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March 26, 2023

3/24/2023

And Jesus wept...

In today’s Gospel we are given a beautiful vista into both the humanity and divinity of Jesus. Imagine Jesus weeping at the loss of his good friend...his humanness bursts forth from the pages of the Gospel as he cries out in sorrow, and tears roll down his cheeks...“God wept” for the love of Lazarus!

Even knowing that he could...and would...raise Lazarus! The emotion is raw...fully human... fully divine... at the same time. So what is the message?

The message is that none of us can escape the experiences of the loss, pain and suffering at the death of a loved one. Jesus knows how we feel. The message of today’s Gospel is that God loves us! Our God personally knows the depth of our pain, our suffering and loss, and wants us to understand that death is not the end! And that God is with us in the midst our suffering; we are not alone. Jesus stands with us in our moments of loss and suffering, as surely as he stood with Martha and Mary in their moment of pain and suffering at the death of Lazarus.

Death is a moment of transformation, a movement of our soul entering into eternal life with God, that we have been promised by Jesus Christ.

God wants us to know that death is not final...it is not our master...it is not our end. Today’s Gospel tells us, once and for all, that God is the God of life...and not even death can overpower God’s love for us! St. Paul asks, “oh death, where is your sting...now?” St. Paul can ask this, knowing the answer through his faith in Jesus Christ.

It is in and through the amazing nature of the incarnation of our God that we are saved...through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are given eternal life.

Death has no hold over us...we are promised eternal life. Even though our bodies wear out, are invaded by disease or struck down by violence...that is not the end for us. We live on! We pass into a new life...life in the fullness of the presence of God.

We will be reunited with all of our loved ones...all of those who have gone before us!

Today’s Gospel shows us that Jesus has the power over life and death...and life wins! We win! Even when it appears to the non-believer that we have lost! Because of God’s lavish love for each one of us, we will not perish, we will live! So in the midst of Lent...as we reflect on our own dying...we are reminded that nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God.

How does knowing that I am promised eternal life with God influence my life today? Can others tell by how I live life?

Lenten blessings,
Fr. Tim

March 19, 2023

3/17/2023

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 we 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.

Jesus’ words and actions help us to see what the blind man saw…he saw the presence of the Living God! It is easy enough to just “see” the physical blindness of the man in the Gospel and “loose sight” of the spiritual darkness of his parents who, because of fear, fail to speak the amazing truth of their son’s healing.

Fear of speaking out and failure to stand up for truth and justice makes us blind and keeps us in spiritual darkness, as individuals, as communities and as a nation.

In the midst of wars and famine and international, and national crises for refugees and immigrants, we are called to be a people who look, and see…to be a people who do not turn away from the suffering of our sisters and brothers. But rather to be a people who stand with them in the midst of their suffering and work to bring healing to them through working for true and lasting justice for them.

When I look at the world around me, at all the suffering, am I able to see God’s presence in the midst of the suffering; perhaps in the people who are speaking out, and working for the people suffering? 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 suffering? 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

March 10, 2023

3/10/2023

Today’s Gospel tells the story of a woman who goes to a well for a jug of water and has a life altering encounter and is promised a special kind of water with properties far beyond her wildest imaginings.
In the socio-religious context of today’s Gospel story, according to the cultural morals and religious laws, this woman is perhaps the last person to whom “living water” should be given.

At least that is what we are supposed to think. After all, she is a woman who, in a male-preferred society, is undeserving of any special privileges.

Furthermore, she is a Samaritan, a member of the group that observant Jews considered fallen away from the true religion of Israel, and therefore apostates, and no longer people of the covenant.

On top of that, she is a woman of questionable virtue, even within her own community. Many scholars believe that is the reason she came all alone and in the heat of the day to draw water from the well, rather than in the company of the other women in the cool of the morning. Because of this, many scholars surmise that she may well have been an outsider in her own village.

In the first reading along with the Israelites we are told that God will quench our thirst. In the Gospel we discover that Jesus is the source of “living water.” Thus, we may conclude that God’s promise to quench our thirst, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

It is interesting to note that in all of this, there is no talk of our meriting this life-giving water. The Israelites were undeserving, the Samaritan woman was undeserving, and we too, in our human sinfulness, are undeserving. This life-giving water is not deserved but freely given.

