At first glance Jesus’ parable of the workers who come late to the field and receive a full day’s pay seems “unjust”…why should those who didn’t work a full day be paid a full day’s wages…especially when those who worked a full day receive the same pay? God’s mercy and love falls, like a gentle rain, on the just and the unjust! No one is left out of God’s Reign, no one is left unloved! While that sounds all warm and fuzzy the truth is that a whole lot of “Christians” don’t buy it and don’t like it! I believe that if we really understood this parable, and Jesus’ point, we would be having a very different debate on many social and political issues like: racial justice and white supremacy, immigration reform, refugees, universal access to healthcare, the national budget, war, a just wage….and the list goes on.

We are called to love as Jesus loved us…to build up the Reign of God…and in the Reign of God even the latecomer gets the same love. As Christians we are called to try and look at these issues through the lens of God’s justice, not human justice. God’s justice challenges our own sense of what is fair. While we know we are not to live by “an eye for an eye”, in fact, far too often it is very much how we in deed define “justice”. Far too often we seek retribution, not justice.

Throughout the Gospels Jesus shows us that justice is about repairing damaged relationships, about making sure that the poor, the immigrant, the marginalized, and all those who are left out -- that they are included…regardless of when they arrive, regardless of what color their skin is or where they were born.

What is my own sense of what is “just” or “fair” in light of this Gospel? How “just” are my relationships? How does this Gospel call me to respond to current social issues such as the demand for racial justice and an end to systemic racism, fair and just immigration reform, the refugee crisis, a just wage and access to decent healthcare?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

Revenge versus forgiveness, kindness and compassion – Today’s first reading from Sirach reminds me of “The Our Father”. It ties God’s forgiveness of our sins to our forgiveness of our neighbor’s sins against us. As we forgive so too shall we be forgiven!

Today’s Gospel speaks to us about forgiveness from the heart. Not a walking away from a wrong done to us, not a “simple letting it go”, but a deep decision to forgive. This is more than simply “moving on”…this is about a way of being in the world…a way of living. Forgiveness is a decision of the heart, one that we must live into, one that takes time when the wound has been great.

We live in a society that often confuses justice with revenge. We seek “an eye for an eye” and we call it justice! And yet that is precisely what Jesus warned us against…he calls his disciples beyond the usual standards of conduct, beyond just loving your neighbor to loving your enemy! This is the crux of the matter! How can I forgive someone who has wronged me, someone who has hurt me, made me look foolish, how do I forgive someone who has taken away something I wanted or worse, someone I loved?

I think that in the parable we hear in the Gospel it is a case of the forgiveness received not having been allowed to transform the heart of the one who had been forgiven. For, if he had truly accepted this gift of forgiveness and taken it into his heart, he surely would not have treated his coworker as he did, but would have reacted with the kindness and forgiveness that had been shown to him. This issue was not about whether the money was owed or not. It was about passing on the kindness, compassion and forgiveness that had been shown to the man who owed the large sum to his master who had forgiven his debt.
   
It is about acknowledging the recklessness of the kindness, compassion and forgiveness that God so lavishly showers upon us in the midst of our sin…and our response to that lavishness is to shower it in turn upon each of our sisters and brothers regardless of the size of their sins against us!

Who most stands in need of my lavish forgiveness today? To whom do I need to seek forgiveness, from God, from sister or brother? How can I let go of my desire for revenge and seek reconciliation and forgiveness instead, and repair relationships?

The current national reckoning for racial justice, is really about this very topic, isn’t it? It is about lavishing kindness, justice and compassion on all of my Black and Brown sisters and brothers. It is about repairing broken relationships. It is about standing up and speaking out against all forms systemic racism and White supremacy in our government and in our institutions both secular and sacred! Let us stand up with the Black Lives Matter movement and demand change; not ask for it -- demand it! Let us march, let us write letters, let us make phone calls and let us VOTE, to end systemic racism and bring about racial equality in our nation! Let us be bold enough to have challenging conversations about racism and biases with family and friends. Let us take time to look deeply into our own hearts and acknowledge our own biases and as the African American, lawyer turned activist, Verna Myers says “walk boldly towards our biases”…because then when we have named them and claimed them, only then, can we change them! And it’s WAY past time for change my sisters and brothers, way past time!

