Master, Let Me See!

Here is my homily from this past Sunday in the Roman Church:

The Readings from this Sunday, all in their own way, call us to reflect upon our lives as faithful sons or daughters of the Living God. This requires us from time to time to ask the question, “how are we doing in this task?” If we are falling short, what is the problem? What is stopping us from fully following Jesus on his way and answering his call? Is it spiritual blindness? Is it the love of worldly power or possessions? Are we just simply lazy? And there are many people like this, those who claim to be so “busy” but completely lax in their spiritual lives. Or are we just weak in our faith? Do we often stifle the Spirit that God himself put into each one of us at our baptism? Does our faith become like a fire that one tries to cover to put out instead of letting it burn? Remember what Jesus tells us, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:14) These questions must make us ask God, “Lord where do I need improvement in my life to be your faithful Son or Daughter?”

Today’s Gospel (Mark 10:46-52) is a perfect story for us to walk through and think about this important question. To take a look at our current relationship with God and our need to encounter Jesus ever anew. To be refreshed and refueled in our faith. The Gospel begins with the blind beggar Bartimaeus sitting by the roadside and he hears that Jesus of Nazareth is coming by. Even though he is blind he knows full well who this Jesus is and the power that is at work in him. He had heard about Jesus’s groundbreaking teaching and preaching, about his miracles and healing. He knows the Jewish Scriptures by heart and that Jesus could just be the promised Messiah, the son of David. The one who would, at last, come into the world as God’s faithful representative and set things right. For this reason, he keeps calling out, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Very interesting that this blind man knows full well who Jesus is, but the disciples who have been with Jesus and watching him, still do not know who he is. Jesus has just told them before this passage, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise.” (Mark 10:33-34) And what do James and John do? They ask Jesus, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” (Mark 10:37) They desire the glory without the cross. They still do not see what Jesus is up to, or what his mission or ministry is all about. But the blind Bartimaeus has a clue. Do we?

Bartimaeus is making a great commotion and the people are trying to quite him as we are told, “And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more.” You have to try and imagine how this scene looked. With a wild man shouting at the top of his lungs, and loud enough to be heard over the “great multitudes” that are following Jesus. It reminds me of the way the actor played Bartimaeus in (I believe it’s the right title but may not be) the movie, “Jesus of Nazareth”. This is the one with the blue-eyed Jesus who never blinked. I am not sure about the blue eyes, but it does make the point that Jesus is always watching us and we in return should always have our eyes and hearts on him. Anyway, the character of Bartimaeus is played well in this film. And the more the people try to get the blind man do quiet down, the more raucous he gets. Kind of like when we take our 3-year old out to eat and the more I try to get him to calm down, all the more noise he makes.

From this chaotic scene Bartimaeus hears those very powerful words, “Take heart; rise, he is calling you.” This is the call we all desire to hear. The great encounter with Jesus. This encounter with Jesus does indeed take heart or even better, is the word courage. Courage to meet Jesus as you are and to be transformed by his powerful healing presence. The courage to step out of your old way of life and walk with Jesus in a new way of life. This is precisely what is going to happen to Bartimaeus. This is what should happen to us every time we come to Church and encounter Jesus at the altar. Refueled and remade as faithful sons and daughters of God. In other words, as St. Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17) This is why we have to stand up, arise, be bold and join Bartimaeus on the way.  

The reaction of the blind beggar says it all, “throwing off his cloak he sprang up and came to Jesus.” What does he “throw off”? Everything that had been binding him down before meeting Jesus. His sickness, his sins, his whole old life. All represented by this torn and tattered cloak. This is also the cloak that society as a whole puts upon people like him. Many Jews at the time would have considered Bartimaeus a sinner and cast him out of the daily life of the people of God because of his blindness. He would have been rejected from the Temple worship. People have the same stigmas for those with disabilities today. They are often marginalized and rejected. Kept under lock and key, so they are not too much of a distraction. With his load lightened, Bartimaeus can now “spring up” and meet Jesus. Each one of us has to find out what cloak we too are carrying. What things or actions are keeping us bound down and therefore unable to fully answer Jesus’s awesome call. Yes, we must cast off those things that stifle our faith and cause us to fall short in our service and worship of the Living God and our love of one another. Saint Paul uses this same word, “throw off” in a passage from Romans, it sums up that we are talking about here, “You know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed (like with Bartimaeus, Jesus is close at hand; - Also with us, he is in our hearts and upon our lips) the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off (Throw off) the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; (LEAVE YOUR CURRENT BLINDNESS AND FOLLOW JESUS) let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ (take off the cloak and put back on the beautiful baptismal garment that Jesus gave each of us), and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (13:11-14)

