Great Blindedness

Greetings on this the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: AM 6:1A, 4-7; PS 146:7, 8-9, 9-10; 1 TM 6:11-16; LK 16:19-31

Didn’t We Do Amos Last Week?

Yes, we did indeed. The readings on the 26^th Sunday in ordinary time are taken from all the same books and letters as the readings on the 25^th Sunday in ordinary time. It has the same type of theme as well which simply stated is how we act matters the most.

The Prophet Amos’s ministry was during the time of the reign of Jeroboam II, a gifted warrior and commander. It was a wealthy time. Military might was supported by Assyria powerful over-lordship and military dominance of the region. Israel focused on rooting out all foreigners and reestablishing their national boundaries (yes, their version of the Wall). Everything was great. The Northern Kingdom was very prosperous and they thought themselves the blessed of God because they possessed both material wealth and religious dominance of the Jewish people.

Amos interrupted their self-congratulations in two ways.

1. The wealth they have amassed was from the acts of sin. They thought him crazy. He prophesized this wealth would be lost.
2. The shrine at Bethel Amos says was contrary to God’s will because its construction was contrary to God’s will and did not produce the result of moral improvement. Bethel and Gilgal were emblematic to the sins against the light granted to her, Israel. She instead was in darkness. Their interior morality and justice did not conform to the external ritual worship professed.

Responsorial Psalm

Again we are reminded by the psalmist that God’s work is that which we should follow.

Like the Lord, we should:

• secure justice for the oppressed,
• gives food to the hungry,
• set captives free,
• give sight to the blind,
• raise up those who were bowed down,
• be just,
• protects strangers; and
• Sustain the fatherless and the widow.

Letter to Timothy

But you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.

Great Blindedness

When I talk to police officers and paramedics about car accidents they tell me the most often spoken words are:

He came out of nowhere.

He came out of nowhere is the most often said refrain when interviewing someone who had a car accident and, in particular, the one who hit another’s car.

We say things like that but in our heart we know that is not true. Nobody fell out of the sky right in front of us. Somehow, somehow, we did not see them. In driver’s education classes they talk about ‘blind spots’. They train new drivers on how to be, first, aware you cannot see everything and, secondly, how you can see everything so as to avoid an accident. It takes effort. Do you recall how? Do you practice ‘seeing’ when you cannot see at first when driving your car?

In today’s Gospel reading we learn of the great blindedness of the Rich Man. Like in Amos’s time, he was very rich. He had all the finest things. He even went to Church/Shrine to worship, externally. Yet internally he was greatly blind. He knew of Lazarus, his situation and poverty. He simply chose to be blind to it.

Even still this is not the blindedness we refer to in this Gospel. His blindedness is that he knew his religion and followed it externally but he did not know the internal truth of the Lord. He lacked the desire to be like the Lord.

He believed that it is God’s fault he was blind.

You see he dialogs well with Abraham. He knew Abraham as Father. He knows mercy and kindness (his water request). He knows of Moses and the Prophets. He even has foresight of compassion for his brothers. The 5 brothers symbolize those who follow the same teachings and ways of life the Rich Man followed and now he wants to warn them so they do not fall into his same condition. He is implying that God did not provide enough guidance to avoid this outcome!

A Better Way

He had no repentance for ignoring Lazarus. He reflected not on his refusal to do the things of God that the psalmist described for us today.

He wanted for his family the sign of a resurrected Lazarus to return and warn his brothers. Yet Abraham warns him and Jesus is telling us that even a Resurrected Lazarus/Jesus will not be convincing for some. And, Rich Man, you already had heaven within your grasp if you only followed Moses and the Prophets.

It’s not the teaching it the seeing that is the problem.

The message is clear. Know we are blind. Pray you can see what matters to God. Pray you do like God does. Avoid the accident.

Peace be with you,

Deacon Gerry

 

 

 

 

 

This post points you to a piece written by Father Rick Frechette which describes the terrifying effects of unethical and unverified media reporting, This is worth the read and reflection on how we (all of us) and pull back from this type of abyss.

Special Guests – Father Rick Frechette,

Follow the Bubbles

Greetings on this the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: AM 8:4-7; PS 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8; 1 TM 2:1-8; LK 16:1-13

SCUBA Basics

When I was a young man as a part of the SCUBA training process they would teach this very simple lesson.

