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25 Oct 2015 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

They spent some time in Jericho. As Jesus was leaving town, trailed by his disciples and a parade of people, a blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, was sitting alongside the road. When he heard that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus! Mercy, have mercy on me!” Many tried to hush him up, but he yelled all the louder, “Son of David! Mercy, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped in his tracks. “Call him over.” They called him. “It’s your lucky day! Get up! He’s calling you to come!” Throwing off his coat, he was on his feet at once and came to Jesus. Jesus said, “What can I do for you?” The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “On your way,” said Jesus. “Your faith has saved and healed you.” In that very instant he recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road (from Mark 10). Taken from The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition by Eugene Peterson (ACTA Publications, 2014); actapublications.com; 800-397-2282.

Healing blind bartimaeus

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Homily stories

25 Oct 2015 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Seventeen-year-old Valerie Herrera, a senior at Cristo Rey high school in Chicago, received the rare opportunity to ask Pope Francis a question via satellite on national television several weeks prior to the pope’s first visit to the United States. Herrera, who suffers from vitiligo, a skin disorder that causes white patches to appear around her mouth and eyes, told the pope that she had been bullied for years but found faith and strength by singing in the church choir. “Music was a way for me to show people who I really am. I wasn’t just the girl who looks different from everyone else, but the girl that has many talents.” She then asked the pope what he wanted from youth: “What do you expect us to be and do?” The pope’s initial reply: “I would like for you to sing a song to me.” When the young woman hesitated, he said, “Be courageous!” Herrera then sang “By you, Mary,” a song about the Blessed Virgin her mother had taught her. Francis thanked the young girl and then told her, “What I hope from youth is for you all not to walk alone in life.” Throughout the gospels, Jesus reminds his followers that their role as disciples is to live with love and help the blind see. A 17-year-old in Chicago and the Holy Father in Rome showed the world what such discipleship looks like today.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

discipleship blind

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Homily themes

25 Oct 2015 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. Who is the model disciple? If it’s the Gospel of Mark, chances are it’s not “the disciples.” They’re too busy deciding who can and cannot talk with Jesus. They may be walking with him out of Jericho, but they’re not necessarily following. No, that role goes to Bartimaeus, who though “blind” is the only one who sees the Messiah in Jesus. He has faith: He’s persistent; he won’t be shushed. In the whole Gospel of Mark only he calls Christ Master. And he’s willing to get up and follow not his “own way” but the way of Jesus—even though that road goes to Jerusalem.

blind bartimaeus disciples

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Exploring the word

28 Oct 2012 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What’s the price of mental and spiritual blindness? It doesn’t help to argue that we’re not blind. Each of us makes decisions to close our eyes to a lot we prefer not to see or feel or think about. This kind of selective attention makes it easier and simpler to navigate through our days. It also puts us at risk as we participate in certain grand lies about the nature of our world and ourselves. It used to be that if you didn’t consciously break any commandments or commit immoral acts, you could reasonably call yourself a moral person. Then came church teaching that harbors an awareness of social sin: Because the very system that holds and sustains is corrupt, it’s fairly impossible for any of us who benefit from it not to be accountable for its many exploitative injustices. Just today, violence around the world has been visited on strangers in my name and with my financial backing. Decisions have been made not to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, heal the sick, welcome the stranger—by people who represent us and are on oour payroll. Rulings have been made to exploit the soil, threaten the water table, pollute the air, and tamper with the food supply. And it’s all on our dime, and it is we who stand to reap the (temporary) rewards of this environmental ravaging. If we say it’s not so, not our fault, then we’re not only blind but choose to bump around and pretend we’re not. That makes us pathetic because the literally, physically blind know quite well they can’t see—which means they see very well, when it comes to the truth. What are the consequences of being blind to the truth? That nothing changes, until it gets worse. Sinful systems remain in place and are unchallenged. We, too, become false, self-righteous, self-deluded. In biblical terms that is known as “hardness of heart. ”How can we be healed of our blindness? We do as Bartimaeus did. We have to run after Jesus, call his name, acknowledge our blindness, and ask to see. Be forewarned: Clear sight does not always feel like a gift. Opening our eyes to the truth about our world and ourselves makes negotiating our place in this society a whole lot messier. It means embracing small pragmatic practices, like the “reuse, reduce, recycle” mantra. It means making careful choices with investments and purchases. It means being politically informed and involved. It also means engaging in big restorative justice efforts: redistributing resources, fighting local bigotries, inclusifying communities, doing the right thing even when it costs us. Today is Priesthood Sunday. We pray for our religious leaders and also that more people with vision will feel their hearts roused to serve our church in this necessary ministry. Related Scripture links The preserved names: Matt. 10:2-4; Mark 10:46-52; 15:21; Luke 1:26-38; 6:12-16; 8:1-3; 10:38-42; 19:1-10; 23:50-52; 24:10; John 3:1-15; 11:1-44; 19:39-42 Faith and salvation: Mark 5:23, 28, 34, 36; 6:6; 8:29; 9:14-24; 10:52; 11:22-24; 16:15-18 Catechism links Faith: CCC 185-202; 222-227; 548; 1814-1816; 2616; 2666-2668

Authors Alice Camille

blindness bartimaeus Priesthood Sunday

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Sign & sacrament

28 Oct 2012 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Two tourists are sitting in a small, ancient church in Wales at twilight when a girl of about 12 enters holding the hand of a boy who must be her younger brother. As the two make their way forward, the girl gently guides the boy’s hand along the rough stone wall. They stop at a statue of Mary to trace her face and feel the cold marble folds of her gown. At that altar the girl places her brother’s hands around the candlesticks; he feels the tabernacle, and the crucifix. Then they leave. As the door closes behind them, one tourist remarks to the other, “Isn’t it a pity that boy couldn’t see how beautiful this church is?” Her companion replies, “Are you kidding? He saw more than either of us.”

