Master, I Want to See!

 

Deacon Dave · Master, I Want to See!

Homily for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 27, 2024. Gospel of St. Mark 10: 46-52. Theme: Master, I Want to See! 

 The Gospels are filled with many stories of Jesus curing people. So when a particular miracle is singled out and retold to us in great detail, it means that there is an important message contained within it for our instruction. That there’s more to the story than what appears on the surface level. Today’s healing of a blind beggar is definitely one such story. 

 In today’s Gospel reading Mark introduces us to Bartimaeus as a model for us to imitate. He wants us to join with him in crying out to Jesus for the help that we need in our lives. He wants the joyful hope and expectation that moved Bartimaeus to jump up when he heard the Lord calling him, to fill our own hearts. And just as he threw aside his cloak, which symbolized getting rid of his old way of living, Mark wants those who hear this story to also begin living a new life by following the way of the Lord Jesus. 

 In other words, Mark wants us to put ourselves in Bartimaeus’ place. And this includes recognizing that we, too, can suffer from blindness, perhaps not in the physical sense but rather in regard to our moral and spiritual vision. Through this Gospel story, he hopes we will hear Christ saying to us, “What do you want me to do for you?” and that we will also cry out, “Master, I want to see! Open the eyes of my faith so that I can believe in You more firmly and follow You more faithfully. Restore clear sight to my conscience so that I can see and follow the sure bright path that leads to Heaven.” 

 This is an especially significant Gospel for those of us who live in Marin because our county has the highest percentage of un-churched non-religious observant persons in the nation! This means that there are an awful lot of spiritually and morally blind people walking around Marin County who stand in need of Jesus; healing touch. And they need us to show them the way to Him. 

 Moral vision, which enables us to see right from wrong, works through our conscience and it functions more clearly when it’s enlightened by God’s Word and informed by the teachings of Christ’s Church. Without these lights to guide the way to right living, our moral vision can darken and we can easily lose our way. This doesn’t happen all at once of course, but like physical visual degeneration, it’s a gradual process. With each misdirected step we take the blurring between good and bad increases until it becomes fuzzy gray clouds and shadows. If we don’t become proactive and take steps to correct this moral blindness once we recognize its symptoms, it can bring us to a place where we find ourselves doing things that we once thought we would never ever do. 

 Closely related to this is spiritual blindness, which if left untreated can lead to darkness and despair. For the spiritually blind, the only sure realities of life are those that can be experienced with the senses and scientifically verified with the mind. Those who suffer from this condition are concerned only about the “here and now” because they are blind to the truth that they will continue to exist beyond their time on planet Earth. They desperately cling to life in this world by any means possible because they do not see any other option. They simply cannot see that there is a whole other very real world, far better than this present one, awaiting them as a future possibility. 

 Spiritual vision, on the other hand, allows us to see that we are so much more than just randomly assembled atoms and cells. That we are so much more than our DNA, so much more than our physical appearance, so much more than our bank accounts and social status. Faith-vision informs us that each one of us has a purpose on Earth, a mission that no one else can accomplish in the exact same way. It assures us that we have an eternal destiny far beyond this planet. It enables us to know that no matter how others might judge us, Jesus peers into our depths and sees us for who we really are, and loving what He sees, He calls us to draw closer and closer to his Heart! 

 So, St. Mark is assuring us in today’s Gospel that Jesus, the Messiah Son of David, will indeed have pity on us in our blindness. If we call out to him in sincerity of heart then we will surely hear him say to us what he said to Bartimaeus, "Your faith has saved you”. That is, “your trust in Me has healed you.” And so I would like to close with a prayer for clear moral and spiritual vision that is short and easy to memorize. It was written by St. Richard of Chichester a very long time ago and it actually became the lyrics for a popular religious song, “Lord Jesus Christ, three things I pray: to see Thee more clearly, to love Thee more dearly, and to follow Thee more nearly, day by day.”

Becoming the Greatest!

 

Deacon Dave · Becoming the Greatest!

Homily for the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 20, 2024. Gospel of St. Mark 10:35-45. Theme: Becoming the Greatest! 

 In today’s Gospel, the brother-apostles, James the Greater and John, try to pull off a self-promotion maneuver behind the backs of the other 10 apostles. Like many Jews of their day, they misunderstood the ancient prophecies about the Messiah and imagined that he would be the Royal Champion who had come to conquer the Romans and establish a new and improved version of the Great Kingdom of Israel! They wanted a significant piece of the action and they are quite bold in asking for it! Instead of simply requesting it, they seem to be demanding this favor from Jesus. 

