Year B Solemnity – Holy Trinity June 3, 2012

Questions: a Thirst for an Answer:

At what age do children ask the most questions?  At age 4 children are asking about 400-600 questions a day.  The Solemnity of the Holy Spirit is a feast day dedicated to getting Christians of every age to revive that spirit of a questioning child who seemingly can not quench its thrist for answer!

We are all a Child in the Spiritual Sense:

Let me be clear, no one here of any age is excluded, no matter how many birthday candles it takes to light up our spiritual quest for answer!  Our The scripture readings today encourage us to take on the attitude of a 2-4 year old and ask.

Moses tells us.  Ask now of the days of old before your time.  Ask from one end of the sky to the other.  From our first wakening moment until the moment we drift off into sleep!  I bet the more candles we have acquired the more spiritual questions we have.

What are the burning questions in our hearts?  I would love to be able to ask my grand parents, my mother and father questions about the great depression, the rationing that took place during WWII, and a multitude of questions about their faith journey.

Children ask for the answers to the unchanging treasures of truth buried in the hearts of the faithful built upon the ancient stories of scripture which can pour out the only water of truth that can quench our thirst.  By our nature we are created to question and seek the truth.  It is buried in our DNA.  It is our soul created in the image of God himself who calls us to discover the truth.

Only One God no other:

Why is all this questioning necessary one may ask?  This is way says Moses.  You must know and fix in your heart that, that Lord is God in the heavens above and the earth below an that there is no other!  There is only one true God!

Prosperity:

But wait, wait I am not through.  You must keep His statues and commandments that you and your children after you may prosper and that you may have a long life on the land which the Lord, your God is giving you.  Prosperity and long life in our land!

Isn’t that the central burning question in our nation today?  How do we restore prosperity to our citizens.  Could it be this nation has turned away from the way, the life and the Truth and is looking for answers in a conjured up American Idol with glorious images but no power to save?

In our world today we are experiencing multiple systematic attacks on this simple truth from almost every sector of our society.  Those who seek to silence the voice of God that speaks the truth with fire.  There is no more powerful voice than the Church and the forces of evil must silence it.  Do not be deceived by pretty images and language being plundered of it’s it’s meaning by those who would deceive.

They have conjured up images, a new art language form has been created that violates and subverts the use of language in an unending offensive to distract and fool the people of faith to take the road that leads away from the source of salvation.

I am here to testify to our young people, I not only lived before there was TV but I survived.  I lived in the days when people used outhouses even in the cold winter.  It didn’t take long to take care of your business – there were very few hurry ups to use the bathroom.  I lived in the day when parents and grand parents sat down with their families to eat dinner.  I lived in the day when parents, grand parents, aunts and uncles told family stories of the days of old..  I lived in the day when family picnics where the tradition on Sunday afternoons and all the stores were closed.

Inquire / Ask / Read / Listen / Pray to the Spirit of Truth

Anyone seen one of those TV commercials where they use the terminology – “I have an Inquiring Mind”.  These commercials are designed to create an image that will both attract our attention, desire, trigger our imagination playing upon our unsuspecting natural curiosity of the human instinct to venture into a new world while bypassing spiritual safeguards.

Desire inquire /  read — I have an inquiring mind – heard that before – the tabloids.  Ask about history before your time – ask from one end of the sky to the other.  Learn by inquiring from the voices of the past and listening to the stories of salvation history from those who preceded us in life.  .

Romans – Those led by the spirit of God are the children of God.  You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but  a spirit of adoption through whom we cry “Abba, Father”  We are His children and as such heirs with Christ if only we suffer with Him that we may be glorified with Him.

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time – September 18, 2011

In the Gospel of Matthew, when did the landowner go out to hire workers? The landowner went out at dawn.  What time did he need to get out of bed?  What time of day does dawn occur?  Dawn is the time when sun light first begins to break over the horizon.  Deer hunters know dawn occurs thirty minutes before the sun actually peeks over the horizon from the east.

Dawn is also a term we use to describe the moment there is sufficient intellectual understanding / light so one can see.  Could it be Jesus is teaching His disciples and followers with this parable to give them the spiritual light they need to understand the point of this gospel!  How about you and I?

One of the realities is our human, social, political and even religious experience is they often serve as automatic emotional stumbling blocks, rather than receptors for spiritual insight and truth.

