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June 20, 2021

6/18/2021

For over fourteen months we have found ourselves in the midst of a great storm, being tossed about like a small boat in the midst of a great sea. We have lived through great loss, pain and suffering and many of us turned to Jesus and said “Teacher do you not care that we are perishing?” Some of us turned to Jesus and flung our arms around him as a life jacket and are riding out this great storm with him as our solace and security. But in the midst of all of the fear, loss and grief we have reached out to one another and to “the stranger”, knowing them to be “sisters and brothers” in need. Even though you feared for yourself, for your family and for your loved ones, you sought to help those in need! Your generosity of heart, in the midst of a great storm, has been and continues to be amazing!

In todays Gospel, Jesus and the disciples are heading to the “other side” of the sea of Galilee, moving from the mainly Jewish enclave to a more Gentile region. This shows a widening of Jesus’ ministry, he is moving beyond preaching the “Good News” to the people of Israel and is reaching out to non-Jews, to those “outside” his cultural and religious group. He’s expanding his ministry to include “the other”!

The disciples show great fear because their boat is about to capsize, and Jesus is slumbering away! Terrified they awaken him seeking his help and he rebukes the wind and the waves and they become clam. Jesus asks “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” And the disciples are amazed and ask “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” Jesus ties their fear to a lack of faith, basically saying, “do you not yet know who I am, so why are you surprised at what I do?”

The disciples have already seen Jesus perform many miracles and cure many people, the man with the withered hand, Simon’s mother-in-law, the man with the unclean spirit and the cleansing the leper as well as many others. So who did they think he was at this point in their journey with Jesus? Jesus had already appointed “the twelve” and had sent them out to preach “the message”! What were they missing?

I must admit there is something comforting in their humanness, in their lack of fully comprehending who Jesus was -- it puts me a bit at ease! Each of us on our journey with Jesus must pass through howling winds and raging seas and must rely on Jesus to help us make it through the storms of our lives. And remember eventual- ly they do “get it”, they leave the security of the “locked” upper room and risk their lives preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ! How am I being called to leave the security of my “upper room,” to go out into the world and preach the Good News of Jesus Christ by what I say and by what I do?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

June 13, 2021

6/11/2021

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. Maybe Jesus preferred parables because they are less “black and white” and more open to interpretation, much like our experiences of life!

Of the comparisons of the reign of God to a field, a mustard seed or 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...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...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.

So it seems to me 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 im- age...the Reign of God is not something that can be domesticated or controlled...by its very nature it grows uncontrollably and burst 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 earth...but 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 to- day. We are called to be part of that radical vision...to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless visit the sick and imprisoned, to welcome the stranger...to love one another as Christ loves us and to reach out and to care for “the other.” We are called to proclaim the deep and passionate love of God for all peoples! And wasn’t it just this radical vision of the reign of God that Jesus preached that got him crucified... as his disciple just how radical of a life am I willing live?

In a world “Christian churches” proclaim a “gospel of personal prosperity”...tax cuts for the rich at the cost of healthcare cuts for the poor, in a nation where overt acts of racism are on dis- play daily across the country, in a nation that our congress does not have backbone to pass far reaching legislation that would have huge positive impacts on the poor and middle class. We live in a nation where our government blocks and arrests the poor seeking asylum or immigrating looking for a better life, and puts them into detention centers, a government that has violently dispersed peaceful demonstrations for racial justice... to what lengths am I willing to go in building up this radical vision of the Reign of God that Jesus preached, where all people are “seen and valued”? 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?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

June 6, 2021

6/4/2021

This weekend we celebrate “The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ”. The Body and Blood of Christ are not only something we “receive” at every celebration of the Eucharist…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 “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…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 their gender or their abilities, “to be for” all those who suffer, are marginalized and who are in need. As Christ was “for the world” so too we are to be “for the world”. Our daily action, our work, our relationships all of these realities must reflect Christ.

Even our relationship with the earth itself should reflect that we are the Body of Christ! We are called to be living witnesses to the words and actions of Jesus Christ.

We are called to live our lives in such a way that we become visible, tangible signs of God’s love for the earth and all its peoples, and the Eucharist emboldens and strengthens us to be able to do this.

