So I say to you, “I’ll give you $20 if you wash and wax my car.” And you say, “Deal”. So you wash and wax my car but, contrary to our agreement, I only give you $10. “Hey, you owe me $10!”, you cry. “I changed my mind”, I say, “and besides, you used my bucket and soap!”

Besides never washing my car again, you’ll continue to remind me that I owe you 10 bucks. Why? Be-cause we made a deal, recognized by law. I was legally obliged to pay you $20 (in a larger case, you’d take me to small claims court).

So, knowing you’d probably tell everyone in Webster that I’d stiffed you, I finally decide to pay you the full amount. Our friendship will still need repair but at least JUSTICE IS SERVED. Justice is giving to another what they deserve or have a “right” to.

So, you get into your shiny clean car and race across the Bay Bridge when suddenly you see those scary red and blue flashing lights in your mirror. “License and registration please,” says the officer. (you were going 68 in a 55 zone). Turns out to be $125 to the town court. Justice served.

We get the idea sometime that justice is the highest form of human relationship . . . to give everyone what they deserve makes for a happy well ordered society. That may be true for a community wracked with poverty and crime – – – justice is a blessing. But, in the Christian perspective justice is the minimum that is expected of us. It’s no big deal to be “just”.

We are called to a higher level of relationship. We are to be a people of Mercy. The Webster dictionary defines mercy as “kindness in excess of what is deserved or demanded by fairness”.

We see it everywhere in the Gospels. Jesus tells us:

“love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you.” Mt. 5:44

“Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” Lk. 23:34

“If someone asks for your coat, give them your shirt as well, to walk a mile, walk with them for two miles.” Lk. 6:27

The father put the gold ring and royal cloak on his wastrel son, because “He was lost, but now he is found.”
The laborers received a full day’s wage for just one hour’s work. Mt. 20:8

And, St. Paul marvels at the mercy of God when he declares, “that while we were still sinners and ene-mies of God, Christ died for us.” Rm. 5:5

So, this second Sunday of Easter is called Divine Mercy Sunday. We are called to acknowledge God’s mercy in our own lives (the countless times I’ve re-ceived more from life and God than I ever deserved). And, in the joy of the Resurrection we have the grace to offer mercy to those who have offended us in some way.

Happy Easter . . . 50 days of it!!

Fr. Tim

There is a scene in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland where Alice eats a mushroom and grows to enormous proportions. She outgrows her bed and bedroom. She must get on her knees so as not to hit her head on the ceil-ing. Her arms get stretched out the window. She doesn’t fit her world anymore. It’s too small for her.

Silly as it sounds, that image keeps coming to me as we think about the great mystery of Christ’s Resurrection. This world is too small to fit our hope.

Here’s what I mean. We live in a world with limited re-sources. There’s only so much water, clean air, oil, land, food, clothes, money and power. Oh, there’s “enough” for all of us to live, but here’s the problem . . . people being people . . . some of us want more than we need. And that’s okay . . . if we all have enough.

Problems arise when my “wanting more” keeps you from “getting enough”. Humanity seems to be hardwired for conflict. Given limited resources, and the tendency in each of us toward selfishness, the freedom to use power to get more and the human right to have enough are bound to conflict. Who wins? The powerful.

This is where Jesus and the Resurrection come in. You see, Jesus came to show us a new way of living not based on power, a way that has as its foundation a selfless love. We’ve never seen a love quite like what is revealed in Jesus Christ. It is a love that lays down its life for the be-loved, a love that seeks not its own but the happiness of the other, a love that discovers itself by giving itself away, a love that will suffer and endure all things for the sake of the truth.

And that’s what these last three days have been about . . . Jesus pouring himself out for the salvation (read: “the rescuing by love”) of the human race. Jesus died for us. His love is poured out for us “while we were yet sinners.”

And now today, Easter Sunday, God reveals something else – – – this love never dies. Jesus is raised from the dead by the power of God the Father, who is love. We are the heirs of this gift of new life (God’s Life), which means my life’s mission becomes one of loving others as Christ has loved me, which means we are all brothers and sisters in this world and yes . . . there is enough for everyone . . . because you can have some of mine.

