The Ascension – Jesus with the Father/Jesus with Us

17 Sunday May 2026

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Taken from the movie “Risen”

One of my favorite movies to watch during the Easter season has become the movie, “Risen”.  The story is a fictionalized account of a Roman soldier assigned to investigate the claims that a proposed Jewish messiah by the name of Jesus had risen from the dead after being put to death by crucifixion.  In the course of his investigation and tracking down of the apostles, the Roman soldier comes face to face with the risen Jesus and his world and all his beliefs are turned upside down.  The soldier begins to follow the risen Lord and his disciples and (spoiler alert) eventually becomes a follower himself. 

Even though a fictionalized story, there are many things that the movie does right.  One of the elements I enjoy is how the movie portrays many of the resurrection appearances.  A few times, the risen Lord is with his disciples even as other people (people who are not followers) are around going about their day.  For these people – it seems – all they see is a group of people talking and walking together, unaware that in the midst of that group is the risen Lord himself.  These people do not notice, even as Jesus is right there in their midst. 

In Matthew’s account of the Ascension, we hear the risen Jesus assure his disciples that he is with us always, “…until the end of the age.”  In the first reading from Acts, we hear that the risen Jesus, “…presented himself alive to “his disciples … appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”  The disciples want to know if God is now going to restore the glory of Israel but Jesus responds that they should not concern themselves with such things.  As the Lord is being lifted up, two men appear and ask the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?” 

Do not concern yourself about such things.  Why are you standing there looking at the sky?

The truth of the Ascension of our Lord is grounded in the truth of the Incarnation of our Lord.  The transcendence of God is made known not despite of the incarnate but within the incarnate.  There is a danger in the spiritual life that we can get stuck in our “looking to the sky” or pondering things beyond ourselves that we fail to recognize the risen Lord within our very midst.  Even how the Lord comes to us every day!  When Jesus says that he is with us “…until the end of the age,” he means it. 

Where else do we find the truth of this connection between Ascension and Incarnation expressed?  Throughout the season of Advent.  In Advent, we proclaim the three comings of Christ – his birth, his return in glory and how he comes to us each and every day!  In faith it is not so much a matter of either/or.  Rather it is both/and.  Jesus is risen, he has ascended to the Father and he is with us, “…until the end of the age.”

Going back to the movie “Risen” …  Even though other people did not recognize him, the risen Lord was in the midst of his disciples, and he remains in the midst of his disciples.

Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians,

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.  May the eyes of your heart be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call … for us who believe … (Eph. 1:17-18)

St. Kateri Tekakwitha and my “Aspen Grove”

11 Monday May 2026

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Sometimes it is hard to determine when a friendship actually began.  You meet someone, common interests are discovered, you begin talking and enjoying each other’s company and before you know it, you have a new friend!  The friendship just grows.  
 
I am not really sure when my devotion to St. Kateri Tekakwitha began nor when she became one of my favorite saints that I turn to for inspiration and intercession but the friendship is real.  
 
My mother (may she rest in peace) would always make sure to support the Black and Indian Mission appeal each year remarking how tragic the history of Native Americans has been.  My father (may he rest in peace) would tell my brothers and I that we have some Native American heritage in our family.  (My father’s father moved to East Tennessee from an area of Mississippi where the Choctaw nation once thrived.) When I served as Vocation Director for the diocese, I was able to arrange a visit to Rome to visit with (then) seminarian Michael Hendershott at the same time St. Kateri Tekakwitha’s canonization was held at St. Peter’s Basilica.  It was a beautiful, blue sky fall day on October 21, 2012 when I sat with priests and laity from around the world in a crowded square for the Mass and canonization of a number of saints one of whom was the Lily of the Mohawks.  I even helped to distribute communion to the vast crowd of faithful who were gathered.  I count that day as one of my best as a priest.  
 
When I first began to dream of a possible sister parish for St. Dominic Church that served a Native American community, it was only after a novena to St. Kateri that doors finally began to open that led to Little Flower Parish in Browning, Montana on the Blackfeet Reservation.  This sister parish relationship has now been going for more than three years and is an ongoing blessing for both communities.  I have visited Little Flower many times and hope to continue visiting. A beautiful statue of St. Kateri stands near the front entrance to Little Flower Parish.
 