And so we ask ourselves 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 a life of witness to the words and actions of Jesus Christ?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

May 28, 2021

5/28/2021

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity...when we talk about the concept of the Holy Trinity many eyes glaze over and some of us experience something akin to “brain fog”. Most of us learned about the Trinity as children, and it was all quite confusing at the time. Well, all these years later it can still be quite confusing. However, if we move towards understanding the Trinity as “relationship”....Jesus said “the father and I are one”... “I am in Him and He is in me”, then perhaps we may become ever slightly more comfortable.

Jesus presents it as a relationship, a “Divine indwelling”. It is a relationship of intimacy, not just doctrine. So if we focus more on the Trinity as relationship perhaps then we can better open up our hearts to an intimate relationship with the Trinity.

It is far more important to have a relationship with God rather than try to explain God. Many a theologian has spent their life trying to explain the Holy Trinity. Thomas Aquinas wrote most eloquently about the Trinity but some claim that after having a mystical experience declared that all he had written was as of straw compared to the beatific vision he had been given.

What is clear is that the Word made flesh, the Spirit of God that swept over waters and the Creator who spoke the universe into being were and are a vital unified Divine presence in which “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

The great American theologian, Catherine Mowry Lacuna wrote: “Living a Trinitarian faith means living God’s life: living from and for God, from and for others.” She goes on to say it is about “living as Christ lived, preaching the gospel, relying totally on God; offering healing and reconciliation...living together in harmony and communion with every other creature in the common household of God, doing all things to the praise and glory of God.”

And so I ask myself how might I better live in harmony and communion with all of creation? What might “living from and for God, from and for others” look like in my life?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

May 23, 2021

5/21/2021

Happy birthday to the Church, to this parish community of Our Lady Queen of Peace and to the Spiritan Community. We are thankful for the Holy Spirit’s coming upon Mary and the other disciples on that amazing and shocking Pentecost so many centuries ago. An event that unleashed a religious revolution that has, down through the centuries, in one way or another impacted the whole world.

We are thankful for our courageous Black Catholic sisters and brothers who, filled with the Holy Spirit, went to Richmond to meet with the bishop and ask for a parish of their own where they could worship in dignity and be treated with love and respect. And we are thankful for the Spiritan Congregation who responded to the call from the Bishop of Richmond to come to Arlington and work with the first fourteen Black Catholic Families to start a new Black Catholic Church community. We are thankful to all my brother Spiritans who have shepherded this parish community for 76 years. We offer a prayer of gratitude for all the parishioners and clergy who have gone before us, filled with the Holy Spirit and labored to create this wonderful parish community. Happy 76th anniversary Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish Community!

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 packaged. 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 it 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.

This reality has probably never been clearer or truer than during this pandemic. First closing all masses to the public and then reopening but with restrictions on how many could come back and how we would reassemble! All this without any certainty on when we will be able to return to something that looks like it used to look and feel. But what we do know is we will all return, when it is safe for everyone, and we can once more raise our voices in full song without masks and we can once again greet our sisters and brothers with a sign of the peace of Christ! And we can all come forward to the Table of the Lord!

It has been said that, there is one constant in life and that is change. We recognize how difficult all the changes, due to COVID-19, have been for all us, from the youngest to the oldest of not just our parish community but for people around the entire world.

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, a change in what they thought it meant to be a Catholic. In answering the Gospel’s call, Pope Francis has called us out of the church building 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 racial injustice and exclusion.

As well, we are called to be care takers of creation, to take responsibility for the way we live on the planet; personally, communally, 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 as a community filled with the Holy Spirit. It is in and through the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit within us and around us that we 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?

Happy 76th anniversary Our Lady Queen of Peace!

Amen.

May 16, 2021

5/15/2021

As we celebrate “The Solemnity 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 congers 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 stands 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, meaning that God is with us...and not off... 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 long- er walks the earth...but Christ is here, as close to us 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! And we are able to do this precisely because “in God we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Filled with the very presence of Divinity itself we are empowered and emboldened to go forth and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ even to the ends of the earth, not just with words but with action, by how we live our life.

