MESSAGES FROM FR JOE

Dear Friends:
As the great feast of Christmas draws near, we are once again faced with the reality of pandemic. Here is what St. Tim’s is doing to make our celebration of Christmas as safe as possible and provide a variety of opportunities to worship:

• We have three Christmas Eve Masses this year, (2:00, 4:00, and 10:00 p.m.) to spread out the usual overflow crowds at the afternoon Mass.

• The 10:30 a.m. Christmas Mass audio will be broadcast to car radios in the parking lot, with communion distribution to parking lot attendees after Mass is finished.

• The church is ventilated with an ultraviolet air purifier. Weather permitting, we also open windows for as much outside air exchange as possible.

• Face masks are required for all while inside the church, regardless of vaccination status. (Lectors, cantors, and choir members are exempt from masking when speaking or singing, but will resume masking when not singing or speaking.)

• Though we encourage all to bring their own face masks, disposable face masks will be available at all church entrances.

• Hand sanitizer stations are available throughout the church.

• While social distancing is not required in the pews, we encourage you to distance as much as possible between households while in the pews and in the communion procession line.

• Livestreaming Masses remain available on our parish YouTube channel and Facebook page for those who choose not to attend in-person worship currently. Our children’s Christmas pageant will also be livestreamed.

• Socially distanced reception of the Eucharist will continue indefinitely. Those who are not attending in-person worship and want to receive communion can come to the circle driveway off 89^th Avenue every Sunday at 11:30 a.m. Eucharistic ministers wearing masks will offer communion through car windows.

• Communion calls for people who are homebound are available by appointment. Please contact the parish office if you or someone you know would like to receive communion at home.

These are the steps St Tim's is taking to provide a communal worship space that is as safe as possible this Christmas. How can you do your part in minimizing risk and showing concern for others, especially those who are most vulnerable?  

First of all, if you are not feeling well, stay home.  Even if you think it’s "just a cold," please be extra cautious. Staying home protects others who could become ill with your viral infection, whether it is Covid-19 or something else.

Secondly, if you are medically eligible but not yet vaccinated, please prayerfully and thoughtfully reconsider your choice. In last Sunday's gospel reading (Luke 3:10-18), the people asked John the Baptist how to help prepare the way of God's action. John offered exquisitely practical, simple, common-sense advice: do the right thing for others. Do not extort if you collect taxes. If you are fortunate enough to have an extra coat, then give one to someone with no coat. Soldiers should treat the people with dignity and respect. Underlying John the Baptist’s guidance is protecting others’ well-being in life’s daily encounters. Covid-19 vaccinations take on these same practical, ethical considerations. Even if we feel unconcerned about our individual health, the risk to others by choosing not to be vaccinated is a significant moral concern. Demonstrating our care for one another through vaccinations and responsible preventative measures translates John the Baptist’s prophetic, practical advice to our own time. 

On a personal note, I have witnessed the heartbreaking pain experienced by families whose loved ones have refused vaccination and have subsequently contracted Covid-19 and passed away. No one wants to be the source of the uniquely complicated grief that accompanies these tragic and unnecessary deaths. Our families, friends, health care professionals, and strangers we encounter deserve our best preventative efforts. Like many faith leaders, I was vaccinated last spring and recently received my booster shot. I join with Catholic Church leaders from Pope Francis to our local bishops in asking all those who are medically eligible to please get vaccinated. Those who choose not to do so have a moral obligation to take additional precautions, as the Vatican's statement last Christmas made clear, that those who remain unvaccinated "...must do their utmost to avoid becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent. In particular, they must avoid any risk to the health of those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons, and who are the most vulnerable." This responsibility means voluntarily wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and avoiding crowded areas for extended periods of time.

By accepting the Covid-19 vaccine, you may save your own health and life. And, without ever knowing it, you may save the lives and health of others who hope to enjoy future Christmas celebrations with loved ones for years to come.

With prayers for a peace-filled, blessed, and safe Christmas celebration for all,
Father Joe Whalen



 

Dear Friends:

In this weekend’s reading from the Gospel of John, the earliest disciples ask Jesus where he is staying. They find Jesus resides in the heart of a community centered in God. Jesus unifies God, himself, and his community in a bond of eternal, unbreakable love. John’s Gospel will report a series of signs revealing this love present in the world through Jesus: healings, personal sacrifice, service for the common good, forgiveness, reconciliation, community, and faithful love at the beginning and through to the very end of life. These remain signs for us that the Reign of God indeed is near. The attributes of these signs of the Reign are named by St. Paul as the collective expressions of the fruits of the Spirit: peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). It seems these attributes have gone missing in our deeply wounded communities and nation. Where might we look for and how might we cultivate these fruits of the Spirit?

