Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: Mark 10:46-52

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” 
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
“Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”
Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Space and Sight was a book written in the 1960’s, documenting a group of individuals who underwent cataract surgery. All of the patients were blind from birth. Suddenly, after a successful surgery, they were able to see!

While their first moments of sight must’ve been overwhelming, some of the patients longer-term reactions were surprising. 

Many fell into depression. The world became abruptly complex, not only filled with shapes and color, but also with visible forms of suffering. One girl even locked herself inside her room for two weeks, refusing to open her eyes. 

Ironically, these patients were faced with the same question after their surgery as they were before: Do you want to see?

Perhaps they learned the hard way that sight comes with responsibility; once we see something, we cannot “unsee” it.

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In today’s Gospel, a blind man named Bartimaeus approaches Jesus desperate to see. And so it happens. 

Mark does not tell us how Bartimaeus reacts to the light – or to seeing the face of the one who healed him – only that Bartimaeus follows Jesus “on the way,” meaning up to Jerusalem, where the Lord will be crucified. 

Some of the first things that Bartimaeus will see are the faces of the bloodthirsty crowd; the Lord beaten, bloodied, and nailed to a tree; Jesus laid inside a tomb; and, perhaps, raised from the dead.

Bartimaeus cannot “unsee” these things. His sight comes with responsibility. The fact that he is the only person healed in Mark’s Gospel who is mentioned by name implies that he was known within the early Christian community.

Does Bartimaeus become an apostle to the blind? Does he teach others how to “see” Christ through eyes of faith?

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We don’t know. Perhaps Mark leaves that for us to ponder as we all are, in a sense, Bartimaeus.

Each of us bears responsibility for what we “see” – Christ in the Eucharist; Christ in our neighbor; Christ in the poor, the vulnerable, and the suffering in this world; Christ within ourselves.

May we never pull the covers over our eyes; rather, may our sight be a blessing for others today.

In the words of Bartimaeus, “Master, I want to see.”

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Image credits: (1) The Gift of Sight, Inspirational Thoughts from Everyday Life, The (2) Embracing Brokenness Ministries (3) Everydayspirit.net

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1 Peter 1:18-25

Beloved:
Realize that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,
handed on by your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold
but with the precious Blood of Christ
as of a spotless unblemished Lamb.
He was known before the foundation of the world
but revealed in the final time for you,
who through him believe in God
who raised him from the dead and gave him glory,
so that your faith and hope are in God.

Since you have purified yourselves
by obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love,
love one another intensely from a pure heart.
You have been born anew,
not from perishable but from imperishable seed,
through the living and abiding word of God, for:

“All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory like the flower of the field;
the grass withers,
and the flower wilts;
but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Saint Augustine is, perhaps, the most influential thinker the Catholic Church has ever known. Over five million of his words, either written or preached, have been preserved for nearly two-thousand years, providing a lasting foundation for Catholic theology.

Prior to his conversion, Augustine was a pagan who freely indulged in the whims of his flesh. But, eventually, his desire for the Truth led him to Christianity. 

Afraid that following Jesus would cause him to miss out on life, Augustine hesitated. Much like the rich young man in the Gospels, he was afraid that Jesus couldn’t satisfy him.

As he later wrote in his memoir, Confessions, “My sins plucked at the garment of my flesh and whispered, ‘Are you going to dismiss us? From this moment we shall never be with you again.”

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Augustine found himself at a crossroad in life – to choose either a life of indulgence or a life of grace. 

It’s a decision that Christians must make in every age. 

As Saint Peter says in our first reading, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field; the grass withers, and the flower wilts; but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

At the heart of Peter’s letter is the call for Christians to see through the temptations of life, choosing a life of grace instead. In a word, to be “holy,” meaning different.

Just as the Temple was “holy” because it was different from other buildings, or the Sabbath was “holy” because it was different from other days, so Christians are called to live lives that are different from non-believers, whose desires are often rooted in this world.

How is my life different because of faith?

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May the Lord give us the grace to choose Him today. Doing always leads to life in abundance.

Saints Peter and Augustine, pray for us.

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Image credits: (1) New Life House (2) Saint Augustine, Philippe de Champaigne (3) The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry

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Gospel: Mark 10:28-31

Peter began to say to Jesus,
“We have given up everything and followed you.”
Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Imagine spending the entire day walking around in public, running errands, speaking with colleagues, picking up the kids from school, with your clothes turned inside out.

Or showing up to work wearing clown-sized shoes.

Or shaving only half of your beard.

Or walking into church jumping up and down shouting for joy.

These things sound ridiculous to us. 

If people saw me walking around with a half-shaved beard or clown-sized shoes, then I’m sure they would burst out in laughter. Some would probably think, “Dear God, Father has lost his mind!” 

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Today we celebrate the life of a priest who did these things on purpose. 

Saint Philip Neri is the patron saint of joy and humor. He was a man who laughed constantly and motivated others to do the same. 

Oddly enough, the more comical he was, the holier and humbler he became.

But Philip wasn’t simply a jokester. He balanced his sense of humor with intense periods of prayer, eating meager meals, visiting the sick, and striking up conversations with people, slowly introducing them to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

A few years after his priestly ordination, Philip founded a religious order, commonly known as the Oratorians, who followed his rule of life.

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One of Philip’s biographers once wrote of him, “Philip was all things to all men… When he was called upon to be merry, he was so; if there was a demand upon his sympathy, he was equally ready…”

May the Lord grant us the grace to live our lives accordingly – rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep, and, above all, the grace to poke fun at ourselves, counteracting our pride, and spreading a little joy along the way.

Saint Philip Neri, pray for us.

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Image credits: (1) Delta Dental of Illinois (2) Called to More, YouTube (3) Be the Reason Someone Smiles Today line jounals, Amazon