It is from God’s lavish love that this water flows and our thirst is slaked. What matters is whether or not we recognize that we are thirsty and know to seek to have our thirst quenched in Jesus Christ.

I think it is very important to note that this woman at the center of today’s Gospel encounter, could easily, particularly in a patriarchal society, be written off as a sinful person. But that would completely miss the point and trajectory of her encounter with Jesus. A hugely significant point of the story is not that she is sinful but that she is a Samaritan woman! And Jesus is a Jewish man and he should know better than to have anything to do with her! So we have a man approaching a woman in an area where they are alone and they are unrelated -- this is very problematic according to 1st Century Middle Eastern mores.

Jesus should know better, but he has a plan and his plan is to offer her salvation, regardless of her “outsider religious status”, regardless of her sin.

The trajectory of this encounter that is so important is that Jesus manifests that God’s plan of salvation is not just for the House of Israel! It is for all people. It is even open to Samaritans!

The readings over the next few Sundays offer wonderful Lenten opportunities to look deeply into our own hearts. Have they hardened like the Israelites who took God’s goodness for granted?

Do we test God even though we have seen, heard of, and experienced God’s marvelous deeds in our lives? Or, are we more like the Samaritan woman caught in the complexities of life, yet open to new insights; open to conversions of mind and heart with Jesus? What parts of my life most need conversion? Am I gaining any new insights through my Lenten practices...is my heart any softer?

Lenten blessings,
Fr. Tim

March 5, 2023

3/3/2023

When we hear today’s Gospel we might wonder what actually happened on that mountain? The scene we are presented with is quite dramatic: Jesus is transfigured with an “other worldly” brilliance that glowed like the sun. And two prophets, long dead, appear and converse with Jesus and then suddenly there comes the voice of God…speaking the same words that were heard at Jesus’ baptism…”this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”….but this time, God adds; “ listen to him.”

This is clearly an essential moment in the lives of the three disciples who witness this proclamation of Jesus’ true identity as the Son of God. And yet Jesus tells them to “tell no one the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Can you imagine how they must have been just “bursting at the seams” with desire to tell the other disciples…to share this amazing experience where they had seen long dead prophets and saw Jesus transfigured before their very eyes and then on top of that…they heard the “voice of God speak, to them”?!

Remember it was not just a proclamation of Jesus’ divine identity but also instruction from God directly to them to “listen to him!”

I think that Lent can be a time of honing our listening skills, of taking time to slow down in the midst of our chaotic lives and to listen… just listen for God speaking to us.

In our busyness and preoccupation, we so often miss the word spoken “to us” and spoken “for us” by God. In today’s Gospel Jesus took the three disciples apart up a mountain…a retreat of sorts…and there apart from the others they encountered God.

Taking time apart is certainly not easy in the world in which we live, but in order to remain centered and maintain some sense of being disciples of Jesus we all need to take time apart to sit with Jesus…and listen, listen to where he is calling us in our life.

Long before science told us that almost all forms of meditation are beneficial to the whole person; body, mind and spirit, Jesus made it clear that whether retreating to a deserted place or just going into our rooms, being apart for quiet prayer is essential… even Jesus took time apart to pray. So too we are called to take time apart to meditate…not to fill the silence with words but to just sit and listen and to rest in God. And then from that place of silence we can move to a place of informed action, Gospel action!

So let us hone our listening skills this Lent and commit to take time apart to sit with God and allow God to “transfigure us”, so that we might go out and transfigure the world! To transfigure the world by standing up, with and for the poor and the marginalized, working for real and lasting change in their lives and the lives of all who are suffering…wherever we encounter them.

If I am not already meditating can I add three, five-minute periods of meditation to my day? How bad do I want to hear God...and what God might be calling me to? If I am already meditating regularly, how has it affected my awareness of to what, and or to whom God is calling me to help?

Lenten blessings,
Fr. Tim

February 26, 2023

2/24/2023

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 honed his understanding of his true identity and his mission.

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. Most all of us, as humans, are tempted by pride, arrogance, selfishness, anger and greed...the real question is not whether we have temptations, but rather, do 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, 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 called us to live.

In the recesses of our hearts we know we’ve been tempted... we’ve stood on the precipice of surrender to our baser desires... enticed by money, recognition, or power to take advantage of situations or people, neglect of our responsibilities towards others, or treat ourselves or others with disregard and disrespect.