Individual rights, the idea of basic human fairness, the usual daily wage, fair pay, workers and union’s rights, equality of race, gender, and age can all capture and sometimes hijack our ability to listen with an open heart and mind.  How do we sort through the tsunami of images and sound bits of crises of human social and economic images being streamed at us at “4G” force 24/7 in our world of 2011?

How we counter act, the worlds cry to unsettle and over power us with artificial crises and hidden agendas.  Sometimes, we just need to sit down, open our mind, spirit and soul and pray for the graces we need to achieve spiritual insight!

Today’s Gospel provides such insight.  Jesus addresses an audience beyond the community of his disciples – an audience opposed to Jesus himself.  A community upset, because of his open and public reception of the “scoundrels, tax collectors and sinners” from all walks of life.

Jesus teaches using parables.  He does so because parables rob the listener of the ability to create an opposing argument while Jesus is still teaching.  The listener is not only forced to listen but must digest the message before sufficient understanding can occur for one to begin to express an opinion for or against.  The human process of digesting parables provides the spirit of truth a window of opportunity to penetrate ones soul.

This is a moment of truth for you and I!

Jesus cannot be locked up and kept in a limited human created and conceived convenient box by religious or civil authority.  As for me – Silly me, in the past I discovered I had locked Jesus up in my own conceived box without the benefit of the wisdom to know our God is a Big God and escaped before I could close the lid.

Jesus telling us this story to open us up?  When the work day is done, the land owner turns the tables on us and pays the last hired first and finally the first are the last paid.  What did the land owner pay them?  Each received the usual daily wage.  Each received a denarius or enough!  The land owner provided what the world considered the exact amount to satisfy the worth, dignity, shelter, sustenance of each laborer.

But what is this story really about?  Isaiah says my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts, says the Lord.  This wage they received must have communicated much a higher meaning.

What is the just and usual wage Jesus is teaching about.  Each receives enough – enough to meet their needs – enough to fill them full – light sustaining enough.

Each and everyday we enter a spiritual market place with the opportunity to work in the vineyard.  But most of the time we are like the laborers in the story – we are idle for some reason and perhaps even unaware of the vineyard that surrounds us.

Like the laborers, we are waiting upon the lord to supply us with what we need to survive each day.  But what is the ingredient we need?  Grace?  The good news is God’s grace is always available.  The good news is God’s grace is always enough.  The good news is it doesn’t matter if we decide early or late his grace is enough to save us.  The good news is God’s grace is enough for those who had been righteous all their lives and enough for the scoundrels and wicked who messed up their lives completely.

The great news in this story is, each of us live in this market place and can step into the vineyard without moving our feet.  All that is required is an open heart!  The vineyard is connected to the location we inhabit no matter where we go!  This is the message of hope all us long for!  No matter how lowly we think we are, how wicked we may have been or untrustworthy or even been a scoundrel there is hope for us.  If we have fallen, crashed and burned there is hope for us!

People of God, we call this hope God Grace!  It is everywhere and it is free!

To obtain Salvation the objective is to be last — Listen to the reading from Isaiah.

Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked his thoughts; let him turn to the LORD for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving.

Note did we hear the scoundrel and the wicked were called to seek the Lord.  Are they the ones we would think of first?  Now is the time while the Lord is near.  Turn to the Lord for mercy!  God does not act according to human standards, ways or thinking!

God does not work on a rights or deserts scale, but simply on loving scale because that is what is at the heart of God’s being.  We are each called to open your hearts, enter the vineyard with confidence, where God will provide enough to each, so we can be a light unto a world in desperate need of an encounter with love.

Have we locked God in a Box?  And if we have, will be let Him escape?

It is not merely the time that we put in. It is the heart that we put into the time we have.

In God’s kingdom people are treated according to their spiritual needs, not according to their deserts.  People are treated with love regardless of their status or time they show up.

God does not work on a rights or deserts scale, but simply on loving scale because that is what is at the heart of God’s being.  We are each called to open your hearts, enter the vineyard with confidence, where God will provide enough to each, so we can be a light unto a world in desperate need of an encounter with love.

Sixth Sunday of Easter May 29, 2011

The Holy Spirit seeks to draws us into the unfolding story of salvation history.  It is a Spirit of unity and evangelization as the feast of Pentecost draws near.  We hear the voices of the early Christians, a Deacon, the Apostles, Peter himself and as always Jesus Christ who is always in unity with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Each voice calls us to venture out and evangelize the world.