And so I ask myself, how might I be a healing, loving and welcoming presence to those who are “other”? 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

May 9, 2021

5/7/2021

On this sixth Sunday of Easter we hear one of the foundational beliefs of our Christian faith: Jesus proclaims to his disciples that just as the Father has loved him so he loves them and that there is no greater love than for someone to lay down their life for a friend…which of course is exactly what he is about to do! In the second reading St John tells us clearly that God is love itself!

And Jesus calls us to abide in this love, to dwell in it, to live from it! During this Easter season we are invited to reflect on this amazing deep and passionate love that God has for each one of us; to reflect on the reality that we are loved even in the midst of our brokenness and sinfulness.

Jesus was willing to lay down his life to show us that boundless love of which he spoke to his disciples. This deep and passionate love that God has for us is for all people and even St Peter comes to realize this -- we hear him recognize that God shows no partiality. And we are called to love one another as Christ loves us. We are empowered to do this in and through the grace of the Eucharist which not only empowers us but emboldens us to reach out to embrace “the other”, especially those most in need, those most despised and dejected, and those marginalized by ourselves and by the broader society.

Just as St Peter came to recognize that God’s love stretched beyond the people of Israel so too we are called to see God’s amazing and transformative love for all peoples and allow it to change our hearts and minds that we might draw near to all those who suffer and are in need -- those to whom racial justice is denied and to those whom others dehumanize and distance themselves from. This love holds the power to shape and impact our world view and how we see other people, other cultures and other countries. It helps us understand how we are called as disciples to interact with others, to reach out to them in love. Reaching out and embracing “the other”, the one who is different, can be difficult but it is precisely what we are called to do as Jesus’ disciples.

So this radical love shapes questions like: In the midst of this pandemic “should we” share the vaccine with other countries? It shapes it to become rather, “how can we do it,” and “how quickly can we do it”. We no longer see the residents of other countries as “others” but as sisters and brothers in need. And this radical love from God transforms us and reshapes how we live with one another and how we live in the world around us.

So the question it raises for me is: What can I do to better accept God’s love for me in my life that I might share it with others? And I ask myself, to whom is God’s love calling me to love and accept, in my family, in my school, in my community, in my country, in the world?

Easter Blessings,
Fr Tim

May 2, 2021

4/30/2021

In this section of John’s Gospel, we find Jesus, having just finished the Last Supper, explaining to his closest friends what he expected of them and helping them to understand what he had taught them. He tells them that they are intimately connected to him, like vines to a branch; it is from him that they draw their very sustenance, their life. They have life in and through him. He tells them they have already been pruned and will bear great fruit. He tells them to remain in him as he remains in them! What a wonderful image for us to ponder, this indwelling of Christ.

In the verse that comes immediately following the final verse we heard in today’s reading Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love”. These are amazing images of love and intimacy being shared between Jesus and his disciples, as he knows his life with them is about to change dramatically, he tells them that they will be able to continue on and they are ready to produce great fruit and that they are connected to one another and to him and will always remain so.

In the first reading we heard of some of the fruit born of these relationships and this enduring presence. But we also know that there were great struggles as well in the midst of the presence of the Risen One. The disciples were human -- they argued and disagreed -- and still they produced great fruit. Even in the midst of human weakness and failures Christ’s presence has the power to save us from ourselves!

And now as we find ourselves in a cycle of unbelievable law enforcement shootings of unarmed black and brown people and shocking violence towards Asians and Pacific Islanders, and over fifty mass shootings just since March! We watch in terror as COVID-19 ravages the country of India, setting new world records for new cases and deaths day after day. There is so much discord in our world and even in our lives in general, for many of us, how do we hold it together?

I believe that it is through maintaining a conscious connection and awareness of the presence of the risen Christ within us and with us at all times, even when we can’t seem to feel that divine presence and we run out of hope. Christ is still there, still loving us through our darkest moments. This is at the heart of the Gospel message -- we are never abandoned by God.

How or when have I let the power of Christ’s presence within me shine through, guiding my thoughts and actions? Jesus spoke of pruning…What pruning might I need to do to make my life more Christ centered that I might abide in his love more fully and share it with others?