Jesus then answers Bartimaeus, “what do you desire from me?” This is the question that we are all asked by Jesus when we come to Church, “what do you desire, why are you here?” Some desire the power of men and the glory of the world. Some desire popularity and they want to be in the “in crowd” at the right church. Some desire riches and think that if I appease God he will do something good for me. Something in a material way. Yes, I have heard it said, “you know I have a bill due and I cannot pay it, maybe I’ll go to church this weekend and God will help me pay it.” We all must answer as did the blind beggar Bartimaeus who had nothing to give Jesus but himself. Like so many of us, this is how we come to Jesus, empty hands and an open heart. We say with him, “Master, let me see!” Open my eyes Jesus in order that I may see the world as you desire me to see it. What then happens when our eyes are truly opened by God? We see those people who have been cast away and kicked to the curb. The poor and the dying of the world. Then with our new eyes and transformed hearts, we bring God’s own love, mercy, and compassion to those in need of it the most. We bring the light of the Gospel into an often dark and hostile world. We take the message of hope into where there only seems to be disrepair. Let none of us be like the Rich Man in the Parable who dined grandly every day, but never saw the poor and sick Lazarus lying at his gate. (Luke 16:19-31) We all must take off our current blinders and let God open our eyes.

By his powerful word Jesus then heals the man on the spot. Telling him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” Bartimaeus is made well and complete through his encounter with Jesus. By his meeting with lifegiving grace, he is indeed a new man. Jesus then as with every one of us, he sends him on his way. Telling us all, go into the world. Take the Cross with you and be my faithful and fruitful disciples to those who need it the most. Take the healing and transformation that I have given you and put it into operation daily in your life.

At this moment there is an interesting twist in the Gospel. Jesus has just told Bartimaeus, “Go your way”, but we are told next, “and immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.” Meaning that he has made a choice to follow Jesus and not his own way. God is not a puppet master who dangles people by stings. We all have free will and it is up to us to answer the call of Jesus. To act or not to act. That is why Bartimaeus leaves his old way of life and follows Jesus is his way of life. Knowing that to serve God, he must first give up himself. Yes, that old cloak. Jesus’s desire is for each of us and he wants us all, not just small parts, but the complete person.

By walking through this Gospel, we have seen and heard what is required if we wish to be God’s faithful sons and daughters. We have to remove our old cloaks and follow Jesus into the places he desires us to go. We have to allow Jesus to open our eyes and let the light of his love and mercy shine through us. This is the great challenge of being a Christian. Yes, often it is a very unpopular path to take, but one that we must take. Do we have the courage to approach Jesus ever anew and ask him to “open my eyes that I may see, not as I will, but as you will”?

Our Trip to Spain Part #2 - A Walk Through the Park

This is my second post about a trip my wife and I took to Spain for the occasion of a wedding. The last post was about our taxi ride when we got there, so here it what happened next. Being that one usually arrives in Europe in the morning when traveling from the US, Joanne and I decided to take a walk through a very large park in the heart of Madrid. It is called, “Parque del Buen Retiro” or “The Buen Retiro Park”. It is a little less the half the size of Central Park in NY, but still well worth checking out. Among the many things that we saw two things jumped out at me to think about further. Here is the first one, with the next one to follow in my next post. Hopefully sooner than this one.

First, was our walk through the “Palacio de Cristal” or as we would say, “The Crystal Palace”. From the outside it’s a beautiful structure. That has a large pond in the front of it, that sort of acts as a reflecting pool. 

But once inside this all changed. I found out that it was a kind of art exhibit hall with the work of one artist on display. It was supposed to represent what a building looks like behind the sheetrock and paint. Kind of like the bare bones of the building. In some way representing that buildings are be exploited for there use and here is what is at the heart of the building. Yes, that is what the pamphlet said. Now, I do not claim to be an art expert, but it took me several minutes to even recognize the snake/bone type structures that made up the exhibit. I you look closely at the pictures you might see what I am talking about.

I said to myself, “Deacon, maybe you just need to broaden your mind a bit, let’s have a stole around and find out what is going on in here.” I did try to do this task. I looked and looked, but sadly I never saw. I even read the pamphlet that the ushers where handing out.  Nope nothing. Maybe, it was just too deep and over my head, but then again, some art is well, junk! Either way, the outside of the building was grand and shining like a light upon the hill, but the inside was empty, without purpose, and left much to be desired.  

This experience made me think about when our Lord observes the chief problem of the Pharisees. He tells them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:27-28) Jesus desires us to recognize that it’s what is inside us and all people that matters. When can have all the beauty that we can afford, but what in our hearts and minds is what counts. Some of the most attractive people to ever live, have also been the most corrupt and evil that the world has ever known. Then some simple or ordinary looking people have been the kindest, loving, caring to walk upon this earth. We must ask the question, what then becomes of the body that Jesus gave us, that he washed clean in baptism, when we fall short of the glory he has bestowed upon us? We become like the Pharisees, or an empty and unused museum; alive and glowing on the outside, but lifeless, empty and dead on the inside. We are called to be fully human and to live to our fullest potential, just as God created us. Therefor we must to act upon the plan he has for each of us. As Saint Paul reminds us in Romans "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." (828) God himself has given us all things in Jesus, let us do the same in return.