30^TH SUNDAY, YEAR B: HOMILY BY FR. JUSTIN ADIELE

THEME: “YOU NEED YOUR FATHER, YOUR PRIEST AND YOUR FAITH”

INTRODUCTION

Today we read about the blind faith of Bartimaeus which penetrated through his physical condition and limitations to attract the favour and healing from Jesus. This signals us that faith is not only the patrimony/fortune of the strong/whole, but also a potent weapon for the weak and those who are at their lowest level. We must pray that this faith may never elude us at any moment in our lives, and that this faith may continue to drive us above our physical conditions towards God our Father, our priest and the fulfiller/completion of our faith.

 

THE FIRST READING (JER. 31: 7 – 9)

Faith draws us to God our heavenly Father who is our only consolation and savior in our blind, lame, fallen or broken state. In this first reading, God assures Israel and us that when we are down, we are not yet finished; for we still have God who has pledged to continue to be our father; consoling, leading, straightening, watering and restoring our paths.

 

THE SECOND READING (HEB. 5: 1 – 6)

Faith draws and unites us with Christ our high priest who acts on our behalf in relation to God, to obtain sanctification, mercy and other beneficences from God. Without faith, we cannot always approach our appointed priests, who are anointed to cover the gap created by our ignorance, sin, waywardness and weaknesses. Without any prejudice to our personal efforts to reconcile with God, we must inevitably develop strong faith in our priests whose office it is to deal on our behalf before God. Aaron and Moses used their office as priests to save Israel a good number of times when they turned to them in the Old Testament.

 

THE GOSPEL READING (MK. 10: 46 – 52)

In the episode of the gospel, Jesus fulfilled his role as the Father of all; rich and poor, healthy and sick alike. Jesus fulfilled his role as the priest who can ask on our behalf before God for the favours/miracles we have not succeeded to get directly by ourselves. We must applaud the faith of the blind Bartimaeus as well; he did not allow his blind condition or the discouragement of the crowd to choke out his faith. His faith drew him to Jesus his consolation and fulfillment. His faith changed his story for good. No condition should make us lose our faith or forget our Father (God) and our priests who can speak for us before God!

 

CONCLUSION

Cardinal Faulhaber, an Archbishop of Munich, one day was visiting the home for blind soldiers. He walked through the home and cheered them up. He encouraged them and blessed them. As he came to one blind soldier, he heard him praying; “Lord, I beg you not to take away from me the light of my eyes, but if it is your will, at least leave me the light of my mind, but if it is your will that I be deprived of that, leave me at least the light of my faith.” The cardinal stopped to ask the blind soldier where he learnt this beautiful prayer. The man replied from childhood and had never forgotten it. Certainly the loss of one’s sight is a tragic affliction, but the loss of one’s faith is a greater affliction. In any condition you find yourself, always remember- you need your father, you need your priest, and you need your faith!

Happy Sunday!

Fr. Justin

 30^th Sunday, Year B: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima

Theme: God doesn’t disappoint those who call upon Him with faith.

Readings: Jer. 31:7-9; Heb. 5:1-6; Mk 10:46-52

Dear friends in Christ, we have a merciful and loving God who continues to come to our aid to deliver us from the consequences of our sins and from the challenges and deficiencies we inherited from a nature fractured by original sin.

Today’s first reading from the prophet Jeremiah was one of the prophecies in which God announced His plan of liberation and restoration to His people Israel, who were enslaved and suffering in Babylon on account of their infidelity to Him. Even though they offended God by turning to other gods and, thus, lost His protection and were taken into slavery, God did not abandon them. Rather, He heard their cry and announced to them through the prophet Jeremiah, as we read today, that He would liberate them and restore them to their land. He said: “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who is in travail, together; a great company, they shall return here.”

This passage simply tells us that God does not abandon us, even if the cause of our suffering is our disobedience to Him; He does not abandon us even if we are responsible for our problems. He is a merciful Father and always hears us when we cry to Him, especially with faith and a repentant heart.

The story of the healing of the blind man in today’s gospel reading shows that God comes to our aid to deliver us not only from the troubles we brought upon ourselves but also from the ones we inherited from our imperfect nature, as well as from all other difficulties and challenges our world often subjects us to. Difficulties like sickness, natural disasters, economic obstacles, etc. The story of the healing of blind Bartimaeus is also a vivid illustration that our God comes to the aid of those who call upon Him in their time of need, as He promised in Psalm 50:15. There are some good lessons we must learn from this healing story.

First, do you know that Bartimaeus would have missed the opportunity of being healed if he had remained silent? So, we must not allow the voice of prayer to be silent in our lives, especially when we are in need. Let us always raise our voices in prayer to Christ in our problems. Prayer is essential in our lives, and Jesus said we should pray without ceasing, for He who asks will receive, he who seeks will find, and he who knocks will have the door opened for him.

Second, we must never be discouraged whenever we approach Christ in prayer. When Bartimaeus began to pray to Christ for healing, shouting with every strength in him, the people around him rebuked him to keep quiet. Most of the time, when we decide to take our problems to Christ in prayer, to devote more time to prayer and other spiritual exercises in the church or at home, we may hear many voices from friends, colleagues, and even family members telling us that we are wasting our time. Some may claim that God does not perform miracles again. However, if we stand firm and overcome this kind of challenge by moving on with our decision to approach God, as Bartimaeus did, we will discover that even those who told us to stop praying to God will be among those who will rejoice with us when God has heard our voice, exactly as it happened in the case of Bartimaeus. The crowd told Bartimaeus to keep quiet, but he persisted. Then, when Jesus commanded him to come, the same people that told him to keep quiet started telling him to be courageous.

