RIP Bishop D'Arcy

Sunday morning at about 11:30, our beloved Bishop Emeritus John M. D'Arcy died after a mercifully brief bought with cancer.

He will be greatly missed, he was certainly one of a kind!

I owe a great deal to Bishop D'Arcy.  He accepted me to the seminary in 2001 and ordained me a priest in 2009.  In the 8 years in between we had frequent meetings and opportunities for me to learn from him.  He was truly a father-figure to his seminarians and priests and I am who I am today because of his guidance.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

A prophet to all the nations

In today’s gospel we hear the last line from last week’s gospel repeated: today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.  Every time I hear that passage I’m filled with a sense of awe.  Imagine being there, hearing the words of the prophet read by Jesus, imagine looking upon the Son of God and being there when he reveals to the world that he has come on a mission from God to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, a time of prosperity.  We almost expect everyone in the synagogue to stand up all at once, to start cheering, and to follow Jesus as his disciples.  Instead, Jesus is greeted with a terribly lukewarm reception: who does this guy think he is?  We know where he comes from, come on he’s no prophet…

We see in this story the prophet’s dilemma.  Called from among human beings, the prophet is called to speak on behalf of God to those same human beings.  This is a difficult and challenging thing to do.  I for one find it somewhat comforting to hear that even Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Word of the Father, was greeted with a lackluster, lukewarm kind of reception.  But, Jesus is not deterred.  He perseveres in his mission to proclaim the good news.

I think this story refers to each of us in a way.  First of all, what kind of reception do we give Jesus?  Is our response lukewarm?  When we hear the good news proclaimed to us, do we accept it as it is, the good news of our salvation? 

But, I think this passage might also encourage us as we live out our own prophetic calling.  I’m sure most of us do not remember, but on the day of our baptism we were anointed with Holy Chrism with the words: just as Christ was anointed priest, prophet, and king, so may you live always as a member of his holy people, sharing everlasting life.  Everyone one of us is called to be a prophet.  If we do not tell the story of Jesus to others, no one will hear it.  Telling others about Jesus is a fundamental part of what it means to be Christian. 

But that gets me back to the reception that Jesus gets in the gospel story.  Even Jesus Christ himself received a lukewarm kind of reception, so we can expect the same thing.  Especially in today’s world, religion is something private and personal.  Not only might each of us be intimidated to share the faith with others, but most people do not want to hear about it.  It is perfectly fine for you to believe what you want, and it is fine for me to believe what I want, and neither one of us should talk to each other about what we believe.  But this individualism is not good for us, God saves us as a people, we are all the body of Christ and together, not individually, will we find salvation. 

So, how to be a prophet?  Look to the example of Jesus, he was undeterred, he was sure of himself and confident of his relationship with the Father.  Therefore, no matter what happened, he was able to continue in his mission.  We too should be confident in our relationship with God, and we should be sure of the teachings of our faith.  Being a prophet really begins with being a follower of Jesus, of welcoming him and his message into our lives, so that we can share it with others.

What a beautiful reading we have from St. Paul today.  Love is patient, love is kind.  In other words, Love is what Jesus shows us on the cross.  Jesus lays his life down for all of us, and he asks us to love others as he loved us.  Isn’t this a great message that our world needs to hear?  Namely, that the pathway to happiness not only in this life but in the life to come is found not in trying to grab and possess, but in giving of ourselves to others.  First, we must come to believe this message, then we live this message, then, undeterred, we will have the courage to share this message with others.

Fulfilled in your hearing

Today in our readings we hear something interesting.  In both our first reading and our gospel we hear about the scriptures being read.  In both cases we hear that amazing things happen when the Bible is read.