Now, as I prepare for a change in assignments, I have just concluded a novena to St. Kateri.  St. Kateri remained faithful in her love for Christ and the Catholic faith even as she had to endure hostility and suspicion that forced her to leave her own village in order to journey to a different one where Christianity was accepted.  She made a vow of perpetual virginity and devoted herself to prayer and living according to the tenets of the faith.  She died at the young age of 23 or 24 with her final words being, “Jesus, Mary, I love you.”

In my novena I asked St. Kateri to pray for me that I always remain rooted in my commitment to Christ just as she was throughout her life and to walk with me during this time of transition as I leave one community to journey to another. Saints are good journey companions.

Some dear friends recently gave me the book, “From Strength to Strength” by Arthur Brooks. The book is about finding fulfillment and purpose in the second half of life (which I am now in) and realizing this is done by making use of a different skill set than what enabled one to achieve in the first half of life – what Brooks calls “crystallized intelligence”.

Brooks devotes one chapter in his book to cultivating your “aspen grove” which means those interlocking networks of friends, family and relationships that strengthen and sustain us. This cultivation is important and critical work and should be allowed the time and attention it deserves even in the midst of all of life’s other demands and responsibilities.

Our Catholic understanding of saints and their role in our lives is a beautiful component of our unique “aspen groves”. The saints along with our family and friends form that network that support, sustain and call us to growth. I like the idea of having St. Kateri and some other saints as part of my aspen grove.

In the side yard of the rectory at my current assignment, I have a 3 to 4 ft. statue of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. I will be taking the statue with me to my next assignment. I will find a place for her in the rectory yard and will cultivate the area around her statue and ask that she continue to walk with me.

Waiting for mercy. Easter, 2026

05 Sunday Apr 2026

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There was once a village that sat through a long, bitter winter. The fields were hard as stone, the trees bare, and the people had grown used to saying, “Nothing grows here anymore.”

At the edge of the village lived an old gardener. Every day, even in the cold, he went out and tended a small patch of earth. The villagers would laugh and say, “Why bother? It’s dead.”

But the old man would only smile and reply, “The ground remembers what it was made to do.”

One morning, after the snows had begun to melt, a child passing by noticed a tiny green shoot breaking through the soil in the old man’s garden. Just one—fragile, almost invisible.

The child ran to tell the others. Soon the whole village gathered. Day by day, more shoots appeared. Then buds. Then flowers.

And the people began to say, “We thought the earth had forgotten us.”

But the old gardener shook his head gently and said, “No—the earth was waiting for mercy. It needed time… and someone who would not give up on it.”

A couple of Sundays ago, Jesus stood at the tomb of his friend Lazarus.  The tomb was closed.  The earth was hard.  There was no hope, no life.  Jesus commanded the stone to be rolled back.  He spoke into the tomb and he called forth his friend to life again.  But it did not stop there.  Jesus, who knew the deep desire of the Father to have none of his children lost and separated from him and in his love for the Father, was not content to just remain at the entrance to the tomb.  Jesus, himself, went into the tomb and, in the most profound love and mercy, broke the tomb and destroyed the power of sin and death from within. 

Easter is the triumph of God’s mercy!  I recently read that our Christian faith is not a “powerful” faith as the world determines power, rather the Christian faith is a “risen faith”.  A faith where God continually reaches down “into the dirt of humanity and continually raises us from the graves that we dig for ourselves through violence, lies, selfishness, arrogance.”  God’s mercy triumphs.  God’s mercy raises. 

There is no gospel account of the resurrection.  We do not know exactly how it occurred, what it looked like.  Was there a flash of light?  Was there a sudden gasp and deep breath for air in the stillness of the tomb?  We do not know.  All that we are given is the empty tomb.  “Where is the proof of the resurrection?” Christians are often asked.  WE are the proof of the resurrection.  Lives wounded yet healed.  Broken, yet made whole.  Hurt, yet willing to give mercy.  The Church willing to live the truth of our faith and to proclaim God’s mercy throughout history is the surest witness of the resurrection.    

“The earth was waiting for mercy,” said the old gardener.  “It needed time … and someone who would not give up on it.”

In love, Jesus entered the tomb.  Through mercy, Jesus conquered death. 

Jesus is risen! 

