WE ARE BLIND PEOPLE, SEARCHING FOR LIGHT

XXX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 10:46-52

This Sunday, the Gospel of Mark presents the healing of Bartimaeus, near Jericho, a southern town, near the Dead Sea. Like Jesus, he was on the road. Well, not really on the road but by the roadside. Sitting, he was begging from the passers-by a little coin or any small thing that might help him to survive. He passed his days seated by the roadside, lest he becomes a nuisance and a hindrance. He depended on the kindness of those who felt pity for him and he should not overdo it and become an occasion of stumbling for others. By the roadside, he lived as someone who hardly has the right to live as if he has been cursed. Blind, he lives in darkness, with no hope of finding the light. We may even guess that he had accepted his fate with resignation, knowing that there is no remedy for his handicap. However, one day, everything changed. He got his chance and he did not allow it to pass by but grabbed it with all his power. Hearing a strange noise of a passing crowd, he sensed that something was happening or someone very special was passing. And he asked. Once he got the answer, nobody could stop him. Full of hope, he cried out: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." 

This blind man is the paradigm of all of us who live in darkness, at the edge of the road, without knowing the way that leads us to light and life. We are blind and we cannot see the light which comes from God, giving sense and meaning to our lives. In this modern or post-modern society, our blindness to God’s presence and God’s wonderful works is becoming deeper and deeper. Full of ourselves, we remain by the roadside, unable to join the followers of Jesus. Like Bartimaeus, we need to shout: “Lord, have pity on me”. And when Jesus asks us, "What do you want me to do for you?”, we are going to reply: "Lord, let me see.” Yes, let me see the truth and feel your love. May I find salvation in you. May I find meaning and purpose for my life. May I see the way to follow you.

THOSE IN LEADERSHIP MUST BE AT THE SERVICE OF ALL

XXIX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 10:35-45

We may think that the Church should be holy and blameless, without stains from corruption and depravation and without the power struggles which undermine her credibility. However, we should know that the Church is a source of holiness for her members, who are sinners, only because of her head, Christ, who is the redeemer and saviour. We can easily be scandalised when we see the dirty tricks used by leaders who have a grudge against other leaders in the Church or simply because they want to increase their sphere of influence.  However, this is as old as the Church, as we are told in this Sunday’s gospel. 

The two brothers, James and John, approached Jesus with a request that left all the others full of indignation, what shows that all of them had the same deep hidden desire for a position of influence and power. Throughout the history of the Church, we can find plenty of leaders - popes and bishops - who looked for power, putting on their heads the crown of royalty and imposing their will by the power of the sword, and they did all this in the name of Christ. However, by doing that, they were betraying Jesus Christ. 

The narrative of the temptations makes it very clear that Jesus rejected power as the way to establish the Kingdom of God. When he suspected that people wanted to make him king, he went into hiding. To the apostles and to us, Jesus put himself forward as an example: he did not come to be served, but to serve, and to serve to the point of giving his life for the salvation of all. 

Whenever the Church accepts power and exercises authority in the manner of the rulers of this world, it is diverting from the path that leads to salvation. In the Church, according to Jesus, authority should be exercised solely as a service, and the leaders must become the slaves of all.

Let us ask the Lord to give us a humble heart to serve. Let us pray for the pope and the bishops asking for them the humility to serve.

*****

WORLD MISSION DAY

Together with young people, let us bring the Gospel to all 

“Every man and woman is a mission; that is the reason for our life on this earth. To be attracted and to be sent are two movements that our hearts, especially when we are young, feel as interior forces of love; they hold out promise for our future and they give direction to our lives. More than anyone else, young people feel the power of life breaking in upon us and attracting us. To live out joyfully our responsibility for the world is a great challenge. I am well aware of lights and shadows of youth; when I think back to my youth and my family, I remember the strength of my hope for a better future. The fact that we are not in this world by our own choice makes us sense that there is an initiative that precedes us and makes us exist. Each one of us is called to reflect on this fact: “I am a mission on this Earth; that is the reason why I am here in this world” (Evangelii Gaudium, 273). 

We proclaim Jesus Christ 

The Church, by proclaiming what she freely received (cf. Mt 10:8; Acts 3:6), can share with you young people the way and truth which give meaning to our life on this earth. Jesus Christ, who died and rose for us, appeals to our freedom and challenges us to seek, discover and proclaim this message of truth and fulfilment. Dear young people, do not be afraid of Christ and his Church! For there we find the treasure that fills life with joy. I can tell you this from my own experience: thanks to faith, I found the sure foundation of my dreams and the strength to realize them. I have seen great suffering and poverty mar the faces of so many of our brothers and sisters. And yet, for those who stand by Jesus, evil is an incentive to ever greater love. Many men and women, and many young people, have generously sacrificed themselves, even at times to martyrdom, out of love for the Gospel and service to their brothers and sisters. From the cross of Jesus we learn the divine logic of self-sacrifice (cf. 1 Cor 1:17-25) as a proclamation of the Gospel for the life of the world (cf. Jn 3:16). To be set afire by the love of Christ is to be consumed by that fire, to grow in understanding by its light and to be warmed by its love (cf. 2 Cor 5:14). At the school of the saints, who open us to the vast horizons of God, I invite you never to stop wondering: “What would Christ do if he were in my place?” (Pope Francis, Message for the World Mission Day).