That brings us to one final precious resource. Time. There’s not enough. We run out of time. We come to our end. Jesus died. We die.

But . . . as the women at the tomb tell us today, HE IS RISEN! God is not defeated by death. He lives in Eternal Life. And He’s coming to get you and me and poor Alice! Christ wants us to be with him. Why? Because he loves us. Why does He love us? Because that’s how God is.

Please say “yes” to Christ’s love.

Happy Easter.

Fr. Tim

It’s taken me awhile (like 30 years!) to begin to under-stand what happens this coming week . . . Holy Week.

I used to think of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday as “Church Week” (a lot of time spent in church.) I was an altar serv-er in grade school and high school, so the week was spent practicing the very solemn and detailed liturgies of those days. Sr. Annella would drill them into us.

The Triduum (Thurs./Fri./Sat – Sunday) was filled with washings, processions, cross carrying, incense, darkness and candles, all with a solemn almost mournful dignity. There was something mysterious and profound that you just couldn’t put into words. Each was its own separate “production”, kind of like watching the Passion Play at Oberamagau.

This all remains, but I think I understand it a bit better now. It’s not a play or a movie, it’s a re-presenting. The liturgy “makes present again,” the saving actions of Jesus in Jerusalem that week. We shouldn’t be surprised about this “make present again” because it happens at every Mass. Jesus, in a non-bloody manner, offers his life on the cross for our salvation. We receive his resurrected body in our own hands, and we eat him as the Bread Broken and Given for eternal life.

This is profound stuff. We’ll never plumb the depths of God’s love for us in Christ. But we can take a step. Come this week.

It really is one event, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, The Son of God. It takes four days to re-present (Thursday through Sunday). Thursday presents the Wash-ing of Feet (Christ’s commission to humble ourselves in service to our brothers and sisters) and the gift of the Eu-charist and priesthood at the Last Supper.

Good Friday has us walk with Christ the sorrowful jour-ney to his death and a moment to kiss the cross on which he died for love of us.

Holy Saturday is wrapped in silence throughout the day until sunset, when we light the new paschal candle and announce the Resurrection, and each carry our own can-dle, which now shares that same light.
That night our catechumens will be baptized, and all will receive Confirmation and Eucharist. This liturgy begins the celebration of Easter.

Sunday morning is a further joy as we peer into the empty tomb with Mary Magdalene and the apostles.

So, do you have to be “holy” to celebrate Holy Week? Does your Lent have to be full of prayers and sacrifices? Both of these would be nice, but the answer is “No”. It’s a “come as you are” presentation. God loves you as you are.
Please Come!!

One week to go. Let’s use it for prayer, fasting and alms-giving. May God bless you this week, wherever you are on your journey.

Fr. Tim

PS. See the purple refrigerator page in the bulletin for times of liturgies.

I can’t imagine that Martha was anything but heart broken and angry with Jesus when he showed up four days late to save her brother, Lazarus. She and her sister, Mary had sent an urgent message for him to come, ”Lord, your dear friend is sick.”

The two sisters were particularly close to Jesus –
(remember the dinner? Martha fumed away in the kitchen, while Mary sat talking with Jesus.) They were them-selves . . . no pious holy card figures. “Why weren’t you here, Jesus?! Our brother would never have died!”

And what was the reason Jesus gave for his delay? “For your (the disciples) sake I am glad I was not with him so that you will believe,” (That Christ has power over sin and death). Jn, 11:15. What follows, of course, totally amazed everybody; Lazarus comes back to life.

So, what’s the point for you and me? Well, unless you are like Jesus and can raise dead people back to life, you’d better be there. What’s the line from the movie, Annie Hall? Eighty per-cent of life is just showing up. Not being there to win everyone’s attention, not to do anything special, JUST BE THERE.

We don’t believe that about ourselves, do we? That we make a difference. Many times we think, “who am I that people would want me to be there? What will I say? What should I do?” They won’t care if I’m not there.

But, it’s not that way for people who love you. Your presence is a comfort to them. I remember my father’s face buried amongst hundreds of people in the stands as we faced our archrivals in basketball. It was such a comfort to know he was there . . . as we lost the game.