“The teacher is asking for you.” Fifth Sunday of Lent

22 Sunday Mar 2026

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What did Mary need to learn from Jesus?  Martha is the first of the two sisters to meet Jesus as he journeys to them. Martha enters into dialogue with Jesus about the death of her brother and the resurrection of the just on the final day. Martha is the one who hears Jesus proclaim, “I am the resurrection and the life.”  Martha is the one who makes the beautiful profession, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe…”

Within her profession, Martha uses the titles “Lord”, “Christ” and the “Son of God” but when she comes to her sister she uses none of these titles so powerfully spoken in her profession. Rather, she says to Mary, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.”  “The teacher…”. What does Mary need to learn?  What is Jesus going to teach her?

After being met by Mary, Jesus lives out in deed that which he proclaimed to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life.”  Jesus does not show how a person can achieve the power of the resurrection or how to find that power on one’s own. No, Jesus says I AM the resurrection – echoing the name God gives Moses out of the burning bush. To know the resurrection one must know Jesus. One must encounter Jesus and allow Jesus to encounter oneself. Jesus (who is the resurrection) calls the dead Lazarus to come out of the tomb and Lazarus comes forth. When God speaks it happens. 

The gospel goes to some length to share that Lazarus had been dead for four days. A Jewish belief of the time was that the soul would remain around the body for three days and then depart. To say Lazarus was dead for four days was to say he was truly dead. There was no hope. He is gone. For the dead Lazarus to come out of the tomb on the fourth day at the call of Jesus is the truest proclamation that Jesus is indeed the resurrection and the life. 

An invitation for this week, take some time in prayer. Be honest, what is dead within you?  Where are the tombs in your heart? Where is there no hope?  A recurring sin? A deep fear?  A burning anger?  A broken relationship?  Acknowledge these tombs. See Jesus as he approaches your tomb and hear him call you out of the dark imprisonment of your tomb into the fullness of new life and healing.

Let Martha say to you, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.”  

Jesus is teacher and he is the resurrection and the life.

The Rhythm of John’s Prologue

26 Friday Dec 2025

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We each probably have our own favorite Christmas songs.  One of my favorites is “Do You Hear What I Hear”.  It is beautiful in the rhythm of how the message of the birth of Christ is carried from the wind to the little lamb, from the little lamb to the shepherd boy and from the shepherd boy to the mighty king, ending with the king’s proclamation to pray for peace everywhere. 

“A child, a child sleeping in the night.  He will bring us goodness and light.  He will bring us goodness and light.” 

The prologue of John’s gospel gives us the highest proclamation of who Jesus is – right from the very beginning of his gospel.  It is a proclamation that carries its own rhythm.  “…the Word was with God, and the Word was God … all things came to be through him … He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him … And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory…”

The prologue is beautiful and infinitely rich in it’s proclamation of who Jesus is (as well as the witness of John the Baptist) and it is intriguing that in the middle of this rich proclamation of the Word made flesh John writes, “But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.” 

This is not an interruption to the rhythm of the prologue.  In fact, it is an important part of the rhythm.  John is bringing us – each of us – into this rich proclamation.  John’s prologue, just as his gospel, is not meant to end with Jesus.  It is meant to be carried into our lives.  In Jesus we are reborn as adopted sons and daughters of God. 

We have a choice to make.  The question is put before us.  Will we allow the Word who was with God and is God, through whom all things were made, who was indeed made flesh to also become incarnate in our lives?  Can we welcome Christ into the simple stable of our hearts and, by so doing, can we allow ourselves to become adopted sons and daughters of God?  In the wonder of Christmas, the transcendent is made known and encountered not despite the incarnate but within the incarnate.  We are each meant to bear Christ into the very reality of our lives.  John’s prologue continues with us. 

The reaction of the mighty king upon hearing the message brought by the shepherd boy is both profound and telling.  “Pray for peace everywhere,” is what he proclaims to the people.  The incarnation of the Word brings true and authentic peace – right relationship with God, with creation and with all people.  Do we want peace in our world, within our friendships and family, in our own hearts?  It begins here.  It begins in welcoming the Word made flesh and allowing him to become incarnate in our lives.     

“A child sleeping in the night … he will bring us goodness and light.” 

This Christmas and into the new year, may we be bearers of that light and messengers of that peace and may we both find ourselves within and indeed live out in our own lives the very rhythm of John’s prologue. 