RICHES CANNOT BUY SALVATION

XXVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 10:17-30

This Sunday’s gospel challenges us to make a reflection on wealth and to examine our attitudes towards wealth. The society we live in is intent on creating wealth and the creation of wealth is an essential requirement for the welfare of people. The creation of wealth goes together with work and with the improvement of the living conditions. In order to finish with the scourge of poverty, we must create wealth. However, the creation of wealth is always tainted by the danger of selfishness and exploitation, easily becoming a temptation that separates us from God and turns us against the others. Instead of being a tool at the service of the community, it easily becomes a god, always thirsty for the sweat and the blood of those who produce it. We do not look only for the needed wealth to bring well-being to all, but we put all our minds and hearts on the search for ever bigger profits.

Profit has become the engine that moves the whole society, influencing education, the accepted values, the politically correct and economy. In the market economy, which we are in, profit determines the expansion of the business, its survival or its failure. The rule of profit is a ruthless and compassionless rule, in which workers are valued simply by the amount and the quality of their output. The search for profit leads to an increasing substitution of the worker for the machine, leaving many unemployed. The unbridled search for profit enslaves more and more people, kept at the mercy of profit creation. At any moment, they can be disposed of.

It is not surprising that Jesus used harsh words against wealth when it becomes the god that we serve. One cannot serve God and money (Mt 6:24).

It happened that a rich man, concerned with his own salvation, went to Jesus, looking for the best way to get it. Being a good man, faithful to the commandments, he wanted to do better and to excel. Jesus recognised his desire and invited him to put aside everything that might prevent him from being a true disciple: “Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” However, he found the price too high and “went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth”.

When the heart clings to wealth, the eyes cannot see beyond the wealth and power, the influence and well-being it provides. Wealth puts easily at risk the freedom of spirit and heart, making us slaves who enslave the others, demanding obedience and service. With such an attitude, we cannot enter the kingdom of God.  Hence, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." (Mk 10,25). Nevertheless, God has the power to transform the rich by giving them a heart of poor, that is a heart caring and compassionate, able to share and to be at the service of others, mainly the weak and the suffering.

GOD’S PROJECT FOR MARRIAGE

XXVII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Genesis 2:18-24

In today’s language of the politically correct, we do not know any more what marriage is. With the ideology of the gender spreading evermore abroad, there are people who want to consider any union between two people sealed with a recognised contract as marriage. And we find gay and lesbian marriages being celebrated, promoted and given the same rights as true marriage between two heterosexual people. For a Christian marriage is more than a contract; indeed, it is a sacrament, that is a covenant of love open to life. A homosexual relationship is by definition a relationship that has closed its doors to life. It is an investment at zero profit, with no possibility of continuation and development. In such a relationship, both of them are centred exclusively on themselves, enclosed in a dungeon which does not allow to look into the future.

God has a different project for human beings, that’s why he made them man and woman, needing each other in order to become complete and to go on giving the life that they freely received.

We have read Genesis 2:4b-25 as the story of creation, where God is presented as a potter, working with the clay to create man, and then as a magician to create the woman out of the man. However, instead of reading this passage as a factual narrative of the creation, we should listen to it as a reflexion on the relationship between man and woman and as a presentation of the big guidelines on marriage.

Human beings are linked to the whole creation; it is as if they come from the clay of the ground. However, they have something special that sets them aside, since in them there is a spirit - the breath of God. Having created the man, God provided him with everything needed for his wellbeing. Since the beginning, God never deserted man but remained attentive to his deepest needs. Doing that, God noticed that the man was not happy and he realised that “it is not good that the man should be alone” and so he decided to “make him a helper as his partner” (Gn 2:18). Man and woman are called to be partners and to help each other. In God’s plan, there is a reciprocity that cannot be ignored. It is looking into each other, that each one of them recognises himself/ herself. One is the mirror of the other. They are the same, yet different, and it is in their difference, that each one becomes the completion of the other. The woman was taken to the man by God as if he is the marriage maker. And when he received the woman, he recognised immediately that “this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gn 2:23), meaning, we are the same: body, mind, heart and soul. They have the same dignity and the same rights; they have received the same call and were entrusted with the same mission; and they were presented with the same promise of salvation and eternal life (see 1 Cor 11:11-12).

Then, in a short sentence, Genesis 2:24, we find God’s plan for marriage: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh”. And these words are so important, that Jesus repeated them and so did Paul (Ef 5:31). God’s project is that “they become one flesh”. This being one flesh implies the sexual relationship but it goes far beyond it. God’s project speaks of a communion of body, heart and soul that will make of them the true images of God. This project can be accomplished in two steps: a) leave, b) cling. They must leave, in order to start anew. They must break with the past and all that tied them to the past. They cannot depend on their parents any longer. They have to stand on their own, being committed to each and responsible for each other. And they must break with all kinds of individualism and selfishness. Without this first step, the second one will become impossible. Then, they must cling to each other. And this implies a process because it cannot happen all at once. In order to be united in an ever-deepening communion, they must have respect for each other, that is, they must affirm each other, bringing out the best in each other. They must learn to listen to each other, they must be able to dialogue and to share everything. Thus, walking together through the path of life, they will become one, every day they will become more and more one. 

This project of God can only be carried out with God’s grace. Let’s ask God’s blessings upon all married couples, so that they may be true witnesses of God’s love.