The Bible is truly a remarkable object.  It is unlike any book or any ancient piece of literature.  While we believe that it was written by human beings, we also claim that it has God for its author.  While it is many different books, compiled over thousands of years, and written by various authors, we call it one book.  While there are many inspirational books out there that might change your perspective on life, we believe that this book is inspired by the Holy Spirit, Vatican II says, “the divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”  Further, “we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach the truth which God wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures for the sake of our salvation.”  In other words, not only is the Bible important because it was written by God, but it contains nothing less than the truth, and this truth will lead us to salvation.  I think the first reading and the gospel show us how this takes place.

In the book of Nehemiah we hear about the law being read to the people.  This took place after the Babylonian Captivity.  Jerusalem was left in ruins, but through Nehemiah and Ezra, Jerusalem was rebuilt.  When the book of the law is read to the people, the rebuilding is complete.  Not only have the buildings been rebuilt, but the word of the Law, the Scriptures, reconstitutes them as a people.  Then in the gospel we hear about Jesus opening the scroll of Isaiah: today this passage has been fulfilled in your hearing.  The words of Isaiah are renewed and proclaimed to a new generation.  For all those in the synagogue that day, the words of the prophet came alive.  In both cases, the reading of this Bible brings about a new reality.

This is how we should read the Bible.  The Word of God is what forms us into God’s people.  Just like when the law was read in our first reading, when we read the Bible it gives our lives shape and direction.  To be Christian means to be like Christ, and we can never be like Christ unless we hear the word and let it enter our hearts and minds, making us more like Christ all the time.  Also, when we read about the message of salvation, it is not simply something that stays in the past, rather when we proclaim this Good News it brings the Gospel into our own day, it becomes fulfilled in our hearing.  So, when we read the Bible it comes alive in the present tense and it shapes us into the kind of people we want to become.

Let’s apply these principles to our second reading.  This passage is speaking to us.  There we hear Paul say that we are all one body.  Though each of us has a different vocation and role, we all belong to the same body.  Let this text come alive for you right now.  Look around, do you see the Body of Christ?  If we let this passage speak to us, we should see everyone around us as fellow members of Christ’s body.  I think changes the way we look at others.  Also, what responsibilities come with this?  Maybe I am not an apostle, or a teacher, but as a member of Christ’s body I am called to be Christ to others. 

The word of God is living and effective.  It is not just some old book; rather, since it is inspired by the Holy Spirit the Bible continues to form us into God’s people, and it continues to be fulfilled in our hearing.  This is why we read the Bible at every Mass.  But, also why reading the Bible as a part of our personal prayer and devotion is so important.  Through our engagement with the word of God, that word becomes alive in our lives and forms us into the people of God.

Epiphany

Today we celebrate the feast of our Lords epiphany, his manifestation. This feast day is important to us because it reminds us that Christ came for everyone. Jesus is the Messiah promised to the people of Israel, he is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, he was born of the house of David, but he comes with a universal mission.  He came to save all people.  Today We celebrate Jesus' manifestation to all the nations.

So these magi represent all of us; if you stop and think about it, they represent all the Gentiles and all the people of the earth. We should be inspired by their courage, they travelled great distances to approach the Savior, they faced difficulties with king Herod, but still they were not deterred, why?  Why would they go through all this hassle, this difficult journey?  It's because of this baby, because of who they believe him to be. He must obviously be quite special for them to undertake this trip, but their gifts tell us more about who they believed Jesus to be.

Gold has always been a valuable metal. Normal people do not have access to large quantities of gold. In the Bible, gathering gold was the job of the king, since gold was able to be used to sustain the kingdom. The magi's gift of gold shows that they believed that this was the newborn king. Frankincense is a fragrant sap, it was burned in the temple. This gift on incense might seem strange, what would a baby do with incense? I mean I like to play with incense here at church, but what would a baby do with it. But, the point of the incense is what it means, it means that the magi recognize Jesus as being God. The myrrh is perhaps the strangest gift. This spice was used to preserve bodies for burial. Why would anyone give a baby myrrh, it would be like giving a coffin as a baby shower gift, again it says something about this baby: his greatest achievement will be his death. In a way this gift is the pinnacle of the other 2: Jesus shows he is king and God when he defeats sin and death, when he puts these things under his rule.