Follow the Bubbles

Unless you live in one of the Gulf Coast States you will usually be SCUBA diving in turbid waters where even sunlight doesn’t penetrate. Initially when you enter the water your orientation is no problem. As you explore and spend time twisting and turning, rising and falling, moving forward and backward, under and over you begin to get disoriented. Sometimes this causes anxiety and even panic. Where am I in relation to the surface? How do I know for sure the way back?

The Instructor would go on to say if you rely upon your instincts alone or even your intellect to reason out where you are, you will likely be in grave danger of loss of your life! Instead, as a part of your analysis, release some air! Release air and watch the direction in which it goes. Where the bubbles go, so should you. Follow the bubbles.

As any kid that drinks with a straw knows if you blow air into a straw immersed in chocolate milk you get … chocolate bubbles on the top!

(If you plan to attend the 9:00 AM Mass at Sacred Heart, Lake Worth Beach, FL you will get demonstrations of this SCUBA principle using chocolate milk. Since literally nobody reads this I am safe in this advanced notice).

Truth Bubbles Up

In our first reading today the Prophet Amos warns use that the Lord sees all of these actions we want to bury and hide like bubbles under water:

• trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land;
• diminish the ephah, add to the shekel;
• fix our scales for cheating;
• buy the lowly for silver (slavery);
• buy the poor for the cost of a pair of sandals (abject slavery); and
• even sell the useless bi-product of the wheat as wheat.

The truth of these activities bubbles up to the Lord.

Universality of the Warning

Second reading: In the letter to Timothy the writer makes clear although the actions noted by the Prophet Amos are truthful realities there is yet another buried truth. We fail to pray for those who are the perpetrators of these offenses. The bubble up is that we sharing in the responsibility of those who fail in these ways. We own them our prayers for them because:

This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.

It is a mistake to mock the bubbles of another while we offer no help in finding another way. Pray for President Trump and his troupe even if you hate him. Pray for the resistance even if you disagree with them and their sometimes quite objectionable ways.

Gospel Bubble Story

A rich man comes to understand a steward of his is stealing from him. He demands an accounting and informs of the stewards dismissal.

The steward attempts to bury more dishonest acts by making more deals:

• Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty; and
• Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.

He desperately wants to bury more things because he is not strong enough to dig and he is ashamed to beg.

But the truth bubbles up and it gets even more interesting here.

The master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.

Imagine that will you? Why did he say this and what does this bubble reveal?

The Master (rich man) is revealing HIS OWN METHODS and BURIED TRUTH of how he amassed his own fortune.

Even this Master has the bubble effect of truth. The Master and the Steward are of the same thinking mode.

The Master only objects to stealing from him not from stealing from others.

Honesty in Profane Things – Worthy of Profound Things

Jesus goes on to explain that our honesty in small things is a pathway forward in the profound things. Dishonesty is disastrous.

He goes on to say the possession of your future in this life and for eternal life does not even belong to you if you trade it for ill-gotten gain and dishonest.

Literally he is saying you risk the mastery of your own life path following the logic of the Master and Steward.

It is the Choice

No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and mammon.

You are best served by following the bubble logic. Follow the bubble of truth and find the liberation of God’s love!

Blessings,

Deacon Gerry

Behave Yourself

Greetings on this the Wednesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Readings: 1 TM 3:14-16; PS 111:1-2, 3-4, 5-6; LK 7:31-35

Sign of the Times

Usually I do not write in the middle of the week.

Yesterday’s testimony from the congressional hearings urges a dialog. Corey Lewandowski says,

I have no obligation to speak truthfully.

Those of you who support the President will come quickly to his aid and protest the trim of his statement.

To which I reply, you have been selectively trimming the teachings of Jesus Christ for years now and suddenly you have a problem with selective quotes?

You should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth. 1 TIM 3:15b

Lewandowski went on to say:

• to the Press Lewandowski has no obligation to tell the truth (the fourth estate enshrined in the constitution);
• but under oath Lewandowski tells the truth or the conditions under which he was truthful (immunity);
• but today Lewandowski refuse to tell the truth because the President exerts an imaginary Executive Privilege in regards to Lewandowski conversations with President Trump (campaign strategy is not under any such protections nor is any criminal actions or plans).

Such difficult and twisted logic!

They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another LK 7:32

This Administration and his friends are deliberately misleading the public, you.

