'Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?”' Sunday Reflections, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Christ Healing the Blind Man

Eustache L Sueur [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 10:46-52 (shorter form: 10:42-45) (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Fr John Burger is an American Columban who was member of the Columban General Council from 2006 till 2012. He spent the early years of his priesthood in Japan and tells a wonderful story about a blind man who was a member of a prayer group in a parish where he served. Each week the group met to share on the following Sunday’s gospel and to pray. Father John was a little nervous when this Sunday’s gospel came up, wondering how his blind friend would respond.

He and the others were astonished when the man shared that this was one of his favourite passages in the gospels. Why? Because Jesus asked Bartimaeus, What do you want me to do for you? The blind parishioner went on to say that he was quite happy as he was. He had his own apartment and he knew his way around. But if the Lord were to ask him directly What do you want me to do for you? he would tell him that there were parts of his life where he would like Jesus to shed his light, even though he would hesitate to ask him to do so. 

Probably the blind Japanese man had experienced people, with every good intention, wanting to help him when he needed no help. On a pilgrimage to Lourdes in Easter Week 1991 with a group of persons from Ireland, some with physical disabilities, I shared a room with our leader, Joe, able-bodied like myself, and Tony and Tom who weren’t. Both needed help in some very personal matters. However, I learned very quickly from Tom not to do something for him when he could do it himself. That was a very good lesson for me.

Jesus didn’t presume that Bartimaeus wanted his sight back. He asked him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man, who had shouted Jesus, Son of David, a title indicating he was the Messiah, answered, Rabbi, let me recover my sight.

Do I allow Jesus to ask me, What do you want me to do for you? And if I allow him do I have the faith of Bartimaeus to tell him what I want him to do for me? Jesus responded to the faith of the blind man: Go your way; your faith has made you well. And the blind beggar’s response to this was a further expression of his faith: And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

On 11 October 2012 in his homily at the Mass marking the opening of the Year of Faith and the 5oth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council Pope Benedict said, The Year of Faith which we launch today is linked harmoniously with the Church’s whole path over the last fifty years: from the Council, through the Magisterium of the Servant of God Paul VI, who proclaimed a Year of Faith in 1967, up to the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, with which Blessed John Paul II re-proposed to all humanity Jesus Christ as the one Saviour, yesterday, today and forever. Between these two Popes, Paul VI and John Paul II, there was a deep and profound convergence, precisely upon Christ as the centre of the cosmos and of history, and upon the apostolic eagerness to announce him to the world. Jesus is the centre of the Christian faith. The Christian believes in God whose face was revealed by Jesus Christ. He is the fulfilment of the Scriptures and their definitive interpreter. Jesus Christ is not only the object of the faith but, as it says in the Letter to the Hebrews, he is 'the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith' (12:2).

Bartimaeus seemed to have grasped something of this, calling Jesus by a Messianic title, Son of David, putting his faith in him and following him on the way.

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Fr William Byrne

6 August 1936 - 10 October 2024

Fr Willie Byrne spent the early years of his priesthood and the latter years of his active ministry as a Columban priest in Japan. After a cerebral haemorrhage he gradually lost his sight and returned to Ireland in 2014 and lived in our nursing home until his death. He suffered quite a bit in the last months of his life, spending most of those in hospital, but was always patient, cheerful and welcoming. May he rest in peace.

When I was in secondary school we studied some of the poetry of John Milton, most of which I disliked. But his sonnet On His Blindness was an exception.

When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,

And that one talent which is death to hide

Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest he returning chide;

‘Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?’

I fondly ask. But Patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies: ‘God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts; who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o'er land and ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and wait.’

. . . who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best . . . They also serve who only stand and wait.

Father Willie lived those words of Milton in his latter years, as so many are doing right now, God speaking to us through their needs.

Traditional Latin Mass 

Our Lord Jesus Christ the King

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-20-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossians 1:12-20.  Gospel: John 18:33-37.