The gifts of the Magi show us that they believe Jesus to be king, God, and Messiah. No wonder they came to do him homage.

But I was thinking this week, don't we do the same thing? Every week we make a pilgrimage here to St Matt's. Every week we bring him our gifts, not gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but our very lives, hearts, we give ourselves to Christ. And just like he did to those magi he manifests himself to us, an epiphany takes place at every mass, if we have the eyes to see it. Christ comes to us not as a little baby this time but in the sacrament of his body and blood.

No wonder we make this pilgrimage, because right here at this mass we see Jesus. And we believe and profess that he is the divine king who died to save us. This is why we worship here at the mass. The mass is not simply the gathering of a community, but it is a gathering precisely for us to bend our knees in worship of Christ our savior.

               But, alas, the mass cannot last forever, I know many people think it lasts long enough already.  But just like these magi we return to our daily lives after spending this time in the presence of God; but listen again to what the gospel says about the magi, it says they went home by another path.  This is a great way to describe how our experience of worship here at mass should have an impact on our lives. We all make a pilgrimage to get here, and afterwards we all return to our daily lives, but hopefully we don't go home the same as we arrived. 

Merry Christmas

Christmas 2012:

            First of all, let me say on behalf of Monsignor Mike and everyone at St. Matthews: Merry Christmas to all of you.  We celebrate this feast with great joy.  Christ is born for us.  God our Father sent his only begotten Son into the world to bring us healing and peace, forgiveness and reconciliation, he came as our Savior to bring us everlasting life.  Today we celebrate his birth, we see in this little child the hope of the whole human race.  Without him, without this little baby, we are lost, doomed to death as punishment for our transgressions, but with Christ, with this baby, there is hope, salvation.  No wonder we are filled with joy today. 

There is a lot to love about Christmas.  I love everything about Christmas: presents, parties, lots of food, family, fun, etc.  But at the heart of everything we do during this Christmas season is this little baby.  There are many clichés that capture this sentiment, but there is something to these phrases: keep Christ in Christmas, he is the reason for the season, etc.  Without Christ there would be no Christmas, without Christ we would not be here, without Christ there would be no Christianity, no Church, no Mass, no salvation, no parties, presents, or chocolate.  So during Christmas it is important to remember this little Child, it is good for us to contemplate who he is.

This week as I was contemplating Christmas and contemplating this little baby I thought about Star Wars.  Now, this might seem a bit strange.  You might think I had visions of baby Jesus with a light sabre doing battle with the forces of evil.  But, no, I was thinking about the opening titles.  At the beginning of every Star Wars movie is the same phrase: a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away: Star Wars.  This is George Lucas’ way of saying that this story is fiction, it is not pretending to be real life.  If anything, Star Wars is a myth about good overcoming evil.

Is this how we think about the birth of Jesus?  It is certainly true that it happened a long time ago, over 2000 years ago; and, it is certainly true that it was far, far away, in a little town called Bethlehem.  There are certainly mythical elements involved: we hear about angels talking to people, about Jesus being a divine figure. 

But, this story is no myth, this story is not fiction.  This story is real, Jesus was really born, he really had a mother, he lived in a real time and place.  And as Pope Benedict wrote recently, this flies in the face of the modern spirit.  In our day and age, God is relegated to the realm of ideas and principles.  It is completely acceptable for someone to be spiritual, or to believe in God, just so long as we don’t allow God to affect our real life.  God is certainly allowed to act in the spiritual realm, but not in the material realm, that is the realm of science and physics.  God is allowed to exist in the spiritual, ethereal plane, but not in the material, concrete world.  But, if God cannot act in the material world, then he is not God, for to be God means to be the maker and sustainer of everything. 