Artificial Barriers and Stumbling Blocks for the Spirit of Truth:

Are we ready?  We are confronted by a world unable and unwilling to recognize let alone encounter the spirit of truth.  As such the world creates artificial boundaries and stumbling blocks for us.  So whose job is it?  It’s the pope’s job!  It’s the Bishop or priest’s job!  No it’s the deacon’s job!  Well it’s not my job?  Escape artists are we!

3 in 1

We know the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.  The Commandments come from one, the Word Incarnate comes from another, while the spirit of the advocate comes from another.  Today’s scriptures teach, while each may appear to move independently the Trinity always moves and works in harmony and unity of purpose.

World View Contaminates:

It is our worldly view that contaminates and prevents us from seeing the fullness of the truth.

Acts Chapter 8: 1.  On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

What a mess – what a mess!  And This where we start! 

Before we can take a breath, Steven, one of the seven is out preaching the good news in the street for which he is stoned to death.  There standing in the crowd is Paul watching on.  Remember Paul is still hard at work hunting down and persecuting Christians.

That is the back drop of today’s liturgy of the word describing the formation of the early church.

Because of this persecution, the early converts fled into Samaria.  Today’s reading describes what may be the first-time advance of the gospel across the cultural threshold into Samaria.

In this story we hear of Philip!  Who was Philip?  Philip like Steven was one of the original seven deacons.  And true to the deacons call, Philip is in a foreign world of Samaria in the middle of a spiritual encounter on behalf of the pioneering evangelization spirit of the church.

Samaritans = Syngenistic (Merging even opposed beliefs):

The Samaritans were noted for practicing sorcery and magic.  They were a society steeped in occult magic and syncretistic religious practice.  Syncretistic means they were willing to merge differing and even opposed beliefs systems which in truth were in conflict.  Confusion about the truth was subverted not so unlike it is today,

Philip was reaching out, preaching, teaching and healing a people who had an awareness of faith and scripture but lacked a personal encounter with the spirit of truth.

The Laying of Hands / Unity of Spirit:

When the apostles heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John who prayed for them that they may receive the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit had not fallen on them yet, until the apostles laid hands on them and they received.  Why was the Holy Spirit delayed?

The Holy Spirit is the advocate that unites and preserves the unity of the church while the world seeks to create human animosity between Jew and Samaritan.  The unfolding story of God’s plan reveals the apostles came to unify peoples, converts on both sides of the cultural barrier.   The fullness of Holy Spirit seeks to open and reveal Christ through the process of people finding each other. Samaritans and Jewish Christians were assured that the Samaritans were truly regenerate and the spiritual equals of regenerate Jews.

Unity:

The symbol of the unity of the Church through the Holy Spirit is revealed through the laying on of hands.  So how does this effect me?  Listen to 1 Peter again!  Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks for a reason for hope!  Do it with gentleness and reverence keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct may themselves be put to shame.

Yep each one is called to Go into the world and proclaim the Good News.

December 26, 2010

Can anyone tell me the Holy Families last name?  Some say it is the Christ, others insist it is the Nazorean.  Before Christmas several years ago I was out shopping for a manger.  I observed a little girl about five years old carefully checking out the baby Jesus in the crib of a manger.  I was taken back when I herd her refer to the baby Jesus as Jesus Christmas.

So I asked her why did you call baby Jesus, Jesus Christmas.  Because, she replied, Jesus last name is Christmas.  Well I had to ask!  “How do you know Christmas is Jesus last name?”  It has to be, she said, because his mothers name is Merry Christmas”.  We wish you a Merry Christmas.

Family – Communion of Persons:

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family.  The Catechism teaches the Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The family is about the procreation and education of children reflects the Father’s work of creation.  The family is the original cell of social life and represents the smallest church.  It is the family that serves as the first teacher of the fundamentals of honor, relationships, freedom, security, fraternity and do not forget the birth pangs of your mother.

And are you listening young people and teenagers?  As long as a child lives at home, the child should obey the parents in what they ask.

And parents least you forget your mission is to teach your children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God.

Listen to the beauty in the first reading from Sirach.  God sets a father in honor over his children.  Whoever honors their father atones for sins.  In time of tribulation it will be recalled to your advantage, like warmth upon frost it will melt away your sins.

