Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year B . - Sunday, October 24, 2021 (EPISODE:328)

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year B .  - Sunday, October 24, 2021

(EPISODE:328)

Readings for Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year B .
FIRST READING: Jer 31: 7-9
Ps 126: 1-2a, 2b-3, 4-5, 6. "The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy."
SECOND READING: Heb 5: 1-6
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (cf. 2 Tim 1: 10). Alleluia, alleluia! Our Saviour Jesus Christ has done away with death. And brought us life through his gospel.
GOSPEL: Mark 10: 46-52

Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed. ID: 742622632 -LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ - October 25, 2017: Stained glass window depicting Jesus Christ curing a blind man. By Nancy Bauer
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Please listen to the audio-recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year B .  - Sunday, October 24, 2021 by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-30th-sunday-ordinary-b-episode-328?si=15922104f83b4ab1ac6d42720c5ccdf7  
(EPISODE:328)

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* (Prologue:  Fr Paul Kelly)
Here is a blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus. He simply will NOT be silenced. He calls out for help even when well-meaning (but wrong-footed) people tell him to be silent. He persistently cries to Jesus for help, because he KNOWS that Jesus is the Messiah. He also KNOWS that Jesus can help him.

I can't help wondering if Bartimaeus is not the inspiration for Jesus' parable of the persistent neighbour. He keeps knocking and keeps calling out until he gets what he needs. As Jesus said in that parable, other people would have given the persistent neighbour what they needed just because they wanted him to stop irritating them and to give them peace. So, how much more can we expect God to turn a real listening ear, a sympathetic ear to people who cry out in their need! Naturally, God is very much concerned with our welfare and with what we need. God doesn't answer us merely to shut us up but out of the deepest care and compassion.

The Gospel passage also says that Bartimaeus does something very powerful: He 'throws off his cloak' (the cloak of a beggar was like a "badge" of a beggar), and goes to Jesus. He is already showing that he KNOWS he is not going back to his old life and doesn't want to.

Jesus asks him "what do you want me to do for you?"

Jesus asks all of us, "What do you want from me? Think about what you are really asking of me. What do you really want? What do you really NEED?"

Naturally, Bartimaeus is asking for his sight back. But Jesus is asking him a deeper question: "Do you realize the consequences of what you are asking? Do you understand what this request is going to lead you to receive?" For Bartimaeus, it will mean a completely new life. When he receives his sight, he will no longer be a beggar, and he will have to face a new life, a new vocation, and a new everything. This is both exciting and scary. 

A true encounter with Jesus is always a joy and a challenge. Our encounter with Jesus, is a two-way dialogue; We speak to God of our needs and hopes and fears and God replies with a (silent) question: "what is it that you are really asking?"…. and "Are you prepared for the whole change of circumstances that goes with the encounter?"

Apparently, Bartimaeus is one of the few people Jesus cured who we are explicitly told in the text that he also went on to become one of his disciples. So, it is clear that as well as regaining his physical sight, Bartimaeus (equally importantly) has shown enormous clarity of spiritual insight, into who Jesus is and what following him means.

When Bartimaeus regained his sight and Jesus tells him "go your way" and beautifully, Bartimaeus ' "way" is now to FOLLOW Jesus, because it says he follows him along "the way." He became a follower, a disciple. As he walks along following Jesus he will continue to gain NEW (spiritual) sight and knowledge. In another sense, we all gain new sight as we cast off the "cloak" of old ways and old excuses and faithfully walk along the new ways of Jesus.

We are like Bartimaeus, asking Jesus to show us and teach us deeper ways to combine mercy and justice, faithfulness to his teaching and loving compassion for those who have stumbled and are searching for answers.

As we walk along the road of God's mercy, let us explore and celebrate the richness of God's mercy and love. Like Bartimaeus let us continue to see with the eyes of faith and love, and follow the Lord along the exciting ways of the newness of sight.

We need to be very careful about spiritual blindness. It can be a very subtle thing. We must all be on our guard against spiritual blindness and we would do best to suspect that we have aspects of Spiritual blindness in our lives and search for it and put any aspects of it before our Lord for the purpose of healing.

You and I may very well have a glaring blindness to some aspects of Jesus' explicit teachings and message.

How is it that we can hear the gospel and not always realise that this very gospel is 'convicting' us of precisely the qualities it lists. How is it that when we listen to gospels we do not realize that this message is directed at us and that we might also be the Pharisees and the critics or the hypocrites. Christ asks us to be open to this possibility. To ask ourselves constantly, do I do that? How do I do this? And not too quick to say, "ah that is not me, that is other people!"   Are we sure?????

Christ invites us to be transformed…. If we ask the Lord to free us from spiritual blindness, the Lord will do it, and show us the contradictions. if we know what it is we are asking for…. And what it means for us….it is worth sitting in some discomfort as the Lord searches and reveals the flaws.

TO what extent are we capable of being blind to the challenging message and vision of Jesus? In what ways do we "listen and listen and yet 'not hear'"? In what ways do we look and look and not see……??

 
Lord, show us the light…. Help us to see… and to trust in your challenging, but healing word.

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(Homily:  Fr Peter Dillon).
Homily 30th Sunday Ordinary Time Year B 2021
 

 A riveting television documentary I watched some time ago, told of an English woman who had been blind for 40 years and through medical intervention had her sight restored. While she was thrilled with the outcome she commented that there were many things she had to negotiate that she hadn't expected. She said that when she was walking in the street people seemed to be moving so fast, and she kept missing her food when she tried to put the food on her fork. She was very surprised to find that her husband was very different than she had imagined and much better looking. Good for her.