 Jesus does, indeed, grant the first part of their request, that is, to be intimately united with him in his reign in the Kingdom of God. But poor James and John had no idea what they were really asking. The “cup” and the “baptism” mentioned by Christ are symbolic references to his Cross and Passion. Jesus was mysteriously informing them that he would enter into his reign as King by wearing a crown of thorns and being given the cross as his “throne”. And per their request, these two brothers did indeed share in this baptism and cup of suffering by offering up their lives to God for the sake of the Gospel. St. James the Greater became the first of the apostles to die for Christ when King Herod ordered his beheading in the year 46 AD. And his little brother, St. John, endured torture and exile for the sake of the Kingdom. He was the last surviving apostle, dying around the year 100 AD near the age of 100. 

 But you know, James and John fundamentally had the right idea, that is, they wanted glory with Jesus and were willing to stand with him to attain it. But they misunderstood what this meant and went about it in the wrong way at first! The two brothers seem to have forgotten that Jesus has already told them that the way to victory, the way to reign with him in the glory of the Kingdom. It was to follow his example and serve the needs of others. And so our Lord repeats this lesson in today’s Gospel and says: “Those who wish to be first must become last and make themselves the slaves of all...I have come not to be served but to serve, and to give my life as ransom for many.” 

 Like James and John, this is a lesson that we all need to remember and put into practice in our everyday lives. We need to avoid their worldly ambition and realize that we don’t have to be persons in authority or someone with impressive credentials to have prestige in the Kingdom of God. Our greatness is not in what we do but in how we do it. Every human occupation and endeavor, every social level of living and every upright form of working can be a pathway to making us great in the Kingdom of God! The way to transform our ordinary everyday living into something great and extraordinary is by doing everything through Jesus, with Jesus, and in Jesus. 

 When we carry out our everyday duties THROUGH Jesus it means that we intentionally offer everything we do as a gift of love to God the Father. Our prayers and our professional duties, our joys and our struggles, all of our daily events are offered to him through the pierced hands of Jesus his Son. In this way the gift of our lives becomes joined to the gift of Jesus’ life given out of love and becomes something beautiful for God. 

 When we do everything WITH Jesus it means that we are mindful of the truth that we are not walking through life alone. We have the Lord as our companion throughout the day and can speak with him heart-to-heart. He is walking with us, he is working with us, he is praying with us and he is resting with us. When we join ourselves to Jesus in this way everything we do takes on a deeper spiritual meaning and becomes mystically united with all that he did when he lived on planet Earth.

 Finally, we seek to do everything IN Jesus. This means that we consciously try to carry out our daily actions as if it were Jesus actually doing them. It means to strive to love as he loves and to interact with others in the same manner and with the same kind of attitude that Christ has shown us. This is what it means to develop an outlook of servanthood, an attitude of humility. 

 Every morning can make the conscious and intentional offering of our day THROUGH, WITH and IN Jesus, and unite this gift of ourselves with his self-offering, by using this simple prayer from the Liturgy which we have all heard so many times: “Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever. Amen.”

Free From the Inside Out!

 

Deacon Dave · Free From the Inside Out!

Homily for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Oct. 14, 2018. Readings: Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews 4:12-13; Gospel of St. Mark 10:17-27. Theme: Free From the Inside Out! 

 The rich man in today’s Gospel was not all that different from many of us today. He enjoyed what life had to offer but at the same time he recognized that there was more to life than what we experience here on planet Earth. He knew that how we live in this life has a direct correlation as to where we will continue our existence in the next. It seems that his dilemma was really a matter of priorities. He stood in need of the gift of wisdom (as we heard in our first reading) so that he could make the best choice between two forms of wealth & success. Would it be the material pleasures of the here and now or the eternal luxury of treasures in Heaven? 

 According to Jesus, we cannot have it both ways! Striving after both forms of riches cannot successfully coexist as a double-goal in our lives. Or as Christ put it in a related teaching of his Gospel, “No one can serve two masters. For you will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24) It’s not that wealth is evil in and of itself. But a fat bank account and a more-than-sufficient income can fool us into thinking that we are safe and secure, self-sufficient and masters of our own destiny. They can fool us into thinking that we are secure, and unstoppable. That is, until the stark reality of our human vulnerability and mortality slaps us in the face! 

 There aren’t enough riches or pleasures in the whole galaxy to keep disappointments or disasters, sickness or death away from us. And we all know that the old saying is true which tells us that “money cannot buy happiness” yet we so often just keep acting as if it can. We see the truth of this saying manifested in the rich man in today’s story. He had it all and lived a basically good life and yet… something was lacking, something was holding him back from real satisfaction with life and with himself. His money could not buy him the happiness he desired and in frustration he turned to Jesus for the solution. The Lord was able to look into his heart and told him precisely what was lacking, but he wasn’t open to hearing it. He wanted the best of both worlds which simply cannot be done. His wealth trapped him and he was possessed by all that he owned. And so the gospel tells us, “He went away sad, for he had many possessions.” 

