"Lord, that I may see."

In the recent pilgrimage of Pope Francis to the United States, to Washington, NYC, and Philadelphia, we were all very conscious of the security guard that surrounded Pope Francis every step of the way.  Obviously, there were concerns about his safety.  He had a tight schedule and so on and so on.  I think we were touched when Pope Francis broke through security to kiss a baby or simply to be present to a person and to bless them.  His reaching out to be with people was a most touching memory we have of our beloved pope.

In today’s Gospel, the disciples were the security guard for Jesus as He was leaving Jericho.  To keep some order and to keep people from bothering Jesus, the disciples kept people like the blind Bartimaeus as a distance.  The disciples basically told the blind beggar to shut up.  He was disturbing the peace.

The irony of this Gospel passage is that it was the disciples who were blind.  They had a spiritual blindness to the healing, merciful mission of Jesus.  They simply did not get it.  They were very content to leave people with disabilities as unnoticed people on the side of the road.

I wonder if we faithful Church goers, starting with the pastor, sometimes act as the security guard for Jesus in the same way that the disciples did in the Gospel account.  Who are the people we tell to shut up and we want to keep at a distance from our faith community.

Perhaps it is people who we judge are not living a moral life -- people with a different sexual orientation, people who have experienced separation and divorce in their married life, people we judge not to be living a Christ-like life, people we think are phonies, people who are disruptive to the ways we pray.  Often we are unaware of the ways we can keep people from experiencing the merciful love of Jesus.

May the blind man Bartimaeus represent all the unnoticed people, all the forgotten, people with disabilities, and the people we try to shut up in very polite words.  May we witness to the merciful love of Jesus to all who are in need.

As we pray over today’s Gospel, be aware of the physical blindness of Bartimaeus, and be aware also of the spiritual blindness of the disciples.  As we pray in the Bartimaeus, “Lord that I may see.  We pray for both physical and spiritual sightedness to the ways Jesus is present and the ways Jesus wishes to be present to all who are in need.

In the first Scripture reading from the prophet Jeremiah, the prophet is promising restoration to a weary people, promising the Israelites a future full of hope, promising God’s people a new dawn of God’s merciful love in their lives.  When you are beaten as the Israelites, your vision becomes jaded and you have a hard time believing that your future is full of hope.  But the clear message is that the crosses of life, when we are anchored in Christ, lead to the dawn of a new day.

Bartimaeus never gave up.  He was persistent.  He made known his request to God.  He was a man of faith.  In this account, he understood the mission of Jesus far better that the disciples die.

May we with the persistence of Bartimaeus ask the Lord that I may see.  May we see and experience the truth of our lives.  God’s love for us is unending.  Whatever anxiety we experience, whatever struggle we are dealing with, whatever disabilities hold us down, we all are the recipients of the abundant merciful love of Jesus.  Lord, that I may see how you are present to me in my time of need.

This week’s Gospel invites us to place ourselves along the way with Bartimaeus to contemplate and admit our own blind spots.  This is   bit of a challenge for all of us because it is so easy to be unaware of our own blind spots.

A blind spot in our spiritual spot may be the blindness from experiencing the merciful healing of Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  What is the last time we have experienced this sacrament?  What would it take for you to remove this spiritual blindness and know the forgiving love of Jesus in this beautiful sacrament?

Who are the unnoticed people on the side of the road that we so easily pass by?  How aware are we of the people near us in Church today?  What can we do to connect more fully with the people in our faith community?

Who is the person in our family life that we have built up a wall of blindness that makes it so difficult to reach out to.  Lord, that I may see how your grace can bring healing to this relationship?

The dialogue of Jesus with Bartimaeus is the dialogue Jesus has with us today.  The Lord is asking us:  What do you want me to do for you?  May we respond with Bartimaeus:  Lord, that I may see.  Let Bartimaeus be our guide.  He asks for the most important gift God can give.  May we see what is of real value in life.  May we know what is true.  May we judge rightly and walk confidently in the light of Christ. 

Notice in the account that the very first thing Bartimaeus sees when he is healed is the face of Christ.  To know Jesus is the key to the Christian life.   To know Jesus is to know God and our true self.

