off balance” at the change or new ways. We are experiencing it right now, this is different, this is not the normal way we “gather” to celebrate Eucharist.

I am sure that many in the church today see the Pope’s challenge to live a radically gospel centered life as a change from what they were used to. In answering the Gospel’s call, Pope Francis has called us out of the church buildings and into the streets to be a “field hospital” where binding up the wounds of the poor and brokenhearted is a priority. The Pope is following the call of Christ, who calls us to be a welcoming presence to immigrants and refugees, to seek out the lost and forsaken and to “be” the word of peace in the presence of war, to “be” the word of love spoken to the lonely and marginalized of the world, to “be” the word of justice and equality spoken in the midst of injustice, racism and exclusion.

What word of justice and equality do we speak in the face of the horrific, brutal killing of George Floyd by a white police officer? And just weeks before, the shooting of another unarmed black man, the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery by two white vigilantes. What words do we speak and what actions do we take? President Obama wrote on Friday “This should not be normal in 2020 America. It can’t be normal. If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must do better”… “but it falls on all of us, regardless of our race or station – including the majority of men and women in law enforcement who take pride in doing their tough job the right way, every day – to work together to create a “new normal” in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts”!

​As well, we are called to be part of the solution, in our local community, nationally and internationally. While all of this can all seem overwhelming, we need to remember that we are not called to do all this by ourselves but rather it is in and through the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit within us and around us that we are able to do all good things! As we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost let each of us ask ourselves to where and to what is the Holy Spirit calling me in my life?

Easter Blessings,
Fr Tim

As we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord I cannot help but reflect on the many ideas and concepts that swirl around this feast…some with unintended consequences! The word “ascension” itself conjures up images of Jesus rising up into the clouds to join the Father and the Holy Spirit somewhere “up there”…far, far away. The problem with this is it can lead us to believe that heaven is “up there” and we are “down here” and that God is far off and distant from us and from our lives. This is in stark contrast to the heart and soul of the meaning and significance of the incarnation. The truth of our God having become “incarnate” (in the flesh) in Jesus means that God is with us…not some remote deity watching us from afar. We need to recall Jesus’ promise “I am with you until the end”! These simple words are most profound…there is no need for us to stand gawking skyward with our jaws hanging open. While the physical presence of Jesus Christ as a singular human and divine presence no longer walks the earth, Christ is here…as close as our own breath, keeping us alive to be his presence in our world.

As we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus let us celebrate the presence of the Risen One in our midst! Before his ascension Jesus gave a clear command and mission to his disciples…to us. We are charged with preaching the “Good News” of Jesus Christ and to be that healing, loving and welcoming presence in a world filled with sickness, hatred and exclusion. Filled with the “real presence we are sent forth to stand up and be the voice of the voiceless, to speak out on behalf of those who are silenced or ignored, to make sure that hatred, racism and bigotry are not left unchecked. Filled with the Spirit we speak the truth of the Gospel to power, whether convenient or inconvenient, whether garnering us friends or marginalizing us, it is our call as disciples of Jesus Christ! How might I be a “healing, loving and welcoming presence”? How can I “stand up” for the Gospel, in the public arena and in my personal life? How do I experience the real presence of God in my daily life?

Easter Blessings,
Fr. Tim

Pretty much everyone has felt lonely, rejected or abandoned by friends or loved ones at some point in their lives. Most of us have felt fearful; wondering how we will make it through rough times with our children or parents, siblings or friends. We suffer personal loss or illness and wonder if we will be able to go on. And certainly as we find ourselves trying to navigate this strange new world of the coronavirus we need today’s Gospel message that tells us in the midst of our “lost-ness”…in the midst of our suffering…in the midst of fear or sense of abandon that we are never truly alone, we are not abandoned, we are not orphans….for the Risen Christ remains with us.

When I was little I used to think that Christ was with me...but only when I was doing something good or only in holy or sacred places. Oh how wrong I was! In today’s Gospel Jesus tries to help his disciples understand that no matter what they “feel”….no matter where they go, he will be with them…and even more….the Holy Spirit will be given to them and find a resting place within them. We are the inheritors of this same promise. We are never alone, never abandoned! Our God is always with us, even when we can’t feel that presence or sense it…God is with us. Even in the midst of our worst moments, our most selfish actions…even in the midst of our greatest sin…God is present and loving us through that dark moment. And of course that means that God too is present in and with “the other” in their worst moments, in the midst of their most selfish actions! God’s presence is not dependent on our actions, we do not control God’s presence! No matter how desperate our situation is, God is with us…loving us in the midst of it all.

The real question then seems to be…so what will my response to that loving presence be? How do I respond to “the other”, who also, is so deeply and passionately loved by God? How do I share God’s love with the immigrant, the refugee, the marginalized, the one who is hated and despised because of the color of their skin? How do I share God’s amazing love with the one who is “other” to me? What is the Holy Spirit calling me to…or away from?

Easter Blessings,
Fr. Tim

Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers and to all the women who mentor and care for us and create opportunities for us to grow into the fullness of our potential, may God’s most abundant blessings be upon them today and all the days of their lives!

In today’s readings, in the First Letter of Peter we are reminded that we are chosen and precious in the sight of God and in the Gospel Jesus tells us not to let our hearts be troubled, to have faith in him and in God, that he goes to prepare a place for us and will return to take us to him so that we might be where he is! These readings today offer us a wonderful opportunity reflect on God’s love for all of us, thus a diversity of dwelling places for us, a place for each one of us, no one excluded by God, because of his great love for all of humanity. Jesus tell the disciples that he is the way, the truth and the life, and we know God and see God through him.

Pope Francis reminds us that “Jesus is the face of the Father’s mercy”, an incarnation of God’s mercy, an incarnation that we are called to become as disciples of Jesus. Jesus tells his disciples that through their belief in him they will be able to do what he has done and even greater! Perhaps that “even greater” is allowing the risen Christ, who dwells within us, to transform us into the presence of God’s mercy in the midst of a wounded and suffering world, even in the midst of the suffering and fear of this pandemic. Perhaps the call of the Gospel is to allow ourselves to become “the face of the Father’s mercy”, to take on the mantle of mercy as his disciples. To be willing to make meaningful changes to our lives in order that we might better show forth God’s mercy in word and action, to reach out to all the lonely and frightened and offer a word of hope and encouragement, a word of care. To reach out to those in need, less fortunate than ourselves, to stand together even while we isolate for the sake of others! How can I be more merciful in my words? What specifically can I do to be more merciful in my actions? Who in my life right now is most in need of being shown mercy?

Easter Blessings,
Fr. Tim