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

In the Gospel this weekend Jesus is essentially talking about mending relationships, about restoring that which has been broken. And when I think about broken relationships I tend to think about “shalom”. The Hebrew word “shalom” we often translate into English as “peace” but as so often happens in translation, so much is lost when we translate from one language to another! “Shalom” means so very much more than just peace, so much more than just absence of war. Shalom means happiness, good health, prosperity, friendship and well-being, and right-relationship with God and with your neighbor…so much more!

In today’s Gospel, in a very real way Jesus is talking about shalom, about working to restore the ancient roots of our relationships with one another, recognizing that we are sister and brother, that we are bound to each other in and through our creation by God. Jesus recognizes that we hurt one another and that we must seek to repair the injuries, and to seek and to offer forgiveness. We must work to forgive and to restore what was taken or destroyed as well as be willing to be healed of the hurt and the suffering that was inflicted upon us. We must be willing to “be SHALOM” for the world -- not for ourselves -- but for the sake of the world!

Shalom means “Black Lives Matter”, Shalom means racial equality, Shalom means a recognition of our common sisterhood and brotherhood of our interconnectedness that flows through our very veins. It is a recognition of our common lineage; our common ancestry as the children of God made from the dust of the earth and given life by the very breath of God.

Shalom mean there is no place for white supremacy and white privilege -- a world where we value one person over another based on the color of their skin or the place of their birth, their sexual orientation, their socioeconomic status, their gender or their immigration status!

Shalom means that I must stand up against the plague and sin of racism and bigotry, that I must demand an end to the systemic racism that infects our institutions both private and governmental, secular and sacred!

Shalom means that I am called to stand back and reflect on my own biases in how I treat my sisters and brothers, how and what I think of them in the recesses of my heart!

When we wish “Shalom” to someone we wish happiness, good health, prosperity, friendship, and well-being, and right-relationship with God and with all our neighbors…and so much more! You and I are called “TO BE SHALOM” to and for all of our sisters and brothers, and for the world itself! In the midst of all that is happening in the world today we hear the clarion call for total racial equality. In the midst of the pandemic, in the midst of economic suffering, in the midst of all of the suffering of our sisters and brothers, how can I “BE SHALOM” in my family, my work, my school, my community, my country?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

In today’s Gospel Jesus asks the disciples “who do you say that I am?”…Peter proclaims that he is “the Christ”…the Messiah! And from this declaration, Jesus proclaims that “Simon” is blessed and that he has come to this insight, not by human knowledge, but Divine inspiration. In the Gospel of Matthew this is another pivotal moment. Jesus acknowledges that he is more than a prophet, more than a messenger…He is the “Son of God”! From this moment forward Jesus’ public ministry takes on cosmic proportions…from now on his mission is to the whole world, not just the People of Israel.

But what does this mean for me? Who do people say I am?….when I am not there to hear? Who do “I” say I am?….by my life…by my words and by my actions? The American educator, Parker Palmer, once proclaimed….”let my life speak”, but speak of what? Can people tell that I am a disciple of Jesus Christ by how I life my life? Is the message of God’s deep and passionate love for all people of every race and Jesus’ clarion call to love and care for others, evidenced in the way I live my life? As a Christian -- a disciple of Jesus Christ -- I am called to love God with my whole being and to love and care for my neighbor as if they were myself! And yet down through history to this very moment in time Christians have perpetrated sins of racism, bigotry, antisemitism and misogyny and outright hatred of their neighbor whom Jesus has commanded they love. And yet we call ourselves followers of Jesus. We cannot hate our neighbor, act with racist and bigoted hearts and believe that we are living as Christ has called us to live. We must ask ourselves: do I harbor hatred, distrust or ill will towards my neighbor? We must name and call out the sins of racism, bigotry, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, homophobia and misogyny when and where we see them!