A mother’s authority he confirms over her sons and daughters.  When one prays, one is heard; one stores up riches who reveres their mother.

Getting ones sins forgiven can be simple.  Honor your father and mother while they live.

I miss my father and mother.  I wish today I could sit down with them to listen and learn from their experiences of the great depression and World War II to help me and my family negotiate the troubling waters of 2011.

The last year before I was ordained, I was assigned the second reading for the Feast of the Holy family.  Paul to the Colossians, women know the line well.  Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord.

I practiced and practiced this reading.  You see I wanted to communicate the message of the author Paul, rather than communicate what the words might evoke from the women of our community in the 1990’s.  I failed.  When I returned to my seat, my wife glared at me and said that was the worst proclamation she had ever heard and don’t ever read like that again.

We must be reminded form time to time.  The scripture writers are interested only in communicating a spiritual message that revel the truth or an insight about our God.  We, as American’s pride ourselves on our independence and individuality and can create stumbling blocks for ourselves.  It is the pride of independence and individuality that can lead us into deep trouble and cause us to lose sight of the higher calling to the unity of the family, church and community that are under severe attack by those who want to divide us by driving Christ out of Christmas.  Let’s net let the world confuse us!

Listen carefully to Matthew!  Matthew was pouring out his soul in the words of today’s gospel.  Through the story of the Holy Families flight into the Egypt, Matthew was calling, imploring and shouting to his family, his Jewish brothers and sisters; see and hear the fulfillment of the old testament scripture in the Torah, the prophets Isaiah, Hosea and Judges all pointing to the promised Messiah Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ comes from the mouth of our very own prophets and scripture.

A number of years ago during the Christmas season, the first grade teacher at our parish asked the children to draw a picture of the Holy Families flight into Egypt.  One young lady drew a picture of an airplane with three people inside, all wearing halos and a fourth person in front without a halo.

“I understand that the three people in the plane with halos are the Holy Family,” said the teacher, “but who is the fourth person in front?”  The little girl replied, “Oh, that’s  Pontius, the pilot.”

The word parable means to use one situation to examine a second.

Oh Lord it’s hard to humble, when your perfect in every way
I can’t wait to look in the mirror; cause I get better looking each day.
To know me is to love me, I must be a heck of a man.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way.

Can we see the irony in the lyric’s of Mac Davis’s hit song being played out in the Gospel today?  What is the lesson Jesus Christ is trying to teach?  Is it about humility?  Is it about honor?  Or is it about salvation?

Luke tells us, everyone there was watching everyone else, including Jesus closely.  Why were they were watching so closely?  They were trying to figure out the pecking order.  They were trying to figure, the highest place of honor they could claim, without running the risk of being embarrassed by being asked to move.

In the midst of this tension, while everyone was on alert, Jesus took advantage of this teachable moment.  Jesus came to save everyone!  Jesus knew the way one acquired honor was critical to passage through the narrow gate.

So how does our definition of honor measure up against Jesus standard?

Well what was that standard?  Did anyone catch it?

Jesus used the word “Rather” twice in the Gospel?  Rather is a transition word that contrasts for us what he noticed people doing versus what he calls us to do following the same principle found in the reading from Sirach.  My child conduct your affairs with humility and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.

Go to the lowest place! That’s easy enough is that it?  Nope there is one more rather!  Invite the poor, the cripple, the lame, the blind, all who are unable to repay into our lives.

Let me share a some food for thought. When I was in basic training at Kessler AFB, Mississippi in 1964, I lived in a barracks full of men.  No real walls, just bunk beds and men.  There I encountered a roommate, who I soon realized was inviting every soldier in our barracks to join his group each time we were allowed to go to Biloxi.

He had an open charming manner and made everyone he invited feel like an old welcomed friend who was essential to the group.  What he did was infectious, and many joined in going around from bunk to bunk to make sure no one got left out without an invitation.   I am ashamed at admit I do not recall his name.  But I would bet, he would be seated at the place of honor where ever he might go.

In 1989, the Franciscan Order accepted an invitation from the Archbishop to take over the St. Philip Benizi Parish along with the St. Gabriel mission.  At the time, St. Philip Benizi Parish had just finished building a new church, during which the community had become divided and consequently was in a serious financial situation.  One of the first actions the Franciscans took was to hold town home meetings with parishioners.

