​In this Sunday’s Gospel the blind man, Bartimaeus, sitting on the edge of the road begging, recognizes and “sees” who Jesus is and cries out to him “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Because, through the eyes of faith, Bartimaeus has seen who Jesus is and he is able to ask to be healed …“Lord I want to see”!

Those words could very well be our cry for clarity in the way we “see” the world around us…those words may well be the exclamation of our deep desire to live more fully in Christ and to see as Jesus saw. We want to believe more, we want to see more…but we are hindered by our individual and collective blindness and it can hold us back from following Christ with complete and utter abandon. The Word we hear today is meant to stir us in our discipleship, to rouse our “Gospel sight” that we might see the world as God sees it…. that we might have our blindness removed and truly see the poor and marginalized as our sisters and brothers and reach out to them.

Let us pray that our church leaders may receive “Gospel sight”; that they might move definitively to end the coverup of the abuse scandal in our church and bring justice for all the victims. Let us pray for “Gospel eyes” that help us “to see” solutions to war and poverty, solutions for the hunger and suffering of immigrants, migrants and refugees sojourning around the globe searching for freedom and justice… searching for home. Let us pray “to see” solutions to end the racism and bigotry that divide our nation that we might live in peace and harmony, seeing each “other” as sister and brother.

Blessings,
Fr Tim

I am amazed at the audacity of James and John in this Sunday’s Gospel…asking…no telling Jesus that they want him to “do for us whatever we ask”! Who do they think they are? Better yet, who do they think Jesus is? The audacity to demand that Jesus do whatever they ask of him is unbelievable. And of course it ignites the ire of other disciples, most likely because the others thought that James and John might be getting something more than they would get.

Jesus calls them all together and explains, once again, that to be a leader in the Reign of God is to be a servant…it is to make oneself available to the other. He says that the one who wishes to be the greatest among you must be a servant for the rest and the one who wishes to be first must be slave to all. This image turns our vision of the world on its head, the most important among us is to act as the least and to serve the others. In Jesus’ world, as in ours’ today, servants were considered to be at the bottom of the ladder of society. They are the invisible ones, the expendable ones. Yet in the Reign of God, the servants are the truly special ones. By their service to others they follow Jesus Christ, and through their actions proclaim their citizenship in the Reign of God.

So let us reflect this week on our own place in the world and in the Reign of God. To whom am I called to serve? Who serves me and how do I treat them?

Blessings,
Fr. Tim

In today’s Gospel Jesus warns us about becoming too complacent and comfortable in our faith. He warns that “some who are last will be first and some who are first will be last”. Note that he does not say that all who are last will be first nor will all who are first be last. Jesus exclaims that the “gate to the Kingdom of heaven is narrow”… he compares the size of the gate of heaven to “the eye of the needle”. Jesus says that it will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter heaven. So what chance do I have of passing through this gate?

n reality “the eye of the needle” refers to a small door built into the huge gates to the entrance of the walled city of old Jerusalem. The truth is that a person could easily pass through the “eye of the needle”...but a camel could only pass through if all of the supplies it was carrying were first “off-loaded”. It would be difficult, but the camel, stooping low, with saddle and supplies removed, could in fact enter through the “eye of the needle” and into the walled city.

I believe the point being made is that we need to “off-load” our stuff…to be willing to set down “things” that keep us from being about the work of the Kingdom of God. And so I ask myself…what things do I need to “off-load” in my life in order to better put my discipleship into action?

Blessings,
Fr Tim