When we say that this little baby is the Son of God, who become man, we are saying something amazing.  We are saying that God not only made the universe and set it in motion, but that he entered the world he created.  We are saying that God not only created the human race, but that he became human in order to share his divine life with us.  When we say that this little baby is God we are saying that God is real, that he exists in the real world, that he is tangible and concrete.  The birth of Christ is not some mere myth or morality story.

So, my friends, we celebrate this feast of Christmas with great joy.  We celebrate the fact that Jesus is really God.  That while this story is set a long time ago in a city far, far away, this really happened.  Jesus is God, he was sent to be our savior.  And just as Jesus came into the real, concrete world 2000 years ago, he continues to come into the reality of our lives.  We live every day in the presence of God, he is not remote, he is not distant.  He loves us, cares for us and is present in our lives.  In a sense, every day could be filled with the joy of Christmas because every day can be a day where we experience God’s presence in our lives. 

We experience this presence in a very powerful way right here as we celebrate this holy Mass.  That little baby is truly God, and his is present in the Holy Eucharist.  Right here at this mass Christ comes to us, not as a little baby, but as his body and blood.  Today we celebrate his birth among us, and we welcome him into our lives as our savior and redeemer, but we do so by welcoming him into our lives in this Holy Eucharist.  Jesus Christ is real, he is not a myth, not a morality fable, not something from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.  Today and every day of our lives we believe in Jesus Christ, we love him, and we follow him.

Gaudete, even in tragedy

3rd Sunday of advent year c 2012

Rejoice in The Lord always.  These words from our second reading today form the theme of the day. In fact, this Sunday is known as Gaudete Sunday, coming from the entrance antiphon from today's Mass. This is why we don the pink vestments and proclaim rejoice. This color represents the joy that we are experience as we prepare to celebrate the great feast of Christmas, where we celebrate the central truth that the Son of God was born to be our savior. This is the source of our joy.

But, this day comes to us on the heels of a very sad day. How can we not be saddened when we hear about the senseless violence that claimed the lives of so many people in Connecticut this past week. One headline I read said it all: why would anyone hurt our babies?  Why indeed?

This latest tragedy may be freshest in our mind, but there have been tragedies all throughout history. Just in the last 100 years we have seen world wars, communist oppression, terrorist attacks large and small. It seems like every day the newspapers are just filled with bad news. In this context, doesn't joy seem a bit out of place. How are we to be joyful in the midst of such suffering?  It is certainly true that there are many obstacles keeping people from living the Christian life, but one we might hear quite regularly goes like this: how can I believe that God is loving and powerful if he lets things like this happen?

Rather than simply dismiss this complaint as misguided, I think it deserves a serious response. How do we answer the question of evil?  One that we hear quite often is that God has a plan for all this. But I feel that this answer rings somewhat hollow. This answer almost makes it seem as though God causes evil to happen so that good might come about. But that doesn't make sense to me. Why would God cause evil, just to bring out good? Wouldn't he just bypass the evil step and just jump right to doing good?

I think if we really explore this issue we can find an answer that is more helpful.  Make no mistake, evil is a mystery. It doesn't make sense. As much as we want it to make sense, it won't.  And, that is because evil is not supposed to exist. The best answer to the question of evil is that God didn't create evil. In fact, if we read the book of Genesis we see there that God created Adam and Eve to live and to be with him in the Garden. In that place there was no death, no evil, no sin, no one attacking innocent children. These things only enter the world after the fall of humanity, only after original sin. In other words, God is never the author of evil, never the author of tragedy. It is the case that God allows evil. I remember reading a quote from John Paul once that said although God allows suffering, he does not enjoy it. This is important to remember.

In many ways, the answer to the question why in the face of great tragedy escapes us because evil doesn’t make sense.  But, we could ask another question of God: what?  What did you do about it, how did you respond?  Since God is not the author of evil he was not responsible, God didn’t have to do anything in response to the falleness of humanity.  But, he did respond.  He did do something, He sent his son Jesus.  He sent us Christ as our savior to free us from sin and death.  It is precisely this knowledge, our Catholic faith, that fills us with joy.