What do you want from your church:

They left their place of power and went into the homes of the lowest churches.  Almost the first question out their mouth at those meetings was to ask the people, what do you want from your church?  It was the first time in my catholic life to be asked what I needed from my church, as if I might know something.  It still served as a most refreshing moment and a renewal of Baptism in faith.  They turned things upside down.  They lowered themselves into the shoes of the people.  Almost over night, those Franciscan priests set that parish and mission on fire.  The financial troubles began to evaporate.

Today at a banquet, whom might a host invite to sit at the highest place and table of honor?  Would it be Mother Theresa who lived and worked in the streets of the slums or the local bishop who lives in a mansion?

Honor comes to the one who lowers themselve:

Honor comes to the one who lower themselves to serving those who can not repay.  Humility comes to those, who take the risk to get out of their comfort zone and step into the world of the hungry, the poor, the lame, the crippled and the blind.  It is while walking in their shoes we learn humility for every talent we have is pure gift from God.

Oh Lord helps us grow humble and poor in every way
We can’t stand to look in the mirror; cause we see our enemy there.
You know us, yet you love us; You must be an awesome God
Oh Lord helps us grow humble and poor in every way

June 27, 2010  (Note to Reader – This one brought me criticism)

Spiritual Courage:

Are you ready for your brain to begin to hurt?  It’s wake up time people – are we awake?  Is your brain awake?  How about your spirit?  This week our scripture readings give us food to cause our brains to hurt!  The real reason our brains will hurt is because as we digest today’s scriptures we will be called to get off our duff and do something that requires spiritual courage.

Highest Priority = God’s Blessing

The reward for waking up will be great.  Knowing God is a blessing and life’s highest priority.  But that blessing is not automatic; it must be consciously entered into by opening oneself to a risk and embracing discipleship.

Are we ready to stretch our brains with a spirit of courage?  Some may already be brain dead.  Some have been drinking the American cultural cool aid for so long, we have become the walking dead on the way to the local cemetery.

So what is it that will make your brain hurt?  God gives each of us Freedom so we will choose slavery?  The purpose of freedom is to become a slave.  Isn’t that is un-American!  Could be that even makes your teeth grind?

Who are we?  Who do we say we are?

Let me make your brain hurt some more.  We the people of the Catholic Church are behind the power curve and need to pay attention to the Tea Party movement taking place in our midst.  (ps this got me in trouble)  The Tea Party movement originated out of people waking up and asking the most fundamental questions about our nations founding principles and belief’s.  Who are we as a people/nation?  What was our founding vision and who have we become?

The Tea Party is a kind of an awakening of the conscience of people and is generating great debate.  It is a people looking back to discern who we have become.  In that regard the Tea Party movement is very healthy!  Yet the problem with the Tea Party movement is it avoids confrontation with the real causes of our nation’s illness and failures – it avoids the battle between the spirit and the flesh.  ( years later — how come this didn’t save me)

It avoids any discussion about the message of today’s scripture.  It avoids a dialogue about what are freedom and slavery and the purpose of each.  It avoids a discussion in regard to the flesh having desires against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh – the reality they are opposed to each other.

Jesus and Paul told us so long ago the purpose of freedom is to choose slavery.  Have you wrapped your arms around this concept yet?

The Heart of Every Crises –> Selfishness

What the Tea Party and the rest of our society avoid today is that selfishness is at the heart of every crises.  Paul warned the Galatians do not use freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.  There Selfishness leads to a crises of the spirit and a loss of freedom.  Selfishness leads one into isolation, division, biting, devouring and bondage from which one cannot escape alone.

As Catholics and Christian we must begin to acknowledge we tend to go to sleep and accept world views that Jesus Christ himself came to confront.

Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law.  The fulfillment of the Law is to love one another.  Jesus said let the dead bury the dead!  In other words he is speaking of the spiritually dead — wake up – spiritually wake up and look around

Do we as Catholic know what freedom is?  Do we catholic know what acceptable slavery is.  Who are we Catholic’s as a people of this nation? Are we among the silent majority who simply laid down and became the walking dead when prayer was removed from our schools and the war against the unborn began in the sanctuary of the mother.

Love One Another as I loved you:

Love one another as I have loved you – turn away from selfishness and sin.  Love is fulfillment of the law.  Love is to freely choose to become a slave that serves others.  One must be spiritually alive to make such a choice.  One must have their eyes on the real prize.