Like Bartimaeus "Suddenly she saw" and it took some time to get used to what they had previously only imagined.

I've met people who have "seen" or rather" understood" God for the first time, and that too takes some getting used to. It requires a 'recalibration' of what was expected and how we communicate with God. Our prayer life and faith practice might change to suit the new circumstances. How God is included in the daily events might feel unusual at first, followed by a greater sense of contentment knowing that this fresh vision makes life and living a lot clearer.

Similarly, there are those who have lost sight of God, for many different reasons. They might have come to see that their work is meaningless, their children ignore them, their relationships seem lifeless or their health is fading. If God is not completely invisible, then He is certainly seen at a distance and the effort to get closer seems to be a great burden that is all too difficult when energies are low.
We might wonder what brought Bartimaeus to be desperate enough to approach Jesus. What did he know of the man Jesus and what did he believe was possible?

Jesus, the man of few words, is leaving Jericho to go to Jerusalem where he knows he will be arrested and executed. A large crowd is following him and there is a commotion. A Blind beggar, Bartimaeus shouts out: 'Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me'. First person in the New Testament, to address Jesus with the Messianic title.  The crowd is clearly insensitive to his words & needs and they start to scold the beggar. What follows is a shouting match and interestingly Jesus decides to cut through this barrier of correct behaviour to the real need. Jesus: 'Call him over', 'what do you want me to do for you? 'Be on your way, your faith has healed you'.
Jesus' purpose is not to play up to the crowd, but to be sensitive to the beggar's need. Bartimaeus is healed... physical/spiritual. He could see spiritually before he saw physically. He saw the 'Son of David', the Messiah.

A desperate choice was made Bartimaeus needing to be healed by Christ and was not afraid to ask. He had the wisdom and courage to try to change his situation. He did not just accept his restricted circumstances.


The Spirit of God is particularly real to people in great distress, who have nothing and no one else but their faith to lean on: They are the first to recognise Christ.
 The rest of the crowd were faceless, uncommitted, silencing the blind man at one moment, urging him on the next, doing whatever was most convenient, safest. Blinded because they are unthinking rule keepers, mindless chanters of the most approved political and social clichés of their time.

Jesus was going about his business, suddenly a need for an intervention of a person in need. The same can happen to us. We don't plan for people to enter into our lives with requests for help encroaching our daily schedule, but like Jesus we ask: "what do you want me to do for you?", with the implication of care, presence, attention. Christ's life and mission lead us to active care: 'May we do with loving hearts what you ask and come to share the life you promise'.

Mark seems to be suggesting that Bartimaeus was cured precisely because, although blind in the physical sense, he was better able to see than those with two good eyes. His humility entitled him to a cure. This passage comes after the sons of Zebedee, James & John, demanding seats at the right and left hand of Jesus in his Kingdom. And Mark has Jesus ask of his disciples the very same question he asked of Bartimaeus, 'What do you want?' James and John wanted power and so failed to see. Bartimaeus wanted Jesus, and so he did see.
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References:

Homily – fr peter Dillon

Prologue - Fr Paul W. Kelly

Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed. ID: 742622632 -LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ - October 25, 2017: Stained glass window depicting Jesus Christ curing a blind man. By Nancy Bauer


Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year B .   (Sunday, October 24, 2021)  (EPISODE:328)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (or/ The Lord be with You)
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{{Love and joy be with everyone}} welcome everyone, we gather -  Ponder with reverence, God's word and sacrament. 

Coming together as brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pause and reflect upon our sins, in order to celebrate the Holy Eucharist.

Lord Jesus, you raise us to new life: Lord, have mercy// //Lord Jesus, you forgive us our sins: Christ, have mercy//Lord Jesus, you feed us with your body and blood: Lord, have mercy//

May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.  Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
3. Save us, Saviour of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.
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Ps 126: 1-2a, 2b-3, 4-5, 6. "The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy."

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (cf. 2 Tim 1: 10). Alleluia, alleluia! Our Saviour Jesus Christ has done away with death. And brought us life through his gospel.
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PREFACE: Sundays VII
EP II
(theme variation: 4 )

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{May God's grace strengthen your faith hope and love, and may the Lord' love surprise you, even in the trials and challenges of this week. }

Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.

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Archive of homilies and reflections:  http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email:  paulwkelly68@gmail.com

To listen to our weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here:  https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

You are welcome to subscribe to Fr Paul's homily mail-out by sending an email to this address: paulkellyreflections+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection"  - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers and chants  — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989,  and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009,  The Grail - Collins publishers.

Prayers of the Faithful -   " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'.   E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).

Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" -  By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.

- "Faith, Hope and Love" theme hymn - in memory of William John (Bill) Kelly (1942-2017) -  Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Music by Paul W. Kelly. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

"Quiet Time."  Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.

- "Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly.  Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer.  Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

Sound Engineering and editing -  P.W. Kelly.
Microphones: - RODE NT-USB-mini

Editing equipment:    NCH software - MixPad Multitrack Studio Recording Software

NCH – WavePad Audio Editing Software. Masters Edition v 12.44

Sound Processing:  iZotope RX 6 Audio Editor

[Production -  KER -  2021]

May God bless and keep you.
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