We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep. Lk 7:32b

Simply, truth is unimportant to them. Trust is not a factor in their thinking, their actions, and their performance as public servants.

When it is time to Dance – you refuse. When it is time to sin a Dirge – you don’t care.

Do you need examples? Do you really need examples?

Wisdom will be Vindicated

Jesus reminds us that wisdom is vindicated by all her children LK 7:35.

John the Baptizer called us to repentance for how we think, what we do and what the performance of public servants should be.

Read Luke 3:10-14. It’s pretty clear.

Jesus called us to re-imagine what it means to Love God.

Wisdom, the presence of the Holy Spirit, vindicates and illuminates. The list, the very long list, of those who would lie and deflect on behalf and in deference to the President will find the burning light of Christ bringing to light their thinking, actions and performance.

Peace be with you,

Deacon Gerry

 

 

 

 

The Gospel message this Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time is usually understood to address the perpetrators. Sinners having become lost by word, thought, action or inaction are now beyond ordinary recovery but requiring the action of a loving God to find them. We often do not see what is in plain sight: love for the victim.

The Gospel of Luke chapter 15 is comprehensive about being lost.

1. One of One-Hundred Sheep.
2. One of Ten Coins.
3. One of Two Brothers.

When one is a victim of a crime or of personal abuse it may be difficult to read this Gospel reading with any sense of relief or consolation. The reassurance a victim needs is distinctly different from the perpetrator. Today let us take the victim perspective. Victim suffering is first and foremost private and personal. It is specific to the individual.

Suffering (examples):

• Lose of good and virtue (innocence, health, bruising of dignity, loss of autonomy, being marginalized and invalidated).
• Lose of future well-being (health, mobility, forming loving marriage, forming trusted friendships, attaining employment).

Recovery path:

• Knowing and expressing how they are in a state of needing something necessary to their integration to the rest of society. I have lost something I need back!
• Validation of feelings, experience, sense of loss and isolation.
• Engage a search for a path or navigating the future so as to recoup or regain that which is lost or build similar necessities to satisfy the needed components.
• Find within their friendships the needed support for their journey.

Our Ordinary Help:

• Listen. Actively listen to the story as narrated by the victim.
• Listen to the movement within. Pain sometimes makes speaking impossible. Rather a victim speaks with heart, body, odor and aura. Listen for that non-verbal communication.
• Advocate for them. Render aid and assistance. I am sure we don’t explain asphyxiation medicine to a drowning person rather address their difficulty.

Gospel Message on Sunday…

1. One of One-Hundred Sheep – Did you ever wonder how a Shepherd finds a lost sheep? The sheep didn’t do anything wrong. S/he simply is lost. The Shepherd only need listen for the sound of pain. The mournful pain of feeling lost and unaccounted for. The sheep didn’t rationalize h/er situation rather bodily bleated out painful sounds. H/er loving Shepherd heard and found, carried, and returned with Joy and Celebration.

   Your restoration to Joy is an imperative of God.

2. One of Ten Coins – a little more abstract then the last parable. A coin knows nothing of its value. In a analogous way a person loses appreciation and existence of their human dignity when victimized. The familiar places of home can even become a place of disorder. Note in this parable the woman turns the house ‘inside out’ sweeping and searching and illuminating every darkness until the coin is found! Even the Angels rejoice and praise the God who gets on his hands and knees to find the one who lost all sense of self.

   Your restoration of Self is an imperative of God.

3. One of Two Brothers – so much written on this parable! Here the complete complexity of perpetrator and victim relations exist. It’s a hot mess.This post is already too long but let me express it this way. The Lord searches the horizons of your person-hood for anything and everything that needs attending. Ring, Robe and sandals – symbols of kinship, dignity and reason. Note: while the Lord will not force or enforce peace between perpetrator and victim, He will encourage it after a restoration has been initiated in the person-hood of victim.

   Your restoration of your kinship, dignity and reason is an imperative of God.

In conclusion, those who are victim are the sheep, the coin and the brother that a worried and resourceful God seeks with all the power at His command and when found all creation rejoices with you!

Please visit my other page for excellent readings: Abuse Recovery Readings

Blessings,

Deacon Gerry

Thanks to / references from:

James F. Keenan, S. J. from his book titled Moral Wisdom

Recommend:

The Return of the Prodigal Son (A Story of Homecoming) by Henri J.M. Nouwne.