OCTOBER 25, 2015 -Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Lectionary: 149
Reading 1 – Jeremiah 31: 7 – 9
Thus says the LORD:
Shout with joy for Jacob,
exult at the head of the nations;
proclaim your praise and say:
The LORD has delivered his people,
the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I will bring them back
from the land of the north;
I will gather them from the ends of the world,
with the blind and the lame in their midst,
the mothers and those with child;
they shall return as an immense throng.
They departed in tears,
but I will console them and guide them;
I will lead them to brooks of water,
on a level road, so that none shall stumble.
For I am a father to Israel,
Ephraim is my first-born.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 126: 1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.

R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.

R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.

R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.

R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Reading 2 – Hebrews 5: 1 – 6
Brothers and sisters:
Every high priest is taken from among men
and made their representative before God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring,
for he himself is beset by weakness
and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself
as well as for the people.
No one takes this honor upon himself
but only when called by God,
just as Aaron was.
In the same way,
it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest,
but rather the one who said to him:
You are my son:
this day I have begotten you;
just as he says in another place:
You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.
Gospel – Mark 10: 46 – 52
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more,
“Son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
“Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”
Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.
Listen to the Scriptures: click on the link below:

 

30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B

 

 

Theme: Christ’s love continues to heal the world.  By virtue of the power of his priesthood He continues to make reparation for our weaknesses, and helps us to overcome our daily sense of failure.  He restores peace and love, gives us the courage to face the failures that lie ahead.  Men are subject to many different kinds of blindness in their daily lives.  They can be unfeeling towards the needs of others; they can shut their eyes to what God demands of them; and most important they can be blind to their own emotional and moral needs.

 

Introduction:  Any kind of spiritual blindness can be overcome, but only after a man feels, as did the blind man in the gospel account, that he has the capability of being cured.

 

Point 1: Blindness to the needs of others.  To be blind to another’s needs does not always mean to be indifferent to their physical wants.  Christian charity does not mean simply alleviating human poverty.  Indeed, the deeper needs of men – for kindness, sensitivity – very often are hidden from our sight.  Being aware of these needs demands patience and hard work on our part.  In a family a wife may nag her husband after a day’s work; a husband may fail to notice all the work his wife has done during the day; parents may in turn ignore the simplest needs of their children.  It is dangerous to regard these as unimportant; they are the little insensitivities from which major problems may arise.

Point 2: Blindness to what God needs of us.  Many find it difficult to believe that God is in a real sense dependent upon them to complete the mission He inaugurated on earth with Christ.  As difficult as it is to accept, it is nevertheless true that without us acting as His agents, little good can be accomplished.  We can clothe Christ with all the glorious attributes of Lord, High Priest, and Messiah, but he himself saw fit to share his redemptive powers with us.  To be blind to the real responsibilities Christ gives us is to miss daily opportunities for making his presence felt in the hearts of those who need his healing.  God does act directly, of course, in giving help and courage to individuals.

 

Point 3: Blindness to our own needs.  This is the most insidious blindness of all, because it is one of which we ourselves are often completely unaware.  We can be our own worst enemies by being insensitive to our own feelings.  The real areas of concern in our lives are sometimes the most difficult to admit to; we can refuse to face our own emotional problems and anxieties, and the tremendously important part they play in our lives when we refuse to listen to what our feelings are trying to tell us.  When we bottle ourselves up this way, we inevitably have trouble in our relationships with others.

 

The Church has once again put renewed emphasis on the sacrament of Penance by formulating new prayers and making the setting more relaxed and welcoming.  But no matter how much more attractive the ritual there can be no substitute for the preparation we bring to it by honest self-examination of personal, deep-rooted attitudes, direct confrontation with our emotional lives.  We can do this only by quietly facing our anxieties and difficulties first in the privacy of our own hearts, during prayer and meditation, and then asking God for help and forgiveness.

 

Conclusion: The first step in any mature religious, moral and psychological development is to see one’s blindspots in our behavior to ourselves and to others and to God, and then to have faith enough that they can be overcome.  The problem is that people constantly underestimate their own power in this regard.  God’s grace does not work in spite of a man’s needs, but because of them.  It is man who can and must take the first step, and cry out: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”

 

QUESTIONS THAT MAY LEAD TO OTHER THOUGHTS / REFLECTION / DISCUSSION / WRITTEN

 

1. Do you understand that the spiritual needs of others are more important than their material needs? Do you believe this?

 

2. What does Christianity mean when it says, “God needs men?”

 

3. Are you patient with your own faults, or are you always depressed or discouraged at your own failures? Or do you blame others for what has happened?

 

4. Are you at times so overcome by guilt that you put off your responsibility to change? To whom do you talk about your shortcomings, failures, struggles?

 

5. Do you have blindspots and even irrational feelings about some people of other religions, races, and nationalities?

 

 

 

The miracle of Jesus’ healing the physical blindness of Bartimaeus is, as Christ’s miracles always are, a vehicle of a deeper message, and that message here is one that is universal in its application: all men who acknowledge their sins are inevitably led to a higher vision of themselves and even a deeper understanding of God.  The painful, lonely darkness a man experiences, in whatever form – sickness, failure, emotional frustration – can embitter him, isolate him even further; or it can be used as a prelude to healing.  The choice is man’s.  Every man does have within himself the ability to cry out for help, to start the process of healing which will then feel Christ’s curative power.  Whatever the degree or form of blindness, the individual will receive help and even eventually the complete healing he needs.  And with the strength he receives, not only is he given a new lease on life; the human race itself is brought closer to perfection, and God’s total creation is thereby collectively glorified.