Christ before Pilate

Jacopo Pontormo [Web Gallery of Art]

Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.” (John 18:37; Gospel).

'Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . .' Sunday Reflections, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

Christ and the Rich Young Ruler

Heinrich Hoffmann [Wikipedia; attribution] 

Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . . (Mark 1o:22; Gospel)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 10:17-30 (shorter form: 10:17-27) (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

As Jesus was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honour your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

[Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”  Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.]

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The incident in this Sunday's gospel is also recounted in the gospels of St Matthew and St Luke. It is St Matthew who tells us that the man who approached Jesus was young. Luke describes him as a ruler or aristocrat, depending on the translation. But it is only St Mark who writes, Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . .

Saint Charles de Foucauld (circa 1907)

(1858-1916) [Wikipedia]

Pope Francis canonised St Charles, usually referred to as 'Brother Charles' by those with a devotion to him, on 15 May 2022. 

St Charles de Foucauld, was assassinated in the Sahara on 1 December 1916. He had been born into wealth. Unlike the man in the gospel, he became a notorious playboy and was thrown out of the French army because of his behaviour. He went through a conversion experience at 28 and, again unlike the man in today's gospel, gave up everything. His subsequent journey in the Catholic faith led him to the priesthood and to the Sahara to live the life of Nazareth as he understood it.

Brother Charles, as he was known, died alone. He had drawn up a rule for a religious congregation to live the life of Nazareth in the desert. I once read that one person joined him for a short while. But in the 1920s his life and writings led to the founding of two religious congregations, the Little Brothers of Jesus and the Little Sisters of Jesus, both of which have communities in the Philippines. There are a number of other congregations that have adapted the rule that Brother Charles wrote.

Little Sister Goneswary Subramaniam LSJ

 [Misyon]

The Little Brothers and the Little Sisters live among the poor, support themselves by taking manual jobs. The January-February 2005 issue of Misyon, the Columban magazine in the Philippines of which I was then editor, carried an article, Working Sisters, in which Little Sister Goneswary Subramaniam LSJ from Sri Lanka writes about her job sewing in a garment factory in Quezon City, Metro Manila, and Little Sister Annarita Zamboni LSJ from Italy about working as a lavandera, a laundry woman. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is at the heart of the life of each community of the Little Brothers, some of whom are priests, and of the Little Sisters and neighbours are invited to join.

Blessed Charles was a diocesan priest, though definitely not a conventional one. But a more conventional diocesan priest, played a central role in his conversion, Fr Henri Huvelin.

Fr Henri Huvelin

(1830-1910) [Wikipedia]

Among the groups inspired by Blessed Charles is the Jesus Caritas Fraternity of Priests, a movement that adapts his spirituality to the lives of pastoral priests, mainly diocesan, though not exclusively. I have been part of this movement since the late 1970s, in the Philippines and now in Ireland

Troubled by the words of Jesus, Peter said, See, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus replied, Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

St Charles de Foucauld experienced the joy of doing God's will, with persecutions in his violent death, but the houses and brothers and sisters . . . didn't come till some years after his death. And when Cardinal José Saraiva Martins beatified Brother Charles in Rome on 13 November 2005 the Church confirmed that he had indeed attained eternal life from the moment of his death and that he was a model of holiness who could guide us as we try to follow Jesus.

The man in the gospel didn't sin but had no idea of the riches he was spurning. St Charles, a repentant sinner, saw clearly what the young man didn't see: that Jesus was looking upon him and loved him. 

Prayer of Abandonment of Blessed Charles de Foucauld

Father,

I abandon myself into your hands;

do with me what you will.

Whatever you may do, I thank you:

I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me,

and in all your creatures -

I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul:

I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,

for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,

to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,

and with boundless confidence,

for you are my Father.

This prayer is recited in the Charles de Foucauld video above beginning at 3:38. 