guidance blind

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Homily stories

28 Oct 2012 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

The great journalist A. J. Liebling was a boxing fan and once wrote about a boxer who fought under the name of Pete Herman. Liebling had seen one of Herman’s last bouts, when the fighter was nearly blind but not admitting it. Herman fought, Liebling wrote, “by a system of feint and touch.” As long as he was in some kind of physical contact with his opponent, he would get his bearings and could be devastating. When he wasn’t, though, he was basically at the mercy of his adversary. Because of his vision loss, which soon became total and forced him into retirement, Herman developed extraordinary abilities. He couldn’t always see a punch coming, but as long as he was in touch with his opposite number he could anticipate the other fighter’s moves, lead, dodge, and counterpunch, reading the other man’s body “as a touch typist knows where the letters are on a keyboard.” Bartimaeus could have been Pete Herman’s patron saint. Though physically blind, Bartimaeus had the ability to see—namely that Jesus was the Son of David, the Messiah—and his insistence on contact with Christ gave him not only his sight but also the discernment to follow Jesus’ way.

Authors Joel Schorn

blindness Faith bartimaeus

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Homily themes

28 Oct 2012 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. Who is the model disciple? If it’s the Gospel of Mark, chances are it’s not “the disciples.” They’re too busy deciding who can and cannot talk with Jesus. They may be walking with him out of Jericho, but they’re not necessarily following. No, that role goes to Bartimaeus, who though “blind” is the only one who sees the Messiah in Jesus. He has faith: He’s persistent; he won’t be shushed. In the whole Gospel of Mark only he calls ChristMaster. And he’s willing to get up and follow not his “own way” but the way of Jesus—even though that road goes to Jerusalem.

Authors Joel Schorn

bartimaeus blind disciples follow

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Keys to young pianists’ success

14 Jun 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday's psalm there is rejoicing for all the good the Lord has done. Winning the gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition brings rejoicing because of all the good it can do for a young pianist's career. This year, for only the second time in its history, the top award went to two pianists, and for the first time one of them is blind. Also for the first time all three of this year's top winners are from Asia. Gold medals went to Nobuyuki Tsujii, 20, of Japan, who is blind, and Haochen Zhang of China, who turned 19 during the 13th-annual competition. Yeol Eum Son, 23, of Korea won the silver medal. No crystal award, or third prize, was given. "He did not win because he's blind," Veda Kaplinsky, a juror and head of the Juilliard School piano department, said of Tsujii. "He won based on his playing. We were instructed very clearly to judge him exactly the way we judged everybody else. He himself requested he be judged like everybody else." Juror Richard Dyer said Tsujii had an unusual impact on him. "Very seldom do I close my notebook and just give myself over to it, and he made that necessary," Dyer said. "I didn't want to be interrupted in what I was hearing." Though Zhang is young--he barely met the age requirement when he applied for this year's Cliburn--Dyer said he is talented beyond his years. "That is astonishing, that a person of 19 is telling me things I didn't know about pieces I knew my whole life," Dyer said. "He's amazing." Son has studied music in Germany since 2006 and has performed with major orchestras in Israel, Japan, Poland, and her native South Korea. The top winners each receive a $20,000 cash award, a compact disc recording on the harmonia mundi, USA label, and--most important--professional career management for the next three years. The prize includes concert dates around the nation for Son and, for Tsujii and Zhang, a slate of international dates as well. Source: An article by Allyson Ward for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

yeol eum son haochen zhang nobuyuki tsujii pianists asia blindness harmonia mundi

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Homily stories

06 Mar 2016 - Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle C

In the fifth grade Sister Annette moved me to the front seat of the middle row and I still couldn’t read the chalkboard. My eyes were checked by an ophthalmologist who prescribed glasses to correct my nearsightedness. In those days there weren’t eyewear stores in every mall. I had to be taken downtown to be fitted. Even now I remember being stunned by the clarity and beauty of the world around me as we left the aptly named “House of Vision.” Today we are in the middle of our Lenten journey traveling alongside those in the R.C.I.A. who are preparing to join fully with us in the Catholic Church at Easter. Let us pause to rejoice at the beauty around us. We had been blinded by our sinfulness, but our Lenten prayers and sacrifices have restored our vision, like the man who received his sight from Jesus. Like him, we are compelled to share what we now see with others, even and especially with non-believers. Jesus sees the goodness in us and helps us to see it. We are forgiven. Let us rejoice. Our task now becomes helping others do the same.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

rcia Lent blind vision

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Homily stories

03 Apr 2011 - Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

In the story of Jesus' curing of a man blind from birth, the blind end up being the ones who really see "while those who do see . . . become blind." The great 20th-century German organist Helmut Walcha had remarkable vision--inwardly. A childhood smallpox vaccination damaged his eyesight, and he became completely blind by the age of 16. Despite his limitations he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany, made his debut in that city at 17, and became the assistant organist at Johann Sebastian Bach's former church, the Thomaskirche. He learned pieces by having other musicians--including his mother when he was a child and later his wife--play a piece for him four times (each hand and the pedal part separately, then the complete composition). His perfect pitch allowed him to memorize while listening. Both an organist and harpsichordist, he had vast swathes of Baroque keyboard music memorized, including the complete organ works of Bach, which he recorded twice. His many performances were noted for their depth and virtuosity. The man blind from birth saw Jesus for who he truly was and is: the light of the world, God made visible. Inner vision can see just as much--or more--than outer.

Authors Joel Schorn

helmut walcha johann sebastian bach blind light of the world musician

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