Bartimaeus’ prayer is answered.  Once he has seen Jesus face to face, there is no other life for him except to be with Jesus and to follow him.  He leaves behind his beggar’s cloak and joins Jesus and the other disciples on the way to Jerusalem.  Like a man in love, he has seen the face of his beloved, and there is no turning back.  May we too be cured of our blindness which keeps us from seeing the face of Jesus.  We seek the conversion that comes from encountering Christ.

The Francis Effect

This afternoon at St. Joseph's Church, we viewed a wonderful documentary witnessing to the spirituality and vision of Pope Francis.  With the guidance of the Holy Spirit in March of 2013, the College of Cardinals elected Jorge Bergoglio to be our Pope, the Vicar of Christ on earth, the chief shepherd of the Church.

He chose the name Francis seeking the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi.  Who is Pope Francis?  In his own words, he is a sinner who asks for our prayer.  His beauty is that he is a simple, humble person of faith with a solidarity and and a great love for the poor.

Among his many memorable quotes was his response to a question about a person who is homosexual, Pope Francis simply said:  "Who am I to judge?"  With this quote and by his way of life, Pope Francis communicates the merciful love of Jesus.  In initiating the jubilee year of mercy, Pope Francis wants us to a Church of Mercy -- a field hospital for the wounded, rather than a tribunal that restricts people in need from experiencing the merciful love of God.

If you would like to join a six week small Christian community to further explore the spirituality of Pope Francis, call the Church office  -- 586-8089 -- or go on the parish website.

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

I would be glad to have the rich young man in today’s Gospel account as a parishioner of St Joseph’s.  What we know about him he kept the commandments.  He was a good rule keeper.  He was in Church every Sunday.  He contributed to the support of the parish and to the CMA as well.  He probably would volunteer to serve on the parish council.  From a pastor’s point of view, what is there not to like about him?

He knelt before the Lord and asked the right question:  “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Hopefully that is our question to the Lord in prayer as well.  Jesus looked on him with great love and said there is one thing you lack.  “Go, sell what you have and give to the poor and then come, follow me.”  Wow!  Talk about being asked to get outside your comfort zone.

I invite you to see if you can make an honest connection with a couple of questions that are not so nearly demanding as the Lord was with the rich young man.

Could it be true that we prefer to watch an hour’s television rather than pray for ten minutes?  Do we sometimes find it easier to travel between cities to watch a football game than to travel a couple of miles to go to Church?  Do we easily spend $50 in a restaurant rather than putting $20 in the collection basket? 

 

In asking that, l certainly am not talking about bad people.  In all truth, I easily spend more time watching television and being on the internet than I am praying. I ask these questions because we are all searching for our right relationship with God.

We all need to ask the question the rich young man asked of Jesus.  What must I do to inherit eternal life?  The rich young man in the Gospel has a leg up on many of us as answered the Lord by saying he has kept all the commandments. I am very impressed by anyone who gets A plus in keeping the ten commandments.

How do we answer that question when the Lord tells us:  “You are lacking in one thing.  Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have a treasure in heaven, then come, follow me.”

This challenges us to ask our relationship with God.  What is the real treasure of your life?  What is the North Star for you that everything else is seen in relationship to it?

So what is your treasure?  We all have our treasures - what's yours? It's a serious question. What is your treasure? What do you give your time, your energy, your love to mostly?

Your treasure may your good reputation, your beautiful family, the job you are very successful at, your golf game, the buffalo bills or the fighting Irish of Notre Dame, your hard earned assets.

In the Gospel, the man with many possessions wasn’t able to let go of them in order to follow Jesus more completely.  I need to ask myself: what possessions do I cling to? 

What is my tipping point in terms of prayer?  What is my limit?  Is it the hour for Sunday Eucharist?  Does that happen 52 weeks a year?  How much time each day do I commit to prayer?

What is my tipping in sharing with those in need == whether in parish ministry or responding to people in need anywhere?  How much time am I willing to share to be of service to others?

What is my tipping in terms of treasure?  What percentage of income do I tithe?  What is my comfort zone in this regard? 

Does the use of our time, energy and resources indicate what are the important relationships of our lives?

