See first!

Greetings on this the Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: 1 Mc 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63; PS 119:53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158; Lk 18:35-43
Notes: Christ the King is coming!

The great crisis of our times and place is the application of pluralism and distinction between religious rights.

1. What moral code shall prevail as mandatory and how to express it?
2. What ethics shall prevail as within a range and how to enforce it?
3. What ways of being different from my own are tolerable and how to accept what is not my own?

The USA is not the first nation to be confronted with the problem.
The USA does have the distinction of attempting to find a cooperative coexistence.
A framework strategy to mitigate between a significant variance of morals, ethics and ways of being.

We base all this on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The balance cannot be found in assertion alone.

In fact, when you are in power the rightness is not in assertion but in acceptance.

First reading
The Jewish people have been confronted with various states of military occupation, military victory and military defeat since its first oral traditions and throughout the various books of the Old Testament.

• Egyptians
• Assyrians
• Babylonians
• Persians (less so, but agent rulers did oppress)
• Greeks
• Ptolemies
• Seleucid
• Romans

All these overpowered them.
All these enforced morals, ethics and ways of being that are alien to their people and faith.

Responsorial Psalm
Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.

Alleluia Verse
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
whoever follows me will have the light of life.

Gospel Portion
Jesus asked him,
“What do you want me to do for you?”
He replied, “Lord, please let me see.”
Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.”
He immediately received his sight
and followed him, giving glory to God.

• One man.
• One request.

When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.

Universal praise for God (at least for the moment).

When you ask yourself what can one man or woman can do, think of the blind man.
He wanted what we all want at our core: to be made whole, to be cured.

• Seek truth.
• Seek purification.
• Seek a right path.

Then, as God answers your prayers, your conversion is completed and the divine is expressed in you.

You become a celebration for others and leads to more conversion toward righteousness.

• First you.
• Then your household.
• Then your proximity.
• Then your community.
• Then your nation.

See first.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry