Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church - Arlington, VA
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Staff >
      • Parish Administration & Communication
    • News and Bulletins
    • Just a Thought...or two...
    • Learning Alley
    • Contact Us
    • Register
    • Our History
    • Gallery
  • Worship
    • Mass Times and Schedule
    • Live-stream Schedule & Special Mass Programs
    • Liturgical Ministries
    • Sacraments
    • Music Ministry
  • Our Faith
    • Faith Formation 2022-2023 >
      • Family Circles, Foundation & Family Mass 2022-2023
      • Sacramental Preparation 2022-2023
      • CLW 2021-2022
      • Registration
    • Formacion en la Fe 2022-2023 >
      • Circulos Familiares y Fundamentos 2022-2023
      • Preparacion Sacramental 2022-2023
      • Liturgia para ninos y grupo juvenil 2022-2023
      • Inscripciones
    • Confirmation 2022
    • Adult Faith Groups
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Resources/Recursos
  • Get Involved
    • Matthew 25
    • Food Pantry >
      • ISIDORE’S GARDEN
    • Youth & Young Adult
    • Social Justice and Outreach >
      • Haiti Ministry
      • Integrity of Creation
    • Pastoral Care/Hospitality >
      • Stephen Ministry
  • Donate
  • Circulos Familiares y Fundamentos 2022-2023
  • Registration
  • Registration
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Staff >
      • Parish Administration & Communication
    • News and Bulletins
    • Just a Thought...or two...
    • Learning Alley
    • Contact Us
    • Register
    • Our History
    • Gallery
  • Worship
    • Mass Times and Schedule
    • Live-stream Schedule & Special Mass Programs
    • Liturgical Ministries
    • Sacraments
    • Music Ministry
  • Our Faith
    • Faith Formation 2022-2023 >
      • Family Circles, Foundation & Family Mass 2022-2023
      • Sacramental Preparation 2022-2023
      • CLW 2021-2022
      • Registration
    • Formacion en la Fe 2022-2023 >
      • Circulos Familiares y Fundamentos 2022-2023
      • Preparacion Sacramental 2022-2023
      • Liturgia para ninos y grupo juvenil 2022-2023
      • Inscripciones
    • Confirmation 2022
    • Adult Faith Groups
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Resources/Recursos
  • Get Involved
    • Matthew 25
    • Food Pantry >
      • ISIDORE’S GARDEN
    • Youth & Young Adult
    • Social Justice and Outreach >
      • Haiti Ministry
      • Integrity of Creation
    • Pastoral Care/Hospitality >
      • Stephen Ministry
  • Donate
  • Circulos Familiares y Fundamentos 2022-2023
  • Registration
  • Registration

July 19, 2020

7/17/2020

 
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


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Fr. Tim Hickey, C.S.Sp.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Our Lady Queen of Peace
2700 South 19th Street
Arlington, Virginia, 22204, USA
703-979-5580 Office
703-979-5590 Fax
office@ourladyqueenofpeace.org
Office hours: Mon-Fri, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm (closed on federal holidays)
  • ​Inclement Weather Policy
Weekend Mass Schedule
Saturday: Vigil Mass at 5:30 pm
Sunday: 8 am, 9:30 am, 11:15 am, 1 pm (Spanish),
​6 pm (young adult)

Picture