You see, you don’t need to say anything. You don’t need to be witty or profound or anything. Just be you and show up. Love will do the rest.

Be there for:
• Dinner with the family
• Dance recitals/games/birthdays
• Bed time/prayer time for the children
• Parish picnics/movie nights
• A co-worker who’s having a hard time
• Mass (of course!)
• Someone sick/in prison
• Someone shut-in or alone
• A sad and mixed-up teenager
• A spouse who needs your attention

Why show up? Because we’re less when you aren’t there. And you don’t know how many people are missing you.
See you in church. I hope.

Blessings to you. Have you seen the robins?!
Fr. Tim

Fifth Week of Lent

There is so much to contemplate in this Sunday’s Gospel: Martha and Mary’s profound faith in Jesus and his promise of eternal life, his deep understanding of human pain and loss, his power over death made manifest to believers and doubters alike. From those who have seen or heard of Jesus’ miraculous deeds, there is dismay that he has not done something to save his friend. No one, (except perhaps Martha? “Even now, Lord…”) has an inkling of what will happen next.

Then, Jesus calls out and Lazarus comes forth, and many believe. All it takes is his word to give new life to one thought lost. He calls out to us as well, and his word is all it takes to give new life to our faith and commitment to him, if we only respond. If our Lent hasn’t quite gone the way we intended, we don’t need to spend any time be-moaning our failures: we just need to start anew. Jesus is calling!

From Pope Francis’ general audience June 9, 2013: “Let’s think about this, it’s beautiful: God’s mercy gives life to man, it raises him from the dead.” Join Mary Haas in the Gathering Space after the 9:00 am. Mass on Wednesday, April 9, for our second discussion on The Simple Wisdom of Pope Francis.”

These were the words of that wonderful little man in the gospel this Sunday. He had been born blind, and from his earliest days lived a life as a beggar. (I remember in my home town a man sitting on a busy corner, a hat and sun-glasses covering his face, selling “Blind Man Pencils”.) Everyone in town knew him.

You would think it was cause for great joy that this poor man was given sight for the first time in his life. But not for the keepers of religious propriety, “Whoever healed you is not of God, for this was done on the Sabbath. . . this man is a sinner.”

What’s happening here? The man is being bullied. He’s being pushed into a theological debate that he is sure to lose. He’s dealing with the experts in the law, and they’re mounting a powerful case against Jesus using the most forceful argument of all . . . it’s against the law to heal on the Sabbath!

So what does he do? He refuses to be drawn into their academic game and instead, he witnesses to what he knows is the truth. “I don’t know if he is a sinner or not. All I know is, I was blind and now I see.”
Ever have that kind of bullying? You know, the “professors” in the lunch room/locker room – “Oh come on, you don’t have to go to Mass to talk to God. Besides, they’re all hypocrites anyway.” Or, “You Catholics are such prudes, you love to feel guilty.” Or, “Those people just don’t want to work. It’s in their blood. Why should I have to help them?”

What do you do? I like the little guy’s lead in. “All I know is . . .” In other words, he doesn’t get tangled up in someone else’s conclusions. He doesn’t debate them on their carefully prepared arguments. No, he simply states what he knows to be true. He stands to witness for some-thing that is unpopular to the experts, the majority, the current opinion.

It’s not easy, is it? The man is thrown out of the synagogue for telling the unpopular truth. People shun the messenger of inconvenient facts. Deitrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian who died in the Belsen Prison Camp, describes this as “the cost of discipleship”. It’s part of the program that goes with following Christ. People won’t understand you, will try to shout you down.

So . . . what is it that you know? We don’t have to look too far. Life delivers lessons everyday.
For example I know:
• God helps when we call out to Him.
• Kindness is it’s own reward.
• Spreading hope is what we’re about, not pointing out failure.
• Everyone, everyone, is a Child of God.
• Somehow it’s going to all work out (because God has saved us).
So go witness to, “all I know is . . .”

