Lord, that I may see.

THIRTIETH SUNDAY1 IN OT  B   2018

This week’s Gospel invites us to place ourselves along the way with the blind Bartimaeus.    How would name your spiritual blindness -- contemplate and admit your 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.

Do we have a blindness to 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.  Bartimaeus, like each of us, needs to be loved, and is fortunate to receive by Jesus a loving question.  Not “what do you want to do?” asks Jesus, but “What do you want me to do?”  It’s a question that comes from the heart of Christ and shows His compassion.

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 from seeing the face of Jesus.   We seek the conversion that comes from encountering Christ.

Today we celebrate Stewardship Commitment Sunday in which we place our stewardship commitment form of our time and talent in the collection today.  The commitment form you received in our parish mailing, we invite you to place this filled out form in the collection today.  Not to worry if you have forgotten to bring it with you.  There are extra forms in the pews today and we invite you to take a couple of moments after the homily to fill out this form and place this in the collection today.

In the stewardship of time, I invite you to consider the 1% rule in the spiritual journey.  1% of each day is 15 minutes.  We invite you to spend 15 minutes each day in prayer giving thanks to God for the blessings of your life and to celebrate God’s merciful love that is showered upon you.  May we pray just for a few minutes each and every day recognizing the spiritual dimension of life.  Yes, we live busy lives.  But may our busyness not keep us from giving thanks to God each and every day.

In the stewardship of talent, we are called to share our own giftedness for the building up of our faith community.  There is no such thing as being a lone ranger in the spiritual life.  From the Gospel of Jesus, what we have is to be shared, and it is to be shared in the service of others.

St Joseph’s parish is not solely to be pastor-driven; it is not intended to be primarily staff-driven; rather, we are to be parishioner-driven.  By baptism, all of us are called to proclaim the good news of the merciful love of Jesus with one another.

Our stewardship commitment, our willingness to be held accountable for our commitment to stewardship tells the story of the vibrancy of our parish life.

As we pray today with Bartimaeus, we pray with his words:  “Lord, that I may see.”  We pray for the spiritual sightedness to encounter Christ in our hearts and to celebrate God’s merciful love.

We pray also for the spiritual sightedness to embrace a spirituality of stewardship – a spirituality that enables us to see that all is a gift of God; that we are to live life with an attitude of gratitude; and we are to share what we have been given for the building up of our faith community; we are better together; and we are to share our love with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

What would it take for us to have a vision of life in which we trust that Jesus goes with us in all experiences of life?   What would it take for us to have a vision of ourselves as a faith community in which we welcome everyone as one who is made in the image and likeness of God, and there is room for everyone in our faith community?

On Stewardship Commitment Sunday, we thank you for who you are as God’s beloved, and we thank you for all the ways you have shared yourself with our faith community.  We are who we are as a faith community because of your love and generosity.  Thank you.  Thank you.

But we always desire to reach beyond where we are now and there is always room for us to grow as a parish community.  In that spirit, I invite you to fill out a stewardship form that is in the pew and to place it in the collection basket as we affirm our commitment to a spirituality of stewardship.  The Lord blesses us for the ways we serve one another.

Have a Blessed Day.