Easter Blessings,
Fr. Tim

April 25, 2021

4/23/2021

The image of Jesus as the good shepherd is one of the oldest images in Christianity. I remember seeing it in the catacombs of Rome...painted on the walls of an ancient cavern by Christian people from long ago. What is it about this image that has captivated the minds and hearts of Christians for centuries? Surely for the postmodern mostly urban culture of the West, this image may well seem a bit arcane and less accessible than it was to our ancestors. Jesus is depicted, through the use of this image, as a shepherd, who was, in that time and in that culture, relatively unimportant and certainly not powerful. The disciples and all those who followed him around experienced Jesus as kind and gentle, like the “good” shepherd who watches over the sheep with great care and concern and even risks his/her own safety for the sake of the sheep. This image of a kind and gentle god was somewhat unique, but then so was the idea of a god who would be will- ing to suffer and die for us. I believe that this image of the Good Shepherd has endured precisely because of its radical departure of the common image of a distant and disinterested and sometimes even vengeful god as found in some passages of the Old Testament.

This image tells us that our God loves us and cares for us and journeys with us as we travel through the valleys and hills of our lives. But too, it may well speak to us of what we are called to be...in Christ’s image...”good shepherds” of the lost and vulnerable, the poor and the forsaken. That we are called to go after them, to reach out to the marginalized and the ones our society dismisses or demeans or outright abuses. Good shepherds actively work for true racial justice and an end to white supremacy. Good shepherds seek to be allies to the oppressed and the marginalized, to all people of color and the immigrant and the refugee.

I think we should all be writing all the members of the senate demanding they pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act... this is one way we can live out our discipleship of the Good Shepherd, crying out for a more just society by more just policing!

And as we celebrated Earth Day this past week we recognize that truly “good shepherds” also recognize the importance of creation and our environment, for their sheep depend on a healthy ecosystem. So as “good shepherds” we are also called to care for creation, to be aware of how our lives impact the earth and the lives of others, especially the poor.

How am I being called to be a “good shepherd” in my family, in my school or place of work, in my community, in my nation, in the wider world? What am I willing to risk “as a good shepherd” for the sake of the flock...for the sake of creation...for the sake of building up of the Reign of God?

Easter Blessings,
Fr. Tim

April 18, 2021

4/16/2021

In today’s Gospel Jesus ask the disciples “why are you troubled?”....WHY ARE THEY TROUBLED? Because they are not accustomed to seeing someone who has died raised from the dead! They are trying to wrap their hearts and minds around what it all means for them and for their future! And Jesus knows this and lays out their future, he sends them forth into the world, to preach to all nations that He is the Christ who suffered, died and rose from the dead on the third. And the repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name to all nations and that they are the witnesses of these things! And filled with the Holy Spirit they are sent forth to tell the world of its salvation!

It is through this Easter miracle that all of us have been raised to new life in Christ, that we gain with Christ immortality because of the love of God, who so deeply and passionately loves us, even in the midst of our brokenness and sinfulness! We are the beloved, and this is what we celebrate each Sunday but especially during the Easter Season and we too are sent to spread the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and our salvation!

How do we do that, how do we share God’s amazing and passionate love for each of us with others in our lives, in our families, with our friends, at school, at work, in our neighborhood, our county, our nation and the world? In the face of war and famine, in the midst of political and racial injustice and the immigration and refugee crisis, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, in the midst of family disputes or conflict how can or do I share or show forth God’s amazing and passionate love for each one of us and for all of creation?

What gestures or actions can I make this week that in some way will help someone else discover or feel God’s love for them? This is central to our discipleship, that we — each one of us — that we preach the “Good News” that we are the “beloved of God”! That we are never abandoned, no matter how sad or lonely we feel, we are never left alone, our God is with us whether or not we feel that Divine presence. God is within us and surrounds us with love!

Regardless of our sinfulness and our brokenness we are deeply and passionately loved by God, each and every one of us, without exception! That my sisters and brothers is the “Good News” of Jesus Christ, so let us not be troubled!

Easter Blessings,
Fr Tim

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