Joy is not the same thing as bubbly enthusiasm.  We do not always experience the warm fuzzy feelings of enthusiasm.  Joy is something deeper.  Joy is the certain knowledge that Christ has conquered all.  Joy is the knowledge that evil doesn’t get to win.  Even though evil can bring us pain and sadness, it does not have the last word.  Someone remarked to me that this tragedy will ruin Christmas for so many people, and I certainly understand what he meant.  But, I think the message of Christmas is the best thing we can give to those in pain: I know you are suffering and I know you feel the pain and misery that evil can cause in this world, but fix your heart on Christ and believe in him, for he is close to the broken-hearted.  Jesus Christ is the source of our Joy precisely because he alone can destroy sin and death, the enemies of Joy.

1st Sunday of Advent

1^st Sunday of Advent, Year C: 2012

Today we begin the season of advent.  This is the liturgical season where we prepare for the celebration of the great feast of Christmas, the feast of the Word of God becoming flesh.  Since this is the first Sunday of Advent and we are preparing for the feast of Christmas, you might expect warm fuzzy readings about the birth of Christ.  Instead, we get some particularly terrifying readings about the end of time.  Why is that?

Advent is the season where we prepare to celebrate the feast of the first coming of Christ; but, the Church, in her wisdom, gives us Advent as a yearly reminder that, not only has Christ come once, but he will certainly come again.  Sometimes it is easy for us to get a bit complacent in our waiting for the coming of Christ.  I mean, it has been 2000 years after all.  Subconsciously, we might get the feeling that we don’t need to be mindful of Christ’s coming, but make no mistake: Jesus will come again.  We will all see him face to face, either at his second coming in glory or the moment of our death.  Advent is a good time for us to examine our readiness to see the Lord.

So in our readings today, Jesus tells us what this means.  He basically shows that there are two camps when it comes to the second coming.  Some people are totally caught unprepared.  These people, Jesus says, will die of fright.  Wow, what a powerful image.  Those who are not ready for the coming of Christ will die of fright.  Then there is the other camp: when you see these things stand up straight and get ready for your redemption is at hand.  In other words, if we are ready for Christ the second coming will not cause us to die of fright, quite the contrary.  Those who are ready for Christ will see in his coming the redemption we all long for.  Which camp do you want to be in: those who die of fright or those who are excited by his coming?  Obviously we all want to be in the second camp.

But, Jesus has a warning for all his believers: beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing or drunkenness, but also by the anxieties of daily life.  In other words, don’t let our sinfulness cause us to be unprepared for Christ’s coming.  But not only that, being carried away by the anxieties of life can cause us to be unprepared for his coming.  I don’t know about you, but Christmas time can be full of anxieties: we have so much going on at this time of year that it can be quite easy to let Christ drift to the background.

This is why Advent is so great.  It is a yearly reminder to all of us to keep Christ in the center of our lives, in the center of our hearts and minds.  It is popular this time of year to see bumper stickers and signs that say: keep Christ in Christmas.  And that is certainly true, but we will only keep Christ in Christmas if we invite him into our lives once again during this season of Advent. 

What a great way to begin this season of Advent by celebrating the Holy Eucharist together.  Here at this Holy Mass Christ comes to us, just as he did 2000 years ago.  This time, he does not come as a baby, but under the appearances of bread and wine.  But, it is the same Jesus.  If we welcome him here and now into our lives and into our hearts here at this Eucharist and during this season of Advent, then we will be ready to welcome him when he comes again in glory.

