Palm Sunday begins with joyful Hosannas and then we, so quickly, move to the suffering and death of Jesus. It is all so emotionally overwhelming. But the joyfulness of the Hosannas still ring out even after we enter into the Passion. Why?...because, even as absurd as it sounds, our God loves us so much, that God was willing to pour out, to empty of self, even unto suffering and death, so that we would see once and for all that there is no length to which God will not go to prove how much we are “the beloved”! The whole of the message of the suffering and death of Christ is bound up in this reality…we are deeply and passionately loved by God…just as we are!

God continues to love us even in the midst of our brokenness and sinfulness. So much so, that God’s very self, in the flesh, was willing to suffer and die to show forth that love and to pour forth forgiveness upon the face of all the earth. And in the midst of this pandemic we need to remember just how deeply and passionately we are loved. We need to place our worries, fears and preoccupations in Jesus’ hands and remember that Christ is by our side through it all! The Passion story is ultimately a love story…there is none greater than this!

Am I able to accept God’s love and forgiveness as freely as it is offered to me? Is there someone I need to share that love and forgiveness with? As we careen toward Easter…what will my resurrection story be? What will I be “resurrected” from?

Palm Sunday Blessings,
Fr Tim

In today’s Gospel Jesus raises his good friend, Lazarus, from the dead. The retelling of this event is meant to show forth the power Jesus has, even over death. Embedded in the story is also a story of love, Jesus’ love for Martha, Mary and Lazarus. This is not an amorphous love…a wishy-washy love of all people… but a particular love of particular persons. Perhaps it is meant to try and tell us of the particular love that God has for us…each one of us…a love which is uniquely for us individually. God knows us as individuals and loves us just as we are! Even in the midst of our brokenness, even in the midst of our sinfulness…God loves us! And it is that love for us that holds the power to raise us from the death of sin to new life.

As much as Lent is a penitential time, so too it is meant to be a time of healing…a time of preparation for our own resurrection. What will my resurrection story be this Easter? From what, is the love of God trying to raise me up? In the Gospel Jesus asked the people to “roll away the stone” so Lazarus could come out from his tomb, what stone am I being called to “roll away” so others may come out from their “tombs”? In the midst of the horror of this coronavirus pandemic how can I show God’s love and care for others? How can I reach out to those who may be lonely and fearful? How might I be a loving and hopeful presence to them?

Lenten Blessings,
Fr. Tim

This Sunday’s Gospel tells the story of the man born blind…familiar enough to most of us. But have we heard it so often that we miss the underlying themes, the story between the lines of the text? We could focus on the miracle of “new sight” in the physical sense but could go deeper and explore Jesus’ insistence that sin has nothing to do with physical sickness, disability or human tragedy…and in fact, that it is in the midst of tragedy and human suffering that God is present. In the very midst of this global human tragedy of the coronavirus pandemic God is present with us!

Jesus’ words and actions help us to see what the blind man saw…the presence of the Living God! And in that presence we can find HOPE! It is easy enough to just “see” the physical blindness of the man in the Gospel and “lose sight” of the spiritual darkness of his parents who, because of fear, fail to speak the truth on their son’s behalf. Fear of speaking out and failure to stand up for truth and justice makes us blind and keeps us in spiritual darkness, as individuals and as a nation.

In the midst of wars, famine, the pandemic and international and national crises for refugees and immigrants, we are called to be a people who look, and see, who do not turn away from the suffering of our sisters and brothers especially now in this time of such uncertainty and fear. When I look at the world around me, at all the suffering, can I see God’s presence too? Am I called to be there to be used by God like the “man born blind” to show forth God’s glory in the midst of a suffering world? When have I felt God’s presence in the midst of worry and suffering of the coronavirus outbreak? Do I have “blind spots” in my life where I need to ask Jesus for sight, so I may see more clearly my sisters and brothers, as God sees them?

Lenten Blessings,
Fr. Tim 

This Sunday we hear Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration of Jesus…right before the eyes of three of the disciples, Jesus’ true identity bursts forth and in one brief luminous moment , Peter, James and John are themselves forever changed….”transfigured” with a growing awareness of who Jesus really is! I believe that each one of us has our own “moments of transfiguration”….moments in which we see or feel the very presence of God. They are moments when, deep inside, we come to know that God is present….that God is real. These moments of awareness hold the potential to transfigure our lives into something new…something wonderful.

The challenge is to learn “to live out of” these moments… keeping these moments alive in our hearts and minds allowing them to continually transfigure us more and more into the image and likeness of God. As we reach out to the poor and the marginalized, the immigrant and the refugee, we are transfigured by the experience as well. For in “the encounter of the other, we encounter God” and we are changed! As Jesus’ true identity shown forth on the side of that mountain, so may ours burst forth during this Lenten sojourn into the desert. What “transfiguration moments” have I recently experienced? Where have I seen the face of God reveled? Where is God calling me to this Lent?