An Advent reflection on the names “Jesus” and “Emmanuel”

06 Saturday Dec 2025

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In the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel an angel of the Lord comes to Joseph in a dream after Joseph had decided to “dismiss” Mary quietly.  The angel has a mission, to convince this good and righteous man to take Mary, pregnant with child, as his wife because the child is conceived of the Holy Spirit.  The angel instructs Joseph to name the child Jesus, a name which means, “God saves”.  The child will save his people from their sins.  The angel then quotes the prophet Isaiah as witness, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel”, which means, “God is with us.” 

The angel succeeds in his mission.

The names carry depth and weight, a significance that both answers the yearning of Joseph’s heart (the honest heart of a good and righteous man) and gives courage to do the right thing. 

The name “Jesus” means, “God saves” and specifically he saves, “people from their sins”.  The messiah is long expected and yearned for and many people in Israel were looking for his coming but most thought in earthly terms – the messiah would be an earthly king ruling by might and power.  The messiah would defeat all of Israel’s enemies and would establish the kingdom in peace and security.  But God is about something so much more than all of humanity could imagine.  God’s Anointed One would not merely be an earthly king but, rather the eternal king, priest and prophet who would overcome the great wound of sin itself, that which fundamentally separates us from God.  Jesus will save the people from their sins and will heal the great separation. 

Joseph and Mary, two faith-filled Jews, were the first to hear the great promise of the gospel.  How it must have called forth wonder and inflamed their hearts with joy! 

How does God save?  “Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”  This is the incarnation; God saves by being with us.  As we are lost, as we are separated from God, God comes to us.  God enters into the darkness caused by our sin.  Jesus is born that we would live.  God saves us by being with us.

Here is an invitation to prayer in preparation for the celebration of Christmas and in preparation for our Lord’s return in glory.  Reflect on the name “Jesus”.  What are the sins I cling to?  What are the sins I need to be saved from?  There are no pedestals here.  How do I need Jesus as Lord and Savior?  Reflect on the name “Emmanuel”.  How is God with me, right now, in the season of life I find myself in.  Can I recognize and find comfort and encouragement in God’s abiding presence?  Can I welcome God into where I am now and indeed trust that God wants relationship with me? 

A final thought to this exercise of the holding together of the names in which we realize that God saves us by being with us.  From the angel’s proclamation to Joseph in the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel, we look to the end of the Book of Revelation.  By doing this we find that the image of the heavenly Jerusalem fulfills the proclamation of the angel.  In Revelations 21:1-4 we read,

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals.  He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.  Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”

God himself will be with them…  Death will be no more…

“Jesus” – God saves.  “Emmanuel” – God is with us. 

God saves us by being with us. 

Come, Lord Jesus! 

The King who sings the new song – The Feast of Christ the King

23 Sunday Nov 2025

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In his writings, St. Augustine never used the title, “Christ the King” (today’s feast was not established until 1925) but Augustine often wrote of the kingship of Christ and the Kingdom of God. 

In his sermon of Psalm 32, St. Augustine reflects on what it means to sing to God a new song.  “Rid yourself of what is old and worn out, for you know a new song.  A new man, a new covenant – a new song.  This new song does not belong to the old man.  Only the new man learns it: the man restored from his fallen condition through the grace of God, and now sharing in the new covenant, that is, the kingdom of heaven.  To it all our love now aspires and sings a new song.  Let us sing a new song not with our lips but with our lives.” 

To be a Christian is to be freed from the old and worn-out ways of sin and know the newness of life found in Christ.  To be a Christian is to sing a new song – the new song of our life in the Kingdom of God.  Jesus knew this song.  Jesus lived this song.  Jesus is the new man – man as God intended – obedient to the Father and in full relationship with the Father, the man never broken and never isolated by sin.

Sin always tries to disrupt our song with God.  Sin always tries to introduce disharmony and discord.  What we hear in today’s gospel is an echo of the disharmony evil tried to introduce at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Luke’s gospel.  The rulers sneer and say, “…let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.”  The soldiers jeer and say, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.”  At the beginning of our Lord’s ministry, after fasting in the desert, the Devil comes to Jesus saying, “If you are the Son of God…”

Sin and the devil do not want us to ever sing the new song and it will do whatever it can to introduce disharmony and discord into this song.  Disharmony that seeks to make us doubt God’s love and discord that seeks to make us doubt our and everyone’s dignity as a child of God. 