Bless you always.
Fr. Tim

Fourth Week of Lent

“One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” For the man born blind, knowledge of this clear and sim-ple truth fortifies him against the ridicule of his detrac-tors, emboldens his replies, and leads to his solemn decla-ration, “I do believe, Lord.” Despite the miraculous evi-dence and his compelling response to their arguments however, there are still those who refuse to accept it, be-cause the event doesn’t fit within the bounds of their ex-pectations or traditions.

We may sometimes find it difficult to see beyond the familiar, but St. Paul says, we too have been brought from darkness into light, which produces goodness and truth.

Lent is a time for sweeping away what keeps us from the truth, for learning to see more as God sees. Can you recall a moment when you suddenly realized –in an encounter with another person, in the resolution to a problem, or in an unexpected outcome –that God was present and lend-ing you His insight?

Share the memory with family or friends, hold fast to it, and let it sustain you in times of confusion or doubt.

Have you seen Holy Trinity’s new website? We’re making a big deal about it this weekend.

As you know the traditional way of sharing information and upcoming events has been to publish a parish bulletin. (It’s what you’re reading right now!) In it you find the mass schedule, the weekly calendar of events, upcoming meetings, classes, volunteer opportunities, and the Pastor’s Ramblings.

Well it’s a new age. So the same information and more is available on our website. What is the MORE about Holy Trinity on the web?
+ You can hear the readings for the Sunday mass and the homily as they were given that very Sunday.

+ You will find pictures of the parish staff, parish council, and recent events with parishioners. (Parishioner Jackson Thomas is a regular contributor of photos of life here at Holy Trinity.)

+ The website is interactive. If you have an event that you feel Holy Trinity should know about you can send the information along to events@holytrinityweb.com. Our web master Phil Marr will take your information and get it on our website.

+ Easy sign up for parish events like suppers and other gatherings that require advance notice can be accomplished on the web. (In fact stay tuned to this sign-up option as we will be asking you to participate in family portrait sessions for our new parish directory.) Visit ‘www.holytrinityweb.com/news’ to sign up.

+ The email addresses you have given to the parish will make special announcements and requests for prayers easily accessable to you just by going to the web. By the way, if you would care to share your email address with us we can send you timely announcements and reminders of events during the week.

So try it out Holytrinityweb.com. Let me know what you think. Any ideas you’d like to suggest? Blessings for the Third Week of Lent.

Fr. Tim

Third Week of Lent

Sunday’s readings focus on water, so essential to life. The Israelites whine for it, and God provides, even as they display their lack of trust in Him. The Samaritan woman at first misunderstands Jesus’ claim to be “living water” and asks for what she thinks will make her life easier. But, with Jesus’ patient instruction, she comes to realize much more of what He is offer-ing.

Suggestions: This week, serve water instead of other drinks at meals, and let this lead to a discussion of the importance of water in our natural lives, and the parallel ways the Living Water flows in our spir-itual lives.

Reflect: The wonder of this gift, as St. Paul points out, is that it’s given to people who don’t deserve it. How do we show our gratitude, and how do we, like the Samaritan woman, bring this good news to our friends and neighbors? Join Mary Haas after the 9:00 am. Mass on Wednesday for a discussion on the meaning of Christian Community, based on The Simple Wisdom of Pope Francis – The Joy of Evangelization. The selected teaching from one of his general audiences begins, “How beautiful it is to love one another as true brothers and sisters. How beautiful! Let’s do something today.”

Who Do You Say That I Am? – A Family Mission – For all ages!
Presented by Michael Theisen

Sunday, March 30 Noon – 1:00 pm. Soup/Salad Lunch – at St. Rita Church 1:00 – 3:00 pm.

Monday, March 31 5:00 – 6:00 pm. Pizza Dinner – at St. Paul Church 6:00 – 8:00 pm.

“Who Do You Say I am?” is the ultimate question of faith asked to each of us by Jesus. It’s also a critical question of identity that must be answered within each family and between each couple as we try to pass on our shared faith.

This Lent let’s gather together for a two-part retreat as a “church family” to break open the meaning of this question and to share our answers with other family members.

Our Sunday Session will be interactive, involving all ages in an engaging event that will leave you laughing, talking and thinking more deeply about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in the world today. Families can join in a soup and salad lunch from 12:00 -1:00 pm. in St. Rita’s Parish Center.