As we reflect on our own personal sins let us not forget the structural sins of our society...racism, greed, arrogance, pride, and vengeance, which can be 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 -- 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 a time 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 almsgiving, 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?

Fr. Tim

February 17th, 2023

2/17/2023

“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”, those who are unlike them.

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 to the extent that Jesus is asking us to take it? It seems too much! God’s goodness is so great, it is immeasurable -- how can any human act as perfect as an act of God?

Some theologians say that God’s goodness comes down to “generosity.” A generosity so grand that it moved God to create all known reality and reaches a series of climax moments in the incarnation; in the self-giving that was Jesus’ death, and his resurrection which becomes our salvation. This spirit of generosity we also call divine love.

Theologian and scholar Michael Gorman says that in Paul’s letter to the Philippians (2: 6-11) which we usually translate as “although he was in the form of God, he emptied himself”...he suggests would be more accurate to translate as “because he was in the form of God he emptied himself”. This changes the meaning for the act, which previously suggested was done despite his essence, to an act that was done precisely because of his essence. Making “self-emptying” a fundamental reality of the essence of God.

So then this “self-emptying 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 even and more deeply moved to be kind to each other.

All of this is accessible, too, precisely because we are, as St. Paul says, temples of God and the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

So, through this generosity of self, given to us by God in Christ, we are enabled to begin to work for ways in which our society makes room for the immigrant and the refugee rather than ways to keep them out.

Filled with the Holy Spirit we are called to let go of all traces of racist and bigoted attitudes towards others and to work for justice and peace in our homes, our communities, our schools, our states, and our nation, and in our world. To build places where each person is welcomed and respected as a beloved child of God.

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”.

Let us ask ourselves each day this week: For what am I grateful for today? To whom will I be generous toward today?

Fr. Tim

February 12, 2023

2/10/2023

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 to you”, he expands the original law in order to get to the spirit behind “The Law”.

It seems that Jesus is ultimately most concerned, not about an un-reflected external keeping of The Law, but rather he desires an internal change of our heart, a conversion of our heart.

He tells the disciples that their righteousness must surpass that of their 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 poor, the marginalized, and the least amongst us.

Surely it is clear that the sin of systemic racism, the lack of care for the homeless, the immigrant and refugee by some in our country would certainly be called out by Jesus, and so should it be called out by us as his disciples, everywhere we see these sins and encounter them!

The efforts by some governors, legislators, school boards and parents to erase our racist history by banning books and school courses that teach African American history, are prime examples of systemic racism alive and at work in our country and should be called out for what it really is!

Our discipleship of Jesus Christ calls us to a specific lifestyle, one rooted in the values, ever so clearly put forth, in the Gospels.

Jesus understood “ the golden rule” to be a guide that would lead us to live 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.

Many of our “spiritual heroes and heroines”, like St. Thérèse of Lisieux, challenge us to love our sisters and brothers, with even just little acts of love on a daily basis, especially the least of our sisters and brothers...we don’t always have to look for the “big bang” acts of love towards our sisters and brothers -- sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference in someone’s life.

How am I doing keeping Jesus’ laws of love...to love my neighbor, even those who don’t like me... or those have hurt me? What does Jesus call me to today?

Fr. Tim

February 5, 2023

2/3/2023

In the first reading the prophet Isiah 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 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 live
their lives “shine” with the “light of the Gospel values”; that their lives were to be 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 the values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As so often is 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 by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

It is this Spirit, the Spirit of God, living within each one of us, that emboldens us and impels us to go forth into the darkness of our world and to let our light shine -- to share our bread with the hungry and to shelter the oppressed, the immigrant and refugee. Filled with the holy Spirit, let us stand up and call out systemic racism in all its forms and in all the places it dwells and creates and allows for violence against the lives and bodies of our black and brown sisters and brothers! And may we all fight to create the freedom from violence and poverty so that all may live as the children of the Light!

How will I let my light shine this week? What areas of my life most “taste” like the Gospel?

Fr. Tim

January 29, 2022

1/27/2023

This Sunday we hear Matthew’s account of Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount”. We’ve heard it over and over since we were children and are hardly shocked by Jesus’ description of the reign of God. Although, some of those who gathered on that slope to listen to Jesus were shocked by the picture he painted of the Reign of God. It made no sense and ran contrary to the sociopolitical reality of their lives.