We mourn the violence and loss of life we have witnessed recently in Washington, D.C.. It is heart-wrenching to consider the pain and grief of those families who have lost loved ones. As a peace-loving parish, we must reject without condition any calls to provoke further violence. Violence opposes the Spirit of God, and those who live by its logic cannot at the same time live in the Reign revealed by Christ. To be of Christ, we must reject violence, in action, thought, and word and embrace nonviolence rooted in faith.

A confluence of events this week challenges any self-assurance we may feel about how well Christian faith communities tend the fruits of the Spirit. As we memorialize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,; inaugurate President-elect Biden; and acknowledge the seamless garment of life vision proposed by the Church on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we recognize that there remains much to do in order to fully live out the fruits of the Spirit in our lives and nation.

As disciples of the Prince of Peace, we commit to peace by acknowledging the inherent dignity of all humanity, without condition. The lines of division we now live are built upon decades of racial, ethnic, and religious bigotry, policies that support economic and social segregation, a steady coarsening and acceptance of vulgarity within our culture, and an erosion of critical thinking that obscures truth. All of this contributes to alienation from God and one another and a resulting inability and unwillingness to recognize the fundamental humanity of those whose basic needs are least respected within society. Consider each of the following:

• African-American families struggling to find a place in sharing the goods of society given the web of structural injustice they face;
• immigrants seeking a new beginning after fleeing poverty or political violence in their homeland;
• nascent human life in its embryonic form and all of its potential coming to term within the womb;
• those incarcerated on death row awaiting execution by the state;
• the young woman facing perilous multiple personal and public crises from an unplanned pregnancy;
• those elders who are frail and infirm pushed to the margins of our collective consciousness

Do we see the inherent God-given human dignity within, or instead an uncomfortable problem we would rather consign to the comforts of our lazy political categories? In challenging the “throwaway culture,” which views human beings and other elements in God’s creation as expendable, Pope Francis invites us instead to create a “culture of encounter” where we recognize the sacred dignity of all life.

Recently, I received a message from another pastor, reminding me that the majority of those who have died from Covid-19 resided in nursing homes or assisted living centers. The point of focusing on this particular statistic struck me as odd.  Was it intended to reassure younger generations that the mortal threat they face is less than others, and so help one group feel more confident by amplifying the anxiety in another, or offered as support of the view that the threat of COVID is overblown since it is primarily the infirm and old who bear the brunt of severe disease? If your house stood in the path of wildfire, would you be of the mind to say, ‘Oh well, its older and in not so great of shape. Best to take our chances and just let these things burn themselves out.” Absolutely not!

Our culture has learned to move heaven and earth to preserve economic assets when threatened, but we have grown blind to the humanity right before us that needs our attention, care, and respect. That even leaders within our church do not know better is a deeply discouraging consequence of the ubiquity of these ideas. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, once said that American society cherishes property above people, a sad statement that seems all the more true fifty years on. We eviscerate the humanity of another when we assign their suffering to statistical categories simply to reassure ourselves. As people of salt and light, let us move beyond reliance on banal political slogans that reinforce our ideological prejudices in order to proclaim a message of justice, peace, truth, and love.

Christian communities are called to transcend all of this. How can we at St. Timothy’s move forward? What do we, as disciples of Christ, have to contribute that makes a difference? This week can be a week of renewing our commitment to cultivating the fruits of the Spirit.  During our parish Week of Nonviolence (January 17-23) we are offering daily reflections (which can be found by clicking here to view our Week of Nonviolence page) with resources, prayers, and action steps to deepen your discernment of how we can individually and communally better respond to our current challenges.

Christ desires that we will come and see how he lives in and seeks to influence our world through the gifts of his Spirit. Take heart: Christ has not gone missing. We just have lost the spiritual sight to recognize the signs of this presence. The Good News is this vision can be restored. Christ relies on all who are willing to share with our wounded world the healing peace, life, and love accessible to us within the Reign of God. As followers of the Prince of Peace, may we share the fruits of Christ’s Spirit in all we say and do.

Fr. Joe



 

Message from Father Joe regarding
the killing of George Floyd,
and the current unrest.
Please click here for the letter.