Lenten Blessings,
Fr Tim

In this Sunday’s Gospel we encounter Jesus being tempted by the devil with temptations to power, fame and pride. Some Scripture scholars have argued that it was through his experience of forty days of fasting and prayer in the desert that Jesus came to a deeper understanding of his true identity and his mission. The desert or the “wilderness” is, in the history of the people of Israel, a place of encounter with God.

As we begin Lent it is appropriate for us to reflect a bit on our own lives, our own desert experiences and our own temptations, our own encounters with God. Most all of us, as humans, are tempted by pride, arrogance, selfishness, anger and greed…the real question is whether or not we give in to those temptations. For some, who give in, they are led to disgraceful acts of greed and ego with catastrophic results. All we need to do is to read the headlines in the newspapers or listen to the nightly news…we know who they are and are able to judge the seriousness of their acts. For most of us, our sins are somewhat more contained…a white lie here and there…perhaps a small theft once in a while…a few carelessly chosen harsh words that wound. Most of us are basically good people, trying to live as God has calls us to live. In the recesses of our hearts we know we’ve been tempted…we’ve seen people surrender to their baser desires…enticed by money, recognition, or power to take advantage of situations or people, neglect their responsibilities towards others, or treated others with disregard and disrespect. As we reflect on our own personal sins let us not forget the structural sins of our society…greed, arrogance, pride and vengeance sometimes feebly masked as justice.

As Jesus came forth from the wilderness of the desert proclaiming the coming of the Reign of God bursting forth in the world through the preaching of the Gospel, he forever linked “the Gospel imperatives” to the Reign of God. To the extent that we live out the imperatives of Jesus; to love one another as he has loved us, to love our enemies, to actively seek to alleviate the suffering of the poor and the marginalized…to that same extent we participate in the building up of the Reign of God. Lent is meant to be a time of reflection and of action! We are called to a conversion of heart…to turn away from selfishness and sin and all that gets in the way of our living as true disciples of Jesus Christ. What can I do, or stop doing, in order to become a more faithful disciple of Jesus Christ? What acts of alms-giving, prayer and fasting can I commit to this Lent that will help build up the Reign of God in the midst of a suffering world?

Lenten Blessings,
Fr Tim

“You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to the one who is evil.” Jesus is not calling the disciples to become “door mats” but rather he is using common 1st century Middle Eastern hyperbole attempting to make a key paradigm shift from violence to nonviolence. He is challenging his followers to be willing to go beyond the letter of the law and embrace something much more difficult, to embrace the other! He calls us to be holy as God is holy, to love our enemies, to give to whoever asks of us.

How is all of this humanly possible? It seems too much! God’s goodness is so great, how can any human act as good as God? Some theologians say that God’s goodness comes down to “generosity”, a generosity so grand that it created all known reality, that even the incarnation is as self-giving as was Jesus’ death as was his resurrection and as is our salvation. So then this “generosity”, this “out pouring” of God’s self into the world empowers us, fills us, emboldens us and ultimately changes us to become more generous, less violent, less bent on getting more and more for ourselves, and rather moves us to be kind and generous.

So we begin to work for ways in which our society makes room for the immigrant and the refugee rather than ways to keep them out. This spirit of generosity calls us to let go of, and to call out racist and bigoted attitudes towards others and to work for justice and peace in our nation and in our world. Perhaps this generosity of spirit grows from first finding our own gratitude for being loved so deeply and passionately by God, just as we are. And from that gratitude grows our ability to be generous towards “the other”. For what am I grateful for today? To whom will I be generous towards today…how will I show that generosity of heart?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

With Jesus, “The Law” doesn’t get smaller; it gets bigger. It’s about much more than just keeping the rules….it is about growing in our love of God and our love for our neighbor. When Jesus says “The Law says….but I say,” he expands the original law in order to get to the spirit that is behind The Law. It seems that Jesus is ultimately most concerned not about a slavish external keeping of “The Law”, but rather he desires an internal change of our heart. He tells the disciples that their righteousness must surpass that of the religious leaders in order for them to get into heaven! Jesus expects more from his disciples…he expects them to love one another as he has loved them. So just refraining from killing someone is not enough…we have to love them and show that love by how we treat them!

That doesn’t mean that there is no place for righteous indignation at injustices and violations of God’s call to care for and look after the lost, the last and the least amongst us. Jesus understood “The Law” to be a guide that would lead to a good and faithful life, one that contributed to the building up of the Reign of God, that cared for and valued all God’s children. And as the first reading says “and to none does He (God) give license to sin”.