It is in this way that “our lives will speak” to the world the truth of who Jesus Christ is. That is how our lives will be prophetic! What prophetic witness will I give today to who Jesus is by how I live?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

Today’s readings overturn our presumptions about the relationships between “insiders” and “outsiders”. From the Prophet Isaiah to Psalm 67, from Paul’s letter to the Romans to the Gospel of Matthew….we are treated to God’s vision of who is “in” and who is “out”. Some of us may feel a bit disconcerted by what we encounter in today’s readings. It seems there is something innately human about drawing boundaries between those who are like us and those who are different…”insiders and outsiders”. Down through the centuries wars have been fought, nations destroyed and societies pulled apart in efforts to protect social boundaries that delineate who are the insiders and who are the outsiders. Slavery would be a perfect example of a social construct that delineated between peoples and that destroyed individual human lives, families and entire nations! All based on social constructs of what made a human life matter and be of value.

Today’s readings call on us to reflect on our own social constructs…who we treat as insiders and who we treat as outsiders…whose lives we believe matter and whose lives we believe don’t matter! What scripture makes clear is that we are called by God to work to eradicate all social structures and attitudes that exclude and marginalize “the other”. In today’s Gospel we see that even Jesus is challenged by the Canaanite woman to “revision his mission,” and to proclaim the Reign of God so that it goes beyond the People of Israel and includes absolutely everyone! Because each one is a child of God and, yes, even the Canaanites are included! There is no place for racism or bigotry or xenophobia or misogyny in the Reign of God because we are all God’s children -- and racism, bigotry, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, homophobia and misogyny are all sins against the Reign of God! Everyone is invited and as St. Paul reminds us “the gifts and the call are irrevocable”! The Word has gone out…all are invited to be part of the Reign of God…and the Word of God once spoken cannot be called back!

I believe that all of us who call ourselves Christians do well to reflect on all of this in light of the racism, bigotry, anti-Semitism and outright hatred displayed in the violence in what we saw three years ago in Charlottesville and the violence we have seen today against the Black Lives Matter protesters, protesting for racial justice, perpetrated by our very own government. We have to ask ourselves: Are there people I exclude?...How could I be more inclusive in my life? What socio-political and religious structures does the Gospel call me to work to change to be more inclu-sive so that no one is left out? In order to more faithfully follow the call of Jesus Christ what idols to slavery, exclusion, hatred, marginalization and war do I need to work to pull down in my life?...In this nation?...In the world?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

In the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests the weight of history continues to bear down upon us and this week we observe memorials of the bombings and destruction of the cities of Hiroshima (Thursday) and Nagasaki (Sunday). We find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic with no real national leadership or plan, over 150 thousand Americans have died, hundreds of thousands have or have had the coronavirus. We are living in scary and uncharted times. And in the midst of these scary and uncharted times our God walks with us and promises that nothing, no thing can separate us from God’s deep and passionate love for each and everyone of us.

In the beautiful first reading from the prophet Isaiah we hear the call from God to come to the water, to receive grain and eat without paying — without cost we shall eat well; we are called to come and listen, that we may have life! All who hunger and thirst are invited, such generosity...an overflowing of abundance of God’s desire that our needs be met because we are God’s beloved!

We encounter this generosity again in the Gospel, known as “The Feeding of the Five Thousand”, but that is a misnomer, as it clearly states in the last line that only the men numbered five thousand. The women and the children were not included among the five thousand. The theologian Megan McKenna posits that the real number was much greater. If the majority of the five thousand men were there with their families, she says the number would quickly soar past fifteen thousand and maybe even twenty thousand! Now if we thought the feeding of the five thousand was astonishing, the feeding of the twenty thousand is “mind blowing”! Again, showing forth the lavishness of God’s care and love for us, for all of us, of every color, every race, every ethnicity, every gender, every orientation, every ability, every socioeconomic class, EVERYONE!