Jesus never allowed this disharmony and discord to enter his song, even to the cross.  Because he sang this new song, now we – in him – can also sing it.  The one thief who simply asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom was caught up into this new song and how beautiful his own song must have been and continues to be as he abides with Jesus in Paradise. 

Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King – the King who sings the new song and who invites us into the song.  How do we best sing this new song and give honor to the king?  By our lives – by continually welcoming God and his mercy, by serving as Jesus served, by seeking to be truthful and humble just as Jesus was.  To follow Jesus is to learn this new song and to sing it in the uniqueness of our own life.

The Father, “delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son…”  The Father has brought us into the true harmony of the song of his Son, now we also sing this song of Christ our King. 

All Souls and the Four Final Things

01 Saturday Nov 2025

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Once, when I was pastor at St. Mary’s Church in Athens, TN, I had a graveside service at a local cemetery. It was a nice, clear day and a beautiful setting with trees and mountains in the backdrop. I finished the church’s rite and then the funeral director began to say some words. One thing this funeral home offered families (at a price) was a little ceremony where a group of homing pigeons was released. The pigeons (representing the already deceased members of the departed’s family) were trained to remain circling until a final pigeon was released (representing the newly deceased). The final pigeon was trained to join the others and all together would fly off into the sky. With the flock of pigeons circling, the funeral director said some words of comfort and then released the final pigeon. We all watched as the pigeon flew into the sky, saw the circling flock and bee-lined it in the opposite direction! Behind me, I heard someone say, “Well, he never did really care much for his family!”

In our Catholic tradition there is the concept of the four final things – death, judgement, heaven and hell. As the story reminds us and as the readings also remind us, we will all die one day. This is a truth and how we face death matters. We can pretend it will never happen (and many choose this route) or we can acknowledge death, not in our own strength but rather by trusting in God. “The souls of the just are in the hand of God,” proclaims the Book of Wisdom. The “hope of immortality” has been given and this is what we hold on to. In the resurrection of Christ there is now a greater horizon beyond the grave – the person of faith sees this greater horizon and lives by this greater horizon even now.

There is and will be judgement. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, writes, “We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.” The invitation is given to newness of life in Christ. Judgement will be made on how much we haveaccepted this invitation and, through Christ, grown beyond sin. In Christ, it is always possible to move beyond sin. Don’t believe the lie. Forgiveness, healing and freedom are always possible in Jesus.

Heaven and the possibility of Hell are real. “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” I believe that one of the most beautiful liturgies that the Church has is the funeral Mass. In the funeral Mass we commend our loved one into the mercy of God. This is as far as we can go. Final judgement belongs to God alone.

Purgatory is a teaching of the Church. I recently heard someone refer to purgatory as the mudroom needed before we can enter into the full warmth and welcome of heaven. The focus of purgatory is not pain and punishment but purgation, being cleansed of sin, in preparation for full entrance into the Kingdom of God. The thought that we can help those in purgatory by our prayers is a testament to our deep faith in the resurrection of Christ. In the resurrection of Jesus, death has lost its power as the final and ultimate separation. In the power of the resurrection, our prayers can now assist even those who have died and who look toward the mercy of God.

Here is an interesting note – the Church has been given the authority to publicly proclaim that a certain person, known for his or her heroic faith and virtue, is in heaven. This is the canonization process where a saint is proclaimed. The Church has never in a public and teaching way proclaimed that any certain person is in Hell – that final separation from God. The Church has acknowledged that certain people have excommunicated themselves from the Church, removed themselves from the body of believers (ex-communio) by persisting in erroneous beliefs and practice but that is from the Church. Ultimate final judgement belongs to God alone. Sometimes the wisdom of the Church is demonstrated by what she does not or will not say just as much as by what she teaches and proclaims.

The four final things are real and how we live our life today, in awareness of those things, matters.

Faith – 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

09 Saturday Aug 2025

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In Michelangelo’s famous painting, “The Creation of Adam,” there is a small detail worth mentioning. When God, supported by angels in heaven, extends his index finger toward Adam, it is fully extended. Adam, formed from the earth, also reaches out, but his index finger is slightly bent at the last joint. There is a space between God’s finger and man’s finger. Through this small detail, the artist teaches us that God is always there, seeking us, wanting to have a relationship with us. We, humanity, must make the decision to seek God. Until we make that decision, our finger will remain slightly bent leaving empty space. The gap that is created is our doing.