Christ the King

Today is the feast of Christ the King.  Today we profess that Jesus Christ is the king of the universe.  The feast of Christ the king was first proclaimed by Pius XI in 1925.  He decided to proclaim a feast acknowledging Christ as the legitimate ruler of the universe because of the problems of nationalism and secularism.  I’m sure Pius never dreamed that he would be so prophetic, for these have absolutely wreaked havoc in the last 100 years.  Think of the destruction of the Second World War, spurred on by nationalism.  Think of the countless millions killed and imprisoned in Soviet Russia or Communist China as a result of secularism.  I heard a statistic one time that said more people have died in the last 100 years from war or violence than any other time in human history.  This past week we celebrated Thanksgiving, and it is certainly true that we have much to be thankful for; but, there should be much that concerns us as well, because secularism is a major problem facing us today.  On this feast of Christ the King, I want to reflect on secularism and see how our faith can counter this terrible trend.

Where to begin?  Before I talk a bit about secularism, let’s begin with Christ.  Today in the gospel Jesus proclaims to Pilot that he has come into the world to testify to the Truth.  For some reason, the people who put together the lectionary left out the next line from Pontius Pilot, he says: what is truth?  This is the question that our world struggles with today.  What is truth, is there truth, if something is true for me is it also true for others?  What is truth?  Namely, Jesus is the Truth.  He is the Word of God, sent from the Father to bring life and light to the human race.  He shows in his very incarnation the truth that God is the maker of the universe, who loves us so much so as to die to reunite us with him.  Christ proclaims an objective reality where God is the maker, ruler, and sustainer of all things, and that his kingdom is precisely a kingdom of love and peace.  This is the truth!  No matter what anyone else might say or believe, this is absolutely true.  No wonder Jesus says that anyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice.  Only in Christ do we find the truth about life, the world, everything.

Now let’s look at the lie of secularism that stands in contradiction to the truth. Secularism is the doctrine that holds for a strict separation between faith and life.  Notice I didn’t say that secularism holds for a separation between Church and State.  In fact, a separation between Church and State is a good thing, we would never want elected officials who are worried about reelection running the Church.  Politicians worry about public opinion and polls; the Church is concerned only with the truth.  But, the truth is that as believers we are believers 24/7.  There can be no separation between faith and life, because our faith is our life.  The truth of existence is that Christ is king, we believe this truth so we listen to his voice.  This voice should shape our lives, everything we do should be affected by our faith, by our belief.  This means that everything we do should be done with the faith in mind: are you a doctor or lawyer, you should be a Catholic doctor or lawyer, do you work in a factory or field, be a Catholic witness in the workplace.  Proponents of secularism want you to check your faith at the door, but if Christ is king then our Catholic faith has to have an impact in our daily lives, especially in the public sphere.

Make no mistake, we live in difficult times.  Secularism is predominant in our country.  Many of us have already accepted the subtle allure of this harmful idea.  But as we celebrate the feast of Christ the King, I think we should all renew our efforts to first listen to Christ, to see him as the objective truth that will set us free, then we should not be afraid to share this truth with the world around us.  We draw our strength from Christ, present here in the Holy Eucharist, to proclaim to the whole world that indeed Christ is King.

The end of the World

End of the World

33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B:

            Today we hear some pretty sobering news: the world is going to end.  I'm quite tempted, at this point, to just end the homily and sit down.  The major thrust of Jesus words today is quite simple: this present world will pass away, are we ready?

            Every year at this time our readings focus on the end times.  As we approach the end of the Church's liturgical year we are reminded that time is not simply running without an end in sight.  Rather, the world as we know it will come to an end one day, at that time there will be new heavens and a new earth.  Jesus is giving us a warning in the gospel today: be like the fig tree, know the times and seasons, be ready for trial and tribulation.

            If you are like most people your blood pressure is probably starting to rise.  You might be getting a bit nervous.  Doesn't all this end of the world stuff worry you?  You are probably waiting for me to let you off the hook: don't worry the end is not really coming, etc.  But, you will not get that from me today.  For indeed the end is coming, we know neither the day nor the hour.