And it is our duty as “the beloved” to carry this message to the ends of the earth, not just with our words but with our actions. We must stand up against all forms of racism and bigotry. We must vocally call it out for what it is whenever and wherever we see it. Like the song says “change is gonna come” but only if, as John Lewis said, only if we get into some “good trouble”.

And so I close with John Lewis’ final words “So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.”

Blessings,
Fr Tim

In today’s Gospel Jesus compares the Reign of God to an immense treasure…a pearl of great price. Who among us has not dreamt of finding such a treasure? Imagine the impact it would have upon your life. How would you use it…what would you do differently within your life? That is exactly what Jesus is challenging us to do…to think of how different our lives would be if we “lived” in the Reign of God…all the time!

Usually when we think of finding a treasure we immediately think of financial gain and how that would change our lives and the lives of our family. But in this case we are challenged to think about how our lives would change from the point of view of how we love one another, how we care for each other…how we live the Gospel in our day to day lives. Challenging systemic racism and calling it out where we see it in public policies and practices, in our institutions and in individual interactions is living the Gospel! Finding and falling in love with the Reign of God is the whole point of the parables we hear today.

Pedro Arrupe, SJ, the former Superior General of the Jesuits, once wrote: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything."

What is at the center of my life…what motivates what I read, what gets me out of bed in the morning? How might my life be different if I were totally and completely in love with the Reign of God; if building up the Reign of God, loving all my sisters and brothers as Jesus loves me, came first before everything else?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

Once again this week Jesus speaks to us in parables… multifaceted gems that once tumbled around in our hearts and ruminated, upon yield, unbelievable insights into the Reign of God. While the disciples certainly preferred straightforward answers, Jesus obviously preferred parables. Of the comparisons of the reign of God to a field, a mustard seed and the leaven in bread, I have always liked the comparison of the mustard seed and the Reign of God. This tiny, tiny little seed grows into a great bush…so large that the birds of the air make their nests in it. If you take the parable at its face value, it all seems quite lovely. However there is a dark side that farmers know well: the mustard bush is an invasive plant. It grows wildly and rapidly, quickly overtaking a garden, ruining the plants that had been planted with care and reducing their yield, if not completely choking them out. Mustard bushes are uncontrollable and rapidly spread across a farm if not quickly uprooted before going to seed. Surely this reality was not lost on Jesus…nor on those who heard him tell the parable. It seems that perhaps Jesus is presenting an image of the expansion of the Reign of God as something uncontrollable, invasive and fast growing! Looking through the lens of this image…the Reign of God is not something that can be domesticated or controlled…by its very nature it grows uncontrollably and bursts forth offering refuge. I believe that most of us, though, would prefer something that we could contain and control…domesticate!

But the truth is that the Reign of God is just that: ”God’s Reign”; not ours. We are part of it by our baptism and we are called to help water it so that it continues to grow and “invade” every crevice and furrow of this planet…we don’t get to tame it. Two thousand years ago Jesus’ vision of the bursting forth of the Reign of God was nothing less than radical ….and it still is today. We are called to be part of that radical vision…to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned…to love one another as Christ loves us and to reach out and to care for “the other.” To proclaim the deep and passionate love of God for all peoples, of all races and all ethnicities…a world of racial justice and an end to white privilege, an end to a world where a person of one color is valued over a person of another color or ethnicity! And wasn’t it just this radical vision of the reign of God -- where every person was valued equally -- that Jesus preached that got him crucified?

As his disciple just how radical of a life am I willing live? In a world that proclaims a “gospel of personal prosperity” with tax cuts for the rich at the cost of healthcare cuts for the poor, to what lengths am I willing to go in building up this radical vision of the Reign of God that Jesus preached? What concrete action can I take today to “water” the Reign of God? Where and how do I see the Reign of God bursting forth in imaginative and radical ways…such as the “Black Lives Matter Movement”. How can I support it and join in? How can I work to bring about racial justice and end white privilege, that is so antithetical to the most basic message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

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