 

The Gospel story for today is a most illuminating story.  In it we can see many of the things which we might call the conditions of miracle.

 

1. There is the sheer persistence of Bartimaeus. Nothing would stop his clamour to come face to face with Jesus. He was utterly determined to meet the one person whom he longed to confront with his trouble.  In the mind of Bartimaeus there was not just a nebulous, wistful, sentimental wish to see Jesus.  It was a desperate desire, and it is that desperate desire that gets things done.

 

2. His response to the call of Jesus was immediate and eager, so eager that he cast off his hindering cloak to run to Jesus the more quickly. Many a man hears the call of Jesus, but says in effect, “Wait until I have done this,” or “Wait until I have finished that.”  Bartimaeus came like a shot when Jesus called.  Certain chances happen only once. Bartimaeus instinctively knew that.  Sometimes we have a wave of longing to abandon some habit, to purify life of some wrong thing, to give ourselves more completely to Jesus.  So very often we do not act on it on the moment–and the chance is gone, perhaps never to come back.

 

3. He knew precisely what he wanted–his sight. Too often our admiration for Jesus is a vague attraction. When we go to the doctor we want him to deal with some definite situation. When we go to the dentist we do not ask him to extract any tooth, but the one that is diseased.  It should be so with us and Jesus.  And that involves the one thing that so few people wish to face–self-examination. When we go to Jesus, if we are as desperately definite as Bartimaeus, things will happen.

 

4. Bartimaeus had a quite inadequate conception of Jesus. Son of David he insisted on calling him.  Now that was a Messianic title, but it has in it all the thought of a conquering Messiah, a king of David’s line who would lead Israel to national greatness.  That was a very inadequate idea of Jesus.  But, in spite of that, Bartimaeus had faith, and faith made up a hundredfold for the inadequacy of his theology.  The demand is not that we should fully understand Jesus.  That, in any event, we can never do. The demand is for faith.  A wise writer has said, “We must ask people to think, but we should not expect them to become theologians before they are Christians.” Christianity begins with a personal reaction to Jesus, a reaction of love, feeling that here is the one person who can meet our need.  Even if we are never able to think things out theologically, that response of the human heart is enough.

 

5. In the end there is a precious touch. Bartimaeus may have been a beggar by the wayside but he was a man of gratitude. Having received his sight, he followed Jesus.  He did not selfishly go on his way when his need was met.  He began with need, went on to gratitude, and finished with loyalty–and that is a perfect summary of the stages of discipleship.

 

“Master, let me see again.”  Experienced doctors say that, when a patient has a strong will to live, he is already half-cured.  If, on top of that, he has faith in his doctor’s competence and is ready to obey him in everything, then the chances of recovery are very much increased.  Bartimaeus had an overwhelming desire to be healed, and furthermore, his faith in Jesus is total.  This is enough to heal him.  Likewise, in spiritual life, a strong desire to follow Jesus all the day and a great faith in him can cure us of our blindness (arrogance, self-centeredness, sensuality, sloth). Such a desire and such a faith are obtained in prayer

 

30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 25^th October 2015

For the Church: that we may passionately call out to Christ for our needs and courageously follow Jesus on the way of life, let us pray to the Lord.

For the grace to risk: that we may sincerely seek the deepest desires that God has placed in our hearts and pursue their fulfillment even when the path is unclear , let us pray to the Lord.

For a spirit of service: that we may use our time and ability to help others overcome obstacles and find ways to use their gifts, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who are searching for God: that their eyes and hearts may be opened to the many manifestations of God’s love for them, let us pray to the Lord.

For the light of Faith: that our eyes may be opened and we may reverence the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, in one another, and in the broken and hurting members of Christ’s body, let us pray to the Lord.

For all whose attention is fixed on the allurements of wealth, power, and prestige:  that God will open their eyes to the life and wholeness found in relationships, service, and discipleship, let us pray to the Lord.

For a listening and sensitive heart: that we may never ignore or try to silence those who cry out for assistance, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who are blinded by fear and prejudice: that God will enlighten their hearts and help them recognize the value and dignity of each person, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who help others grow in faith, particularly, parents, catechists, and spiritual directors: that God will bless their efforts as they strive to nurture the seeds of faith that God has planted, let us pray to the Lord.

For greater trust in times of difficulty:  that we may be sustained by God’s promise to be with us always, to console us and to lead us home

For all who are ill, particularly those with diseases of the eyes: that God will bring healing and renewal to them in body, mind, and spirit, let us pray to the Lord.

For those who are cut off from community by illness or weakness: that we will reach out to them, be a connection for them to others and help their voice to be heard, let us pray to the Lord.

For greater reverence for human life, particularly for those advanced in years and dealing with infirmities: that God will guide us in assisting and affirming them, let us pray to the Lord.

For members of Parliament or Congress: that they may find ways to work together to address the pressing issues of our nation, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who are seeking employment: that God will open new possibilities for them and renew their hope, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who have been impacted by violence: that God will hear their wounds, free them from fear, and give them courage to move forward in life, let us pray to the Lord.

For all who have been bullied or tormented by others: that they will hear Jesus invitation and bring their burdens to him, let us pray to the Lord.

For Peace and an end to the conflicts in the Middle East: that leaders may take bold steps to end violence and protect the innocent, and that all members of the military may return safely to their loved ones, let us pray to the Lord.