Lastly the sons of thunder wanted to nuke the people who rejected Jesus and His message.  “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”

Jesus did not come to judge – he came to save – Let the dead bury the dead – but you and I – that includes everyone here – is gifted to contribute to the ministry of discipleship  – go proclaim the kingdom of God.

January 24, 2010

Occasionally I find myself in a situation where I must honor the sacrament of marriage I received, before the sacrament of ordination.  January 22 is Lynn’s and I‘s wedding anniversary – 44 years of shear bliss.  We have both finally learned to connect the dots when we speak to each other.  She says we need to feed the dog – it means if you love me feed the dog.  I have been directed by a higher authority than Fr. Neil to tell a joke.  There was this deacon I know who was in big trouble.  He had forgotten his wedding anniversary again.

His wife told him “Tomorrow there better be something in the driveway for me, that goes zero to 200 in 2 seconds flat.”  Well, the next morning the deacon’s wife found a small package in the driveway.  She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Funeral arrangements for the deacon have been set for next Saturday.

In preparation for this homily I ran across a fact I had forgotten.  We have 5 grand children.  Our second grand daughter is more like my wife’s sister than our grand child.  Her name is Taylor Kay.  They look alike and act alike.  Tay Tay is a treasure.  She will be ten years old in March.  About five months before Taylor Kay was born a routine test indicated she had Down Syndrome or Spinal Bifida.  Taylor’s mom chose life!

Abortions 3000-4000 per day!

3000 – 4000 abortions occur in our nation each day.  Each day more babies are aborted than the people who died on 9/11.  Abortion is a man made earth quake that destroys the spirit of life and numbs the spirit of the mother, the family and the nation.  In one year 10 times more babies are aborted in America, than Haitians who died in a natural disaster.  Most abortions are simply humans playing God.   Jesus taught the truth will set us free!

What the heck is Freedom?

Christ came to set us free so we might have life more abundantly.  Yet many question and do not recognize the treasure we are.  Abortion speaks to the soul of the young — life is no longer sacred.  I want us to reflect on the first reading from Nehemiah.  We proclaim scripture from the ambo (pulpit) but do we hear the spirit of the message and do we allow it to penetrate hearts?

Can we open our spiritual hears and hear again for the very first time.  Children are you listening?  Can we connect the dots?

Ezra read:

Ezra the priest brought the law before the people, men, women and children.  He read out of the book from daybreak to midday.  All the people listened.

Now ask yourself, how many here could listen attentively from daybreak to midday?  What kind of circumstances would it take to create the kind of motivation necessary to enable people to do achieve this kind of attention span?  They must have developed a thirst, a hunger, a longing and yearning so deep and so powerful that hearing the word of God was the only thing that could satisfy and quench the thirst and hunger of the soul of one who had been starved of spiritual nutrition for a very long time.

Are we going to have to be Up Rooted?

The people Israel had been uprooted and dragged into captivity during the Babylonian exile.  Families were torn asunder.  Children from parents, spouses and grand parents as well were separated.  Destroy the building block of the family and you destroy the people.  What could save them?

On this day, a new day, Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God interpreting it so they could understand.  The people were weeping as they heard the words because they were connecting the dots.  The weeping came from the recollection of the sin and the worship of a false god that lead them into exile.  Simultaneously they weep for joy for they knew the only turning to the one true God could save them and set them free to reclaim the treasured of faith that would restore the family Israel.

Where Oh where is that Holy Place?

Such an event is Holy – the people Israel returned to the one true Lord and they regained their strength.  The day we return to the Lord, is a Holy day, a day of rejoicing, a day to eat rich foods and drink fine wines.

During the Babylonian exile the people of Nehemiah’s time learned the lesson Paul taught to the Corinthians.  All were given to drink from the same spirit.  No one is left out, slave or free of the love of God.  Every person has a purpose and a meaning.  Those who seem weaker are all the more necessary.  If one part suffers the whole body suffers.

Does our God Love us?

The question we are called to answer today is simple.  Do we believe the good Lord loves us exactly as we are today in our strength and in our weakness?  Are we willing to take the risk to let our God love us as we are?  And are we willing to open our spiritual ears to hear the truth when it is spoken so we can connect the dots and begin to following God’s call instead of our own?

Free Will –> Liberty or Captivity?

Jesus came to give liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind.   In America today, will we place ourselves in captivity and exile by worshiping a secular progressive god or be open to the words of abundant life.