            Why do we get so worked up about the end of the world?  I remember once I was  visiting a class at Marian and the kids were all worked up about the end of the world because a movie said that it was coming to an end in 2012.  So they asked me if the world was going to end in 2012 and I simply said yes, next question.  Well, of course, it doesn't look like the world will end in the next 6 weeks.  But, the end of the world should not really cause us much panic for 2 reasons.

            First, there is absolutely nothing we can do about the end of the world.  The Father in heaven knows the day and the hour, none of us know it.  And even if we knew the day, we wouldn't be able to stop it.  This is not Jesus' point anyway.  He does not tell us to forestall the end; rather, he simply tells us to be ready for it.  So we shouldn't be worried about the end of the world, because it will happen when it happens regardless of our worrying about it.  Anxiety will get us nowhere.

            Secondly, we should not be worried about the end of the world because when the end comes Jesus comes with it.  Every week we profess our creed together, we say that we believe that Jesus Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead and that his kingdom will have no end.  Even though we say this every week, do we stop to think about it?  Just because Jesus has not returned in the last 2000 years does not mean that he couldn't return today.  Are we ready?  Holding the doctrine that Jesus could return at any time should not fill us with dread, it should fill us with excitement.  I mean don't we want to see Jesus?  Every week we pray for his coming.

            Every year at this time we are reminded that the end is coming.  But, this should not cause us concern or anxiety.  First, because that anxiety will change nothing; second, because this end means the beginning of eternity with God in Christ.  The key here is to maintain a balance: yes the end is coming, we should be ready, be on the lookout for the signs, but it should not fill us with dread; rather, it should fill us with hope as we long to see the reign of our savior, which begins even now as we turn our lives over to him and place all our trust in him.

We are all the blind man...

30^th Week of Ordinary Time, year B:

The stories of the gospel are really our stories.  Though the event and words took place many years ago in a land far away from here, these stories continue to speak to us today, the events in the gospel are just as relevant in our own lives as they were to those who lived them.

I think we are all Bartimaeus in one way or another.  In a sense, his story is the story of the human person on the way to God.  All of us can probably see ourselves at some stage in the Bartimaeus story.

The story begins with Bartimaeus sitting on the road, blind, and calling out looking for help.  Isn’t this a great image for humanity!  After the fall, because of Original Sin, aren’t we blind to goodness, aren’t we just sitting on the road, no longer moving toward goodness and fulfillment, but stuck in sin and death.  Yet, we never lost that innate desire for God.  As Augustine said so long ago, you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.  Everyone in the world is looking for God, we are all sitting on the path calling out for something more.  Can’t we feel it?  Don’t we want more than this?  This life is good and the world is full of blessings and goodness, but in our hearts we are looking for more.  This is not just us Christians, every human being has this ache in their hearts, many people try to fill it with money, pleasure, power, science, you name it.  We are all searching for something more, but after original sin we can no longer find it.

Enter the person of Jesus.  In today’s story, Jesus walks on the road past Bartimaeus.  I think this this a beautiful way to think about the incarnation.  Jesus comes to us, God walks among us.  We are blind, but searching for God.  So God comes to us, Jesus walks among us.  God comes in search of humanity.

But, God never takes away our freedom.  There is a part of this story that I always find hard to take.  You almost get the impression that Jesus wasn’t going to stop.  Jesus walks past the blind man, and only stops when he cries out.  What does this mean?  Yes, God comes in search of humanity, but he is only found by those who seek him.  When Bartimaeus cries out for Jesus, Jesus stops, approaches him and invites him: what do you want me to do for you?  I will often talk to people who tell me that they feel like they are kind of losing their faith.  “I just don’t feel God anymore…”  Now it is certainly the case that our spiritual life has its ups and downs, and we cannot rely too heavily on our feelings; but, I sometimes ask: have you been looking for God?  If it seems like Christ is distant, it might be that he is respecting our freedom, he did not come to obliterate our freedom; rather, he comes in search of those who are seeking him.