Our Monday Session, “Bringing Home the Faith,” will be directed to parents, grandparents and other interest-ed adults, because the research on children, teens and faith is clear: YOU matter—a LOT to the children in your family. We will explore how best to bring the “Good News” to life around our family tables. There will be age-appropriate activities for youth and children. An added plus: there’s no need to cook! RSVP to (Jodie Hickey 671-2100 x60) or (Kim Sbarra 671-2100 x28) to sign up.

We are pleased that Michael Theisen, Director of Membership Services for the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry in Washington, DC, will be our main presenter. Michael was instrumental in developing the national program, “Strong Catholic Families: Strong Catholic Youth.” He is a dynamic and well-known national speaker who makes his home in the Rochester area.

So, mark your calendars today and plan on joining us!!
This retreat is co-sponsored by Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, St. Paul’s and St. Rita Churches

This Monday Night at Holy Trinity

We continue our Monday night conversations at 7:00 pm. in the Gathering Space. This week Fr. Tim will lead the discussion, “Ten Things you need to know about starting to pray (again!)”. Come listen and participate in the conversation as we look for ways to pray better. The presentation is for all of us beginners!

Have you been to one of those Family Buffet Restaurants? I’m a sucker for those. I walk up and down the stalls of heat lamps shining down on large containers of mashed potatoes, meat loaf, chicken legs, pasta, sausage, noodles and gravy. I mean, I load up. All you can eat, baby! A couple things may have fallen from my plate by the time I get back to the table.

I love this stuff. The problem is, I can’t eat it all. That’s right, just like mom said, my eyes were too big for my stomach. I hate it when that happens. I didn’t even leave room for dessert!

I think we “go big” on a lot of things, only to find out later that we just can’t keep up the enthusiasm we started with. For ex-ample: New Year’s Resolutions, a new diet, plans to exercise, practicing our hobby (music etc.).

We get discouraged at our failure and feel foolish for even mak-ing those plans. Don’t do that.

This brings us to Lent and the Penance we are encouraged to take on this season. Many of us begin with early expectations of virtue and sacrifice far beyond our ability to stay with. We stop a particular activity we have come to love and look forward to each day. (No sweets, dessert, alcohol, soap operas, etc.) If you are among those whose will power is strong enough that you are able to keep such penances, give thanks to God for such a grace. Keep your penance a secret though.

If on the other hand you are like me (with will power the strength of a noodle), START SMALL. Set something do-able for a penance, something that will help someone else, some-thing that will make you a kinder person, something that will make this a better world.
How about:

• Speak less. Listen more.
• 3 minutes of prayer in the morning. “Lord please help me today to . . .”
• Reading a book about the Catholic Faith.
• Give some money to a person in need or some worthy so-cial cause.
• Spend more time at home with . . .
• “Develop” a sprained ankle and ask your Catholic neigh-bor to bring you to church. Ask them to sit with you in church because you’re lonely and afraid!
• Doing too much of something? Do it less. (Too little, do more.)
• Ask a family member and the Lord what they think would be good for you to do for Lent.
• Remember, start small. God will inspire you with thoughts that will surprise you.

So, here we go. Lent/Easter 2014. Lord, be with us.
God bless your week.
Fr. Tim

My father sold life insurance for over forty years. He’d say things to me like, ”Tim, you can never have too much life insurance.” Or, “Insurance is a great way of saving.” And, “Salespersons have a noble profession, they make the economy run.”

Dad did well. He sent three children through college and he and mom traveled a bit in retirement. He did it all in a business that places a high value on being prepared for the future. Insurance is an industry that tries to take the uncertainty out of life . . . where will I live? How will I take care of myself? What if I get sick? Will I have enough to . . . ??? One insurance company’s slogan says it pretty clearly, “to take the IF out of life”.

Hearing the gospel this Sunday, one might think Jesus would have made a lousy insurance salesman. “Therefore, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will wear . . . look at the birds in the sky, they gather nothing into barns yet, God feeds them.” Or, “learn from the lilies of the field, they neither work nor worry, yet not even King Solomon was dressed as fine as they.” Don’t worry. Be happy. Right?