So I believe we really have to look at what is happening with our national budget as it suggest we slash our “safety net programs and increase our war making budget, decreasing one that ultimately saves lives and increasing one that ultimately takes lives. We keep saying that our national budget is a “moral document”, then we must ask ourselves how it shows forth our love of our sisters and brothers, how it welcomes the stranger, immigrant and migrant and how it combats racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia and anti LGBTQ+ attacks and attitudes. What we stand for politically should be a reflection of our Gospel values. We are called to view the world around us through the lens of the Gospel, with the eyes of Christ! As I look around what do I see, what can I change? To what am I being called as a disciple of Jesus?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

In the first reading the prophet Isaiah proclaims: “Thus says the Lord: share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless” …and Psalm 112 says that the just person is a light in the darkness! In the Gospel, Jesus challenges his disciples to let their light shine, to be like beacons lighting a city on a hillside! And by allowing their light to shine they will lead others to see their good deeds and thus see the glory of God. So that through doing good we both give glory to God and show forth the glory of God.

Jesus also uses the metaphor of salt for the lives of the disciples and challenges them to be sure to not let their lives “lose their flavor” and become tasteless. It is interesting to note that in the ancient world, a world without refrigeration, salt was the only way to preserve fish and meat. Just as light is essential for life to exist, so too salt was crucial for survival! So comparing the disciple’s lives to salt had multiple layers of understanding and significance.

What is clear is that Jesus is calling the disciples to be on guard to make sure that the manner in which they let their lives “shine” with the “light of the values of the Gospel”, that their lives are lived in such a manner that they have the “flavor of the Gospel.” So we too, as disciples of Jesus, are called to the same, to let our lives “shine” and to be sure that our lives “taste” of values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As so often said, the call to discipleship is no easy call, it is difficult and challenging but we do not respond alone because by virtue of our Baptism we are strengthened with the Holy Spirit. It is this Spirit, the Spirit of God, that emboldens us and impels us to go forth into the darkness to let our light shine, to share our bread with the hungry and to shelter the oppressed, the immigrant and refugee! Not build walls to keep them out but to welcome them and shelter them…” thus says the Lord”! In the midst of all the divisive national politics, how will I let my light shine this week? What areas of my life most “taste” like the Gospel?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

We find ourselves living in a time where there is a stark rise in not only anti-Semitism but in racism and bigotry of all stripes. There has been an astonishing rise in anti-immigrant and migrant sentiment not only here in the US but around the world. People of color, immigrants, Jews, Muslims, members of the LGBTQ community, women are all feeling less and less safe in their own communities because of the rise in violent acts against them continues to increase. Most of these acts of violence are perpetrated by individuals who are usually in some way associated with the Christian community.

This weekend we also begin Black History Month and celebrate The National Day of Prayer for the African American Family, and so today we have the opportunity to reflect on the reality of the Jewishness of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and that we are part of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. We need to reflect on the reality that Jesus taught his disciples to cross borders, to reach out to others who were different from themselves…to be willing to let go of the stereotypes of the past, like that of the Samaritans, and to see other people as sisters and brothers, as beloved children of God, worthy of our love, worthy of being treated with dignity and respect. How am I being called to be part of the solution to these social evils that are tear-ing at the very fabric of our nation? What can I do to help make the marginalized and targeted feel safer, what borders am I being called to cross to bring about change, however small it might be?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

John the Baptist is once again at the center of our Gospel reading this weekend. He has moved from shouting “prepare the way of the Lord” to “behold the Lamb of God!”, then he admits that he did not, at first, recognize Jesus as “the Lamb of God”. And remember too that in the Gospel of Luke, after his arrest he sends two disciples to ask Jesus, “are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?” There seems to be a certain amount of ambiguity as to John’s understanding of who Jesus really is.

​What is clear is that all of this happened in a particular time in a particular place to real people who actually knew this one called Jesus. God came to us, “Emmanuel”, and it all points to the need for us to be constantly looking for the way in which God continues to come to us and is present in every moment of our day, of our life. Much like the Magi we heard of on the Feast of the Epiphany, they saw the star, they looked up at the same night sky as all the rest of the people of the earth but they were the ones who “saw” because they expected to see something…their hearts were open to God, they expected God to be present in their lives. John the Baptist expected the Messiah to come and so he recognized him when at last he came.

Like John and like the Magi we have to look, expecting to see, expecting to find God present in the midst of our daily lives. Like them we too then will see, with expectant eyes, God’s amazing presence in the most surprising of places and moments of our everyday lives, even, or perhaps most especially in the broken moments of our lives too. Where did I last glimpse God’s presence in my life? Did I stop to savor it, or to share it with someone else?

God’s Blessings,
Fr. Tim