Traditional Latin Mass 

Twenty-first Sunday After Pentecost 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-13-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: Ephesians 6:10-17.  Gospel: Matthew 18: 23-35 .

The Preaching of St Paul at Ephesus

Eustache Le Sueur [Web Gallery of Art]

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11; Epistle).

'The Church's universal mission is born of faith in Jesus Christ.' Sunday Reflections, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

Tribute Money

Vecellio Tiziano (Titian) [Web Gallery of Art]

"Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” (Matthew 22:19-20; Gospel).

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 22:15-21 (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 

They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

 World Mission Day 2023

This Sunday is World Mission Day (or Mission Sunday). It happens that the readings for the Mass of the day have a strong missionary dimension. They include the sense of God calling us by name and of our receiving the mission to make Jesus Christ known to the world: I call you by your name . . . I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other (First Reading).

Psalm 95 (96) used for the Responsorial Psalm adds to the missionary dimension: Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous works among all the peoples! . . . Worship the Lord in the splendour of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! Say among the nations, 'The Lord reigns! . . .  he will judge the peoples with equity.'

Though in the Sunday in Ordinary Time the Second Reading is not linked thematically with the First Reading and the Gospel, today's Second Reading is very much in harmony with the other two. In writing to the people of Thessalonica St Paul thanks God for their work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

The Gospel too calls us to be missionaries. Jesus tells the Pharisees trying to trap him: Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.

Often enough these words, I think, are interpreted as if rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's and rendering to God what is God's were in opposition. That is not so. Our involvement in the world of Caesar is meant to be in harmony with God's will. Two things that struck me very clearly during and after the Second Vatican Council, which occurred when I was in the seminary in the 1960s, was that it reminded us that God calls every single one of us to be a saint, not only priests and religious. The second was that lay people by virtue of their baptism  were called to be fully involved in what we may call the world of Caesar, working for the good of all.

This includes the world of politics, whether we are elected officials or voters. Our faith has a bearing on what we do. I remember in the autumn of 1982, when I was on a three-month intensive pastoral programme in Minneapolis, going to a bank there. When the official I was dealing with discovered I was based in the Philippines he told me that in the previous election in the USA he considered, among other things, how his vote would affect the Philippines, which was under martial law at the time.

We weren't talking party politics and I don't think the man was a Catholic. He was probably a Lutheran, since most of the people in Minneapolis have roots in Norway and Sweden, where the vast majority are Lutherans. (The other Twin City, St Paul, has a large Catholic population, the majority of those having Irish and German roots.) I saw in that man who took his vote so seriously an example of what the Vatican Council had in mind for us Catholics as citizens.

Most issues that politicians and voters deal with are matters of prudential judgements on what is best for the common good. People may take different positions on what they consider best for the good of all. Whether to build a road here or there, for example, isn't a matter of right or wrong but of what legislators think is best for the common good. They may have different views on this.

But there are political issues where as followers of Jesus Christ we can make only one choice because the choice is between what is right and what is wrong. No Catholic may vote or legislate in favour of abortion, for example, promote 'marriage' between two persons of the same sex, push for the 'right' to change from one sex to another, a biological impossibility, that has led to the scourge of minors in some countries being genitally mutilated, this being allowed by the law.

Yet there are heads of government and other politicians who claim to be practising Catholics who promote these things and many Catholic voters who vote in favour of these policies. This is a form of rendering to Caesar what is in clear opposition to God's will. It is a form of rendering to Caesar that is extremely harmful to Caesar, not to mention to the souls of those who take these positions.

It is a rejection of the teaching of the Church that the Second Vatican Council re-emphasised and can lead, if we do not repent, to an eternity where Caesar will no longer exist and where it will be impossible to render anything to God.

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St John Paul II, 1984

[Wikipedia; photo]

The optional memorial of Pope St John Paul II is observed on 22 October, but Sunday takes precedence over it this year.

This extract from his encyclical Redemptoris Mission [1990] is most appropriate for World Mission Day [emