God’s love for us as individuals is both lavish and passionate; it knows no bounds and it is the very reason for the incarnation of our God in Jesus Christ. Jesus was the manifestation of God’s magnanimous love for us, through Christ, God’s love and forgiveness was freely poured forth upon the entire world.
We are the recipients of this love and forgiveness and today’s readings beg the question of us: how do we respond to this love and forgiveness which is so lavishly poured out upon us?
The old woman, a widow, who throws two, almost worthless copper coins into the temple coffers, under the doubtless sneers of the temple guards and temple priests, causes Jesus to proclaim her actions as heroic because she gave not from her excess but from her “want.” She gave all she had to live on, to God. She surely gave from her love for God all that she had to give. It was a great sacrifice that she was making out of her love for God.
In all honesty I feel a bit like the old woman with two, almost worthless, copper coins to offer in the face of giant political money machines funded by billionaires… on Wednesday I got up and I looked at my phone and my stomach sank, my eyes welled up, and my heart hurt, I feared for the future of millions of people living in our country, that will have their dreams snatched from them and their lives turned upside down. I feared for what lay on the horizon for our nation.
I made a cup of coffee and headed out into the parking lot and looked at the hundreds of people milling around, and as I stopped to talk with some of them my worry deepened.
As the morning wore on, over 900 families came to our food pantry, several hundred lined up for Matt 25 for clothing and the line for the Gabriel project snaked down the steps and around the side of the building…and I thought back to onslaught of the pandemic and how we went from 250 families on a Wednesday at our food pantry to over 700 in the blink of an eye, with absolutely no idea of how we would be able to feed all these people. We put a call out to the parish and it spread to the wider community, and suddenly the fishes and the loaves multiplied and we were able to meet the needs of our sisters and brothers.
In the midst of the darkness, we became a light; in the midst of chaos and fear your very best inclinations and those of our neighbors shown forth…and we responded to our sisters and brothers with love and compassion.
We welcomed the stranger, we fed the hungry, clothed the naked and put our discipleship into action, all the while caring for the safety of each other. And that is what we will continue to do, standing with the poor, the immigrant and the refugee. We will continue our fight for racial justice and call out misogyny wherever we see it. We will continue to fight for meaningful and compassionate immigration reform and welcome the stranger as Matthew 25 demands we do!
We will continue to engage in national political debates as it is our moral imperative, as Pope Francis has said “because it seeks the common good”…because we seek the common good!
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Jn. 1: 3b-5)
Blessings,
Fr. Tim
We are the recipients of this love and forgiveness and today’s readings beg the question of us: how do we respond to this love and forgiveness which is so lavishly poured out upon us?
The old woman, a widow, who throws two, almost worthless copper coins into the temple coffers, under the doubtless sneers of the temple guards and temple priests, causes Jesus to proclaim her actions as heroic because she gave not from her excess but from her “want.” She gave all she had to live on, to God. She surely gave from her love for God all that she had to give. It was a great sacrifice that she was making out of her love for God.
In all honesty I feel a bit like the old woman with two, almost worthless, copper coins to offer in the face of giant political money machines funded by billionaires… on Wednesday I got up and I looked at my phone and my stomach sank, my eyes welled up, and my heart hurt, I feared for the future of millions of people living in our country, that will have their dreams snatched from them and their lives turned upside down. I feared for what lay on the horizon for our nation.
I made a cup of coffee and headed out into the parking lot and looked at the hundreds of people milling around, and as I stopped to talk with some of them my worry deepened.
As the morning wore on, over 900 families came to our food pantry, several hundred lined up for Matt 25 for clothing and the line for the Gabriel project snaked down the steps and around the side of the building…and I thought back to onslaught of the pandemic and how we went from 250 families on a Wednesday at our food pantry to over 700 in the blink of an eye, with absolutely no idea of how we would be able to feed all these people. We put a call out to the parish and it spread to the wider community, and suddenly the fishes and the loaves multiplied and we were able to meet the needs of our sisters and brothers.
In the midst of the darkness, we became a light; in the midst of chaos and fear your very best inclinations and those of our neighbors shown forth…and we responded to our sisters and brothers with love and compassion.
We welcomed the stranger, we fed the hungry, clothed the naked and put our discipleship into action, all the while caring for the safety of each other. And that is what we will continue to do, standing with the poor, the immigrant and the refugee. We will continue our fight for racial justice and call out misogyny wherever we see it. We will continue to fight for meaningful and compassionate immigration reform and welcome the stranger as Matthew 25 demands we do!
We will continue to engage in national political debates as it is our moral imperative, as Pope Francis has said “because it seeks the common good”…because we seek the common good!
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Jn. 1: 3b-5)
Blessings,
Fr. Tim
RSS Feed