Put a Lid on it:

What is it that you want from Jesus today?  What is the ache deep in your heart that needs healing this day?  Does anyone remember the description of a treasure box I used in the last couple of homilies I have given?  You know the treasure box of faith we keep Jesus in!  Today the church wants us to think about the lid we keep on that box and a crystal ball hidden in the box to help us find faith.

Spiritual Eyes – a Gift – to see beyond the current moment:

The symbol of the crystal ball is the Catechism.  One who looks into it with spiritual eyes will begin to see with the vision of faith.  Catechism Theme — The Characteristics of Faith (CCC 153-158) Bartimaeus could see with his spirit that Jesus could cure his eyes. The ability to see beyond the present is wisdom. Wisdom is a gift of seeing beyond the possible with faith, a grace from God.  The Spirit of God empowers us with spiritual intuition and insight.  But we cannot arrive at faith all by ourselves.

Will we choose to accept a Gift?

God never forces faith upon us.  Faith is a truly human action, for it requires free will – human choice.  God offers us his gift.  We are free to choose it or reject it.  When we choose faith, we choose cooperation. We become partners with the divine in our salvation and the salvation of the world.

The Sound of the Spirit:

How did Bartimaeus know Jesus was there?  He was sitting on the ground begging.  The sounds of Jesus with a sizeable crowd walking and talking must have surrounded him.  Bartimaeus was able to detect Jesus of Nazareth was passing by from this keen sense of hearing!  He knew about Jesus and began to shout out loudly, Jesus don’t pass me by, here I am!

The people accompanying Jesus rebuked him – be silent you beggar!  But Bartimaeus shouted all the louder.  Jesus son of David, have pity on me.

Jesus heard him and said.  “Tell him to come.”  Note Jesus did not approach or address Bartimaeus directly, but through an intermediary.  Are you looking into your crystal ball?

Do we hear, will we get up, will we go?

Bartimaeus must freely choose to get out of his box and go to Jesus.  Doesn’t it seem rather demeaning to force this blind beggar crying out to get up off the ground and come to him?

Take off that stinky Pride:

When Jesus called him, Bartimaeus threw aside his cloak, a garment that was concealing him.  This cloak is a symbol of human pride he had to take off.  Like the lid we put on our treasure box.  We too must approach Jesus spiritually naked.   Take off whatever mask we are wearing!

Jesus asks: “What do you want me to do for you?” “I want to see again.”   Jesus does not touch Bartimaeus – he simply tells him to go on his way for his faith has made him well.

Seeing “who Jesus is” is the goal of faith, and it leads to discipleship.  This is both a healing and a call story because Bartimaeus makes a decision to follows Jesus.  How many times I have heard adults tell me, I want to believe again like I did when I was a child.  This is a clear statement they are in need of being able to see again just like Bartimaeus.

Are your spiritual eyes on yet?  What corners of the church, of society need serious reformation in this 21st century?  Where are our blind spots?  Will a reformer arise from among us?  Should one arise, what will we do to him or her?   Will we silence them?  What are we allowing to go unchallenged today that will one day cause our children and grandchildren to shake their heads at how blind we were to the gospel of life?

A Cloak that covers us –> Stinky Pride:

What is the cloak we are hiding behind?  How does our cloak prevent us from growing and expanding?  All of us are people who children look to for leadership.  Has our cloak absorbed our sweat that causes us to stink — it’s called stinky pride – stubbornness – limited thinking, unable to take the lid off the box, taming the gospel.  What is it that prevents us from seeing and doing what is right in our time?

Contrast what disciples asked for and what Bartimaeus asked for!  The disciples asked for the cloak of power and authority – which caused a stink within Jesus followers.  Bartimaeus conversely threw off his cloak and asked for a more simple gift of sight!  The ability to see beyond oneself, for true leadership skill, the ability to see and define a vision of the future, an ability to create and follow a road map created by Jesus.  We are told Bartimaeus, once he could see followed Jesus to Jerusalem – he picked up his cross and followed Jesus.  One can not lead others when they stuck in their power and authority.

Take off the Lid, Throw off the Cloak, Stand Naked:

One must throw off their cloak – bare their heart and soul to Jesus, stand naked before God and ask for sight even when one has perfectly healthy eyes so they can see beyond themselves and lead others to salvation.