Third, anytime we turn towards God for help in our difficulties, we must do it with absolute faith, believing that we will not return empty-handed. One of the ways to show that we have absolute faith in God is to leave our past life behind us; we have to let go of everything that gave us security in our past life and then adhere strictly to the voice of God. When Bartimaeus stood up to walk towards Jesus, He threw away his cloak, which gave him security and identity in his life as a blind beggar, and then focused on his journey towards Jesus, believing that his encounter with Jesus would transform him and he would have no need for his cloak again. This is absolute faith. Holding strong to our past life while marching towards Jesus is a sign that we have doubts about receiving what we are asking for. Such doubts are obstacles to the reception of blessings from God.

Lastly, when God answers our prayers, we should not turn away from Him; rather, like Bartimaeus, we should follow Him and worship Him all the days of our lives.

Peace be with you.

Fr. Isaac Chima.

 30^TH SUNDAY, YEAR B: REFLECTION BY FR. JULIAN EKEH

THEME: THE CRY FOR SIGHT: DON'T STOP TILL YOU HAVE RECEIVED

(Mark 10:46-52)

The importance of sight: hindsight, insight, and foresight can never be overemphasized in our lives as individuals, a people, Church, Country, Organization, etc.

We are presented today with the story of the blind man, Bartimaeus. He was not only blind, he was equally poor, which turned him into a beggar. This is because his blind condition has rendered him incapacitated to do a lot of things for himself. He had begged for different forms of assistance. Today, he begs in a very special way for sight. He prioritized his request by going for what mattered most from the spiritual realm, namely spiritual sight. We may as well add political sight and others in our own cries for God's mercy.

 

SPIRITUAL SIGHT

Jesus came into the world as a light to enlighten all men. In the Sacrament of Baptism, He opens our eyes and makes us walk in light and no longer in the darkness.

As soon as Bartimaeus noticed the source of light around him, He cried out for mercy. Sin makes us walk in darkness. Corruption of all sorts keeps us in the dark. It is the will of God that we see light in his light and always be children of the light, living in the day and seeing the great deeds the Lord works and be gladdened in the spirit. God wants us not to stumble. That is why He comes for us to deliver us from dwelling in the darkness of sin and shame.

Let us, therefore, cease the opportunity of the presence of God around us and cry out aloud for mercy till we get His attention. We need to open our eyes to the things that are not normal in our lives. We must beg God to help us see our weaknesses and faults and, as such, pray for His grace.

We need to be uncomfortable with our inability to see the goodness of the Lord in our lives. We need to pray for the grace to be grateful to God. We need to see the good in others. We need to see where the Lord is leading us and where He wants us to be as well as what He wants from us at each point in time. We need to see reasons to pray, to live holy lives, to avoid evil companies, to see the spiritual realities, to see Jesus in the holy Eucharist, to see Jesus in that marital union, to see Jesus at work in the priests, to see the Holy Spirit at work in one's life and others, to see the hand of God blessing and forgiving us in the Sacrament of penance, to feel the Holy anointing of God when we are sick, to indeed see Jesus in the poor, the lonely and the unloved.

When we do not have eyes to see these spiritual realities, then we need to call on God to stop and attend to our matter in a very special way.

 

LET NOTHING STOP YOU

A lot of forces may want to stop you from rising to see the Lord. A lot of offers may be given to shut you up from reaching out for God's mercy. Friends, deceptive carers, etc, may give advice, suggestions, and ways out to hold you down, to stop you from seeing beyond the here and now.

Pay heed to the messengers of Jesus when they will say to you: "Take heart; rise, he is calling you." Throw off whatever the devil is using to blindfold you. Move to God and tell Him what you want.  As you pray for sight today, may you receive it.

 

POLITICAL SIGHT ETC

Our country is like Bartimaeus crying for sight; to see progress, to see development, to see employment, to see good roads, to see working systems, to see good governance, to see protection of life and property, to see religious tolerance and peace. The political, religious, and cultural leaders, blindfolded by greed and selfishness, have held us down in darkness, and we keep groping, begging, and cannot help ourselves any longer.

The above scenario has landed us into other forms of blindness such as cultural, academic, moral, marital, economic, social blindness etc. We need sight in all these areas.

Only God can help us in these situations. Let us call on Him. Let us challenge the blind leaders among us on the need for sight. Let us pray for spiritual insights. Let us learn from our hindsight and work with foresight to be where God wants us to be. May God bless His word in our hearts.

 

LET US PRAY

We thank You, Lord Jesus, today as we cry to You for mercy, that we may see. We want to see Your mercy, Your glory and Your goodness in our lives. Heal us of our spiritual blindness and deliver us from our political, religious, cultural, and moral blindness. May we receive in faith the light we need for good sight, the unction we need for proper functioning through Christ our Lord. Amen

Happy Sunday (30th Sunday, Ordinary Time, Yr B)

Rev Fr Julian O Ekeh