The “don’t worry” part doesn’t mean we don’t work hard to earn our food and lodging. The apostles were fisher-men, St. Paul was a tent maker, Jesus worked as a carpenter. The Parable of the Talents (three servants, given different sums of money) shows us that God expects a return on His investment. “Why didn’t you at least put my money in the bank to gain interest?” There’s a common sense to living in this world which we must heed.
So what’s the point of the gospel this Sunday? Do your best to secure what you need in this life. This is our duty as members of family and community. BUT . . . don’t let getting these things become the most important thing you do. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and (guess what?) all that you need will be given to you.” Mt. 6:25ff

How do you seek God’s Kingdom? Seek out goodness rather than evil, generosity rather than selfishness, forgiveness rather than resentment, kindliness over spite, courage over cowardice, patience rather than anger. In other words, live as Christ has shown us.

Dear friends it doesn’t mean we’ll all get what we want in our lives, but it does mean we will get what we really need . . . what we really need to live our best lives, our God purposed lives.

Now, I can’t convince you of this promise of Christ. I can only try to witness to it with my own life. Each of us must ask Him to help with our needs and then trust that what happens to you is God’s loving will. “Oh Lord, give me the grace to trust in your plan and to be resolved to do my part for your Kingdom. Then do with me as you will.”

Do something kind for someone this week.

Fr. Tim

No where, ever, will you find this command in the rules for any nation, any organization, any religion . . . but for Christianity. These words were spoken by Our Lord Himself, not to living saints who hung on His every word, but to his disciples, rough fishermen, common people whose lives were already hard enough. He speaks to you and me.

Think for a moment . . . do you have any enemies? I mean real enemies, someone who wants bad things to happen to you – someone who tries to hurt you?

If you lived in Israel or Palestine, you could answer “yes”. For the Jew it would be “the Palestinians”, for the Palestinian, it would be “the Jews”. For the Serbians, it’s the Croats (and vice-versa). And on it goes; Huttus vs. Tutsis, Christians vs. Moslems, and here in America, we could say at times, even Democrats and Republicans.

How about you? Do you have any enemies? I’m hard pressed to answer “yes” to that. I have people who don’t like me or don’t trust me (and me toward them); perhaps they are a rival, but I can’t say I know anyone who is my enemy.

Does this clear us from the Lord’s command? I don’t think so. In the same way Jesus expanded the other commandments of the Torah – – – from shall not kill to shall not grow angry, from shall not commit adultery to shall not even look lustfully – – – so now my “enemy” becomes someone who doesn’t necessarily “hate” me, but rather someone who “stands in my way”.

My enemy becomes someone who thinks differently than I. It is someone who makes me afraid, someone who, yes, doesn’t like me, or someone who hurt me, and by golly, I’m not going to forget that.

And what do we do with this new “expanded” version of enemy? We avoid that person. We gather people around us who feel the same way about that person.

You can see how this natural response to an opposing force begins to divide the human family. Fear, retaliation, mistrust become the atmosphere between families, co-workers, political parties, cultures, religions, and nations.

How can this situation, given human nature, ever change? Or, do we even want it to change? (Isn’t it easier to keep my enemies my enemy?!)

No. Jesus, if we choose to listen to him, says, “love your enemy.”

But HOW? (Please know I’m trying to do these myself, and many of you are much better at this than I am).

Thoughts to help me love my enemy:

• To love doesn’t mean to feel “sweet” toward my
  enemy. Bottom line, it means to want what is good for them, “that they be well”.
• Who knows what hurtful events have marked their lives. Perhaps their response to me is really just them trying not to be hurt again.
• Inside every human being is someone who (because we are made in God’s image) wants to love and be loved – every one of us. So, my “enemy” is like me!
• How would I wish to be treated by this person? Do that for them.
• In the end, God is bigger than my feelings and fears. If He commands it, then He will help me do it.
• It’s going to hurt. It’s part of the cross we carry for the love of Christ.
• No one really wants to have or be . . . an enemy.
• In the end, my enemy is my brother, my sister.

God help us all with these things. Jesus wants us to love like Him and His Father everyone.

A blessed week to you

Fr. Tim