What was he thinking…the meek will inherit the land? We all know that it is the powerful who control the land, it is the powerful who decide who enters the land and who gets to stay. And the “peace-makers”…well they usually get run over by the armies! And what was he saying about the “poor in spirit”…theirs is the Kingdom of God? Wait a minute…I thought the Kingdom belonged to the righteous and those who followed the letter of the law?

Well the truth is that Jesus had a different take on the whole matter. The beatitudes name the ways in which peoples’ lives and wellbeing are threatened: grinding poverty, grief, landlessness, hunger, war and persecution.

Jesus does not advise that those so afflicted simply wait for a reversal of fortune in the here-after, though the final verse does speak of a great reward in heaven.

Jesus calls for attitudes and actions that will more fully bring about the reign of God. The poor in spirit are the humble whose wealth is found in God and not in gold…their wealth is to be shared with the materially poor. The meek are not to be “shrinking violets” who accept injustice, but rather, those who know their proper place as children of God, and who stand up to insure that all people are treated with dignity and as full heirs to God’s reign.

The beatitudes are really “Be - Attitudes”…they call us to holiness through reaching out to all who suffer in this world, and promise us that to the extent that we reach out to and work on behalf of the suffering we will become more fully the “blessed of God” and help to build up the Reign of God!

As we take time this week to reflect on this Gospel let’s focus on one or more of the beatitudes and ask ourselves: In what concrete ways will I live out the “Be – Attitudes” today?

Fr. Tim

January 22, 2023

1/20/2023

I find it very interesting to note that Jesus doesn’t begin his ministry in his hometown nor in Jerusalem, the seat of religious power. Rather he leaves the Jewish centered world to go to the periphery....to Galilee, Gentile territory...so that the people sitting in darkness would see a great light!

We well may feel like we are sitting in a darkness right now, but we are called to be a light for each other in the midst of the darkness.

For all those who live in fear of being singled out or feel threatened because of their race or ethnicity or religion or sexual identity or gender or immigration status, for all of them, we must stand up and be a light for them.

That is the clarion call of the Gospel. It is who we are all called to be -- “people of light” -- in and through our Baptism. It is how we live out our discipleship; how we put our discipleship into action!

We have been called by our baptism to be disciples of Jesus Christ, to be active participants in the building up of the Reign of God, in the here and now.

Just as Jesus walked along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and called his first disciples, so have you and I been called by Jesus to follow him and to do as he did.

But it is often hard to hear the call in the midst of all the noise in the world around and within our own heads. But the call is there! The call to be active participants, active disciples in how we choose to live our life. And we do that by what we place value on, by how we choose to spend our time, talent, and treasure and to whom we share it with.

What we place at the center of our lives, what we truly value most, speaks to what we believe is our call.
Many people ask, How do I hear where God is calling me? In order to hear the call from God we have to quiet all the noise around us and in our heads, and we have to listen. This is why prayer is so important. And we have to look for God’s signs in our lives, just like the Magi looked for God’s signs. We have to pay attention to our lives and to what is going on in them.

Our discipleship is not for our own sake; no, it is for building up the Reign of God. We do that by standing with and holding up and speaking out on behalf of all of those who are marginalized, made invisible, devalued, silenced, cast aside and dehumanized. It is, in fact, doing as Jesus would do!

I have spoken many times about those wildly popular rubber bracelets from a few years ago, with the letters, “WWJD”, “what would Jesus do?”. They were everywhere. Millions of people sported them on their wrists, and slowly they disappeared and faded into the past as our self-centered consumeristic society became increasingly uncomfortable with the notion of actually asking ourselves, throughout all our daily actions and interactions, “what would Jesus do” in this moment?

Seriously, think about it. Think about this past week, this past month, this past year -- would that question have impacted you and any of your thoughts or actions?

So let us all be for one another, and especially for all who live in the “darkness and fear”, let us be LIGHT!

Nourished by the Word and Body of Christ let us go forth filled with Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit and be light for our nation and for the world! Let us put our discipleship into action! And as we move through this week let us ask ourselves “what would Jesus do?” in the situations and the encounters we experience.

Fr. Tim

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