Abraham is considered the father of faith. In this Sunday’s passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, we are told that “by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance… By faith he lived as a stranger in the promised land… By faith he received the power to be the father of many… because he considered the one who had made the promise to be faithful.” Abraham made the decision to trust God. Abraham decided to give himself completely to God because he believed that God was trustworthy.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus invites us to enter into the dynamic of faith. The invitation is given when he says: “Gird yourselves, light your lamps, and be like servants waiting for their master to return from the wedding, ready to open the door immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.” This vigilance is faith: it is believing that the master who promised to return is trustworthy.

Today’s readings show us two aspects of faith. The first is that faith is never a “once and done” thing. Faith is a constant decision for all of us. By faith, Abraham set out on his journey. By faith, Abraham sojourned. By faith, Abraham received the power to beget. By faith, Abraham was even willing to enter into the heartbreak of the sacrifice of his son, but God did not require that heartbreak of Abraham even as God accepted it for himself in the death of his son on the cross out of love for us. Faith is a constant decision for each of us.

The second dynamic is found in the strange scene where the master blesses the servants he finds watching for his return, seating them at the table and serving them himself. When we enter into a moment or encounter of faith, whether it is trusting that God is with us or reaching out to another person in charity, we will receive blessings. I am not referring here to the lie known as the “prosperity gospel.” I am not saying that if we have faith, we will win the lottery. When we choose to have faith, we receive true blessings that neither rust nor moth can destroy – friendship with God, true life, peace, and joy.

Jesus continually invites us to faith. The choice to believe and trust, to extend our finger, is ours to make.

Learn a lesson from the Redwood Tree – 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

03 Sunday Aug 2025

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I just returned from vacation where I visited three national parks: Redwood and Lassen Volcanic Parks in north California and Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.  The Redwood trees are the tallest trees on the planet and as you hike through groves of Redwoods or stand at the base of a tree, your eyes are continually pulled upwards.  The beauty of this park allows a visitor to witness this continual growth and striving towards the sky.  What is interesting to note about these trees that can reach around 350 ft in height though is that they actually have (in comparison to their height) a very shallow root system.  

The root system of a redwood tree is maybe around ten to thirteen feet deep.  This makes a redwood tree on its own very vulnerable to falling in high winds or heavy rains.  What keeps the trees secure in heavy storms though is how far the root system spreads horizontally (sixty to a hundred feet) and the fact that the root system of one tree intertwines with the roots of the other surrounding trees.  Through the intertwining of roots these gigantic trees actually support one another, and by doing so, they – together – withstand strong storms. 

Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, encourages us to “seek what is above, where Christ is seated…”.  The apostle wants us to strive upwards.  “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.”  But the apostle also knows that in order to truly strive upwards we need to be attentive to our roots and make sure they are strong.  This is why he goes on to write, “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion and desire, and the greed that is idolatry.  Stop lying to one another…” 

It might seem paradoxical but Paul is inviting us to strengthen our “roots” – that which truly supports us – in order that we might authentically seek that which is above.  The earthly parts within us that Paul writes about: “immorality, impurity, passion, desire, greed, lying” lead to sins the end results of which are isolation.  These sins turn us in on ourselves and away from one another.  To go back to the analogy of the Redwood tree.  On our own, we are very vulnerable to being overcome by the storms of life but when our roots are strong and they intertwine with the roots of others then we find strength in the face of a storm.  Sins that isolate us, sins that turn us away from one another, sins that block true and authentic relationship must be put to death.  Only by doing so can we truly grow, only by doing so can we truly strive for that which is above.  We do not achieve the high reality of the Kingdom of God by ignoring our roots.  We achieve that which is above by strengthening our roots through connecting with one another authentically and honestly in faith and in true Christian community.  We have to let go of the sins that turn us in on ourselves. 

One of the greatest things that the Church gives our world today is “church”.  True and authentic Christian community grounds us, strengthens us and empowers us to strive for that which is above.  True Christian community is not groupthink nor is it merely another faction based on a particular worldly ideology or politic.  True Christian community is – to make use of an image our Lord gives us in today’s gospel – made up of limited persons with various viewpoints striving to be “rich in what matters to God”. 

We can learn a lesson from the Redwood tree.  Connected with one another, in Christ, we are made strong.  Put to death those sins that isolate in order to authentically live in relationship with others – by this we gain the momentum to withstand the storms of life and even to strive for that which is above.