When Bartimaeus seeks Jesus, he finds him, Jesus heals his blindness.  By encountering Jesus, Bartimaeus finds what he has been looking for, so he gets up and follows him.  Isn’t that why we are here today?  We were looking for Jesus, we found him, and now we follow him.  The last stage in this journey to be with him forever in the resurrection. 

So it seems to me that in the gospel story we can see several different stages in life, and we are all probably at some different point along the way.  Also, I think it is important to remember that most of the people we meet will probably be in a different stage than we are.  But, make no mistake, we are all looking for God, and we find him in Jesus, we find him right here in this Holy Eucharist.  And down to this very day, this very hour Jesus continues to approach us and ask us the same question: What do you want me to do for you?

A long way to go...

29^th Sunday OT Year B:

In today’s gospel, the apostles do no look too good.  James and John look petty and importunate: give us whatever we ask…  The others become indignant and grumpy, almost as if they wanted to ask Jesus the same thing and are mad that the brothers beat them to it.  I am always inspired by the stories of in the Bible where the disciples look bad, because that means there is still hope for me yet!  These apostles are the greatest saints in the history of the Church, but they were not always great Christians, the struggled and had much to overcome.  So if we struggle, if we have much to overcome, these stories should fill us with hope.  If we see ourselves in the apostles when they are petty and grumbling, maybe, by God’s grace, we too can become great saints.  For this reason we continue to read their stories so that we can learn from their example.

What do we learn from today’s story?  If I asked James and John: who is Jesus?  They would reply that they believed he was the Christ, and that is a great start!  But if we listen again to their question, we find out that they don’t really know what it means that Jesus is the Christ.  When they ask for places of honor in Christ’s kingdom, it might be easy for us to assume that they are talking about heaven.  But, I don’t think so.  Rather, I think they saw Jesus as a worldly leader who was about to start an uprising.  They were hoping to gain positions of power when the anointed one restored the earthly kingdom to the people of Israel.  So we could say that they have faith in Jesus, but that their faith still needed to grow.  They thought that Jesus came to rule the earth, this is why Jesus tells them: I can to serve not to be served.  They still needed to comprehend the mystery of Christ.  Christ indeed came to establish the kingdom, but it is a kingdom of peace and service, not a dictatorship. 

Also, look at their first question: we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.  What does this say about their view of Jesus?  Does this sound like a way to approach your loving savior?  Would any of us address a real friend this way?  Much more, would we say something so bold to a complete stranger?  It seems to me that when they confront Jesus in this manner they are not respecting him as a person, they do not love him as a friend.  Rather, in today’s gospel the disciples treat Jesus like a means to an end.  Jesus is like a vending machine: ok, we have followed you, now we want you to give us whatever we ask.

At this point it is good for us to ask ourselves if we ever fall into these two traps.  Do we have the wrong idea about Jesus?  Do we live to serve others the way that Christ came to serve us?  What is our relationship with God like?  Do we love and respect God our Savior, or do we treat him like a machine that should give us the things we want right when we ask for them?

How do we make the transformation?  The disciples changed only when they met the Risen Jesus.  They saw Jesus die on the cross, the met Jesus after he rose from the dead.  They had a relationship with the person of Christ.  No longer was Jesus just their idea of the Messiah, no longer did they treat him like a means to an end.  After they met the Risen Christ, they had a relationship with Christ and they lived to be like Christ for others.

The same is true for us, and while we might not see Jesus face to face the way that the apostles did.  We meet Jesus in his Holy Scriptures, we meet him in our life of prayer, and we meet him, especially, right here in the Eucharist. 

Today we learn that the apostles had a long way to go in their life of faith, and we might have a long way to go as well.  But just as they got their by the grace of God, so may we if we draw close to Christ.