The Gospel lesson is clear. Our relationship with God must be our greatest, our prime relationship, the one which gives meaning to all our other relationships. If it is not so for us we doom ourselves to go hungrily seeking for substitutes which invariably disappoint - a succession of dashed hopes and new infatuations, leaving us empty and cynical. When we come to think of it, our relationship with God is the one thing we take with us into the next life - all else will be left behind. Shouldn't we cultivate it while we can?

The invitation and challenge is clear. Jesus is asking each one of us to give priority to God in our lives and to get rid of all that we love more than him, everything which prevents us from saying yes to his wonderful invitation: and then: come follow me.

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I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

In the Vatican today, Pope Francis is convening the Synod on the Family to explore the current He experience of marriage and the family.  The Church seeks to value the blessedness and holiness of your experience of family life.  While none of us live in an ideal world of family bliss, God is present in the family of each and every one of us.  Our family is immersed in the mystery of God’s love.  There is nothing we can do to stop God from being present in your experience of family life.  Thanks be to God.

As we know, Pope Francis was in Philadelphia last weekend for the World Meeting of Families.  I was deeply moved by Pope Francis -- this simple, humble man of faith who so beautifully witnessed to us the merciful love of Jesus.  He is the Vicar of Christ on earth; he is our North Star to a Gospel way of living.

He called us to a spirituality of dialogue, a spirituality of mercy, and a  spirituality of mercy.  He made us aware of our higher calling to serve and care and love for one another.

As the Church convenes the Synod on the Family, maybe it is prophetic that today’s scriptures call us to consider our grace-filled family challenges.  As we see in today’s Scriptures, there are basic values to marriage and family life.  In the first Scripture reading from the Book of Genesis, there is the need for companionship.  The Lord God said:  “It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a suitable partner for him.”  The need for companionship is basic and God-given in each of us.  We become our best selves in loving and sharing and giving with another.  This is expressed most beautifully in the marriage vows.  “I, John, take you Mary to be my wife.  I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.  I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”  These sacred words of the marriage vows express very powerfully the blessings of the Sacrament of Marriage.

In the Gospel,  Jesus said:  “God made them male and female.  For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  So they are no longer two but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together,  let no one separate.”  The Marriage covenant is a relationship characterized by permanence and fidelity.

 

The fullness of the sacrament of Marriage celebrates the marriage covenant for all the days of your life.  The Synod on the Family and the whole Church prays that the grace of the marriage commitment be lived out by all the families in our parish community.

Still, faithfulness has not always endured in marriage. That is the point in today’s Gospel at which the Pharisees attempt to test Jesus.  “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”  Clearly the ideal is how Jesus responds:  “What God has joined together, no one must divide.”

Pope Francis has acknowledged there are times couples must separate for the sake of the spouse and/or young children from wounds caused by serious sinfulness in the human condition.   The Church in the Synod wants to be of service to families who struggle and to families that are blessed in their love for another.

The ideals of a lifelong marriage are very much the ideal and the beautiful commitment of the marriage vows.  We pray for all who celebrate the sacrament of marriage that will be so blessed.  But we humans struggle to reach those ideals.  We are limited and frail.  We rely on God’s understanding and mercy.  We also need to offer each other support.  We are all in this together.

I count myself very blessed in my family life.  My mom and dad were faithful to their marriage vows all the days of their lives.  I have five brothers and sisters -- two of them are deceased.  But they all are very much of my wonderful experience of family.  Without any doubt, my first experience of God’s love for me was experienced in the context of my family.

As we are grateful for the love that we have experienced, may we always be mindful of the call of God that we are to share what we have with those are in need.  If you permit, I would like to add a word on the diocesan Catholic Ministry Appeal.  The CMA is our way as a family and as a parish family sharing what we have with families who are in need.  As the video beautifully witnessed, the CMA is our vehicle for sharing beyond our parish boundaries with those in need through our 12 county diocese.   As we have been given much, we need to share generously with those who need our help.

Today’s Gospel concludes with the words of Jesus:  “Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom  of God belongs to such as these.”  Families that are blessed with children indeed are very much blessed.

May you in your family life and in our parish family life always prize the presence of children as icons of the mystery of God’s presence among us.  As a child simply trusts in his or her mom and dad to know what is best for him, so may we trust in God’s loving plan for each and every one of us.