 In passing on this story to us in his version of the Gospel, St. Mark wants us to honestly look inside ourselves and discern what is holding us back from more fully following Jesus? Maybe it isn’t money or possessions. Maybe it’s lust or arrogance; maybe it is envy or a hurt that we refuse to forgive. Maybe it’s a wrong relationship or a destructive behavior that we do not feel strong enough to break out of. But if we truly thirst for eternal life, then we need to honestly ask ourselves: “What is it that I lack that keeps me from giving myself completely to Christ? What is holding me back?” 

 The description of the Word of God in today’s second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews can help with this personal diagnosis and its cure. It reminds us that Scripture is like a two-edged sword that can perform spiritual surgery, so to speak, and help us to cut out whatever blocks our full following of Jesus. This is why Pope Francis constantly reminds us to read at least a small portion of the Gospels daily. God’s Word has power to penetrate into our hearts, into our consciences, and to root out whatever does not belong to Christ. Like any medicine, it works over time and must be taken in daily dosages, but if we persevere in undergoing this spiritual treatment we will indeed gradually come to be free. 

 Jesus had offered the rich young man a pathway to freedom, but he preferred the comfort of his chains. He could not let go of the gold in his hand in order to grasp the hand of his Lord. Let’s not be like that. Let’s drop the gold of whatever it is that holds us back and take Jesus’ hand and follow Him, and allow him to lead us through life - with all its ups and downs - and finally bring us to that awesomely free and utterly fulfilling life with God that never ends.

Covenant or Contract?

 

Deacon Dave · Covenant or Contract?

Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Gospel of St. Mark 10:2-16. Theme: Covenant or Contract? 

 This Sunday's liturgy focuses primarily upon the awesome mystery and meaning of marriage. Sacred Scripture begins with the creation and union of man and woman in Genesis and ends with "the wedding feast of the Lamb" in the Book of Revelation. So we see that the Holy Bible refers to marriage from its first to its last page. God gave marriage its natural origin and purpose and then Jesus elevated it to the supernatural status of a Sacrament, making matrimony a channel of his uplifting grace enabling spouses to preserve their union through good times and bad. 

 The Pharisees were known for trying to trap Jesus throughout his public ministry. In our Gospel reading their question about the lawfulness of divorce was intended to put Jesus between a rock and a hard place. They knew that divorce was not in God’s original plan for marriage, but they also knew that God’s great prophet Moses had allowed husbands and wives to divorce. So, where would Jesus stand in this seemingly contrary situation? Would he turn his back on the law of Moses which they held to be untouchable? 

 But our Lord doesn’t fall into their carefully set trap. He emphasizes that it was Moses and not God who allowed for divorce and refers them back to the Book of Genesis which asserts God’s original intention for marriage. He reiterates to them that when a man and woman get married they become “one flesh” by entering into a union which is both bonded TO God and bonded BY God. Thus Jesus says, “what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” This was a hard teaching for some who heard Jesus to accept and it remains a challenge for many today. It seems to me that a big part of the problem today is that people are using the same word (“marriage”) but they are using it to describe two related but different things! Let’s look at both viewpoints. 

 The Church sees God's design of marriage as a COVENANT. This means it’s intended to be a three-way bond between the Lord, the groom and the bride. The couple agrees to live out their relationship with God and in obedience to his Word. In return God pledges to be with them always and assist them. As the late sainted Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to say, "It takes three to get married!" This covenant made BY and WITH God can only be broken by God and can end only with the death of one of the spouses. 

 On the other hand, non-Christian sources see marriage as a CONTRACT and not a covenant. For them it is a man-made legal partnership by which persons enter into a legal agreement. And as a legal document it can define marriage anyway it wishes. It can also end the legal relationship upon the decision of the signers of the marriage license. A judge then declares the contract null and void and that the person is legally free to enter into another civil marriage contract. So you see the vast difference and divergence between the two definitions! 

The widespread confusion between covenant vs. contract is really what is at the heart of a misunderstanding of marriage. Being raised in a culture where the dominant media is more prominent than faith in their moral formation, children can grow up with a warped-image of matrimony. This media disinformation gives rise to the idea even among some Christians that the best and most normal “marriage preparation”,so to speak, is had by living together in disregard for God’s Word. It further muddies the matrimonial waters by claiming that all weddings are pretty much the same, whether it be a ceremony celebrated sacramentally in a church OR a civil service held at a vineyard (or some other desired venue). And finally, it delivers the fateful message that a marriage can end when hopes for how it should have been do not become a reality. 

 But there is a short and simple response to these errors promoted by the media and society in general. And it can be found in the sacred promise that is traditionally spoken at a Catholic wedding: “...to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part.” This is the real heart and soul of a holy matrimony that is lived out, day by day, by both husband and wife who mean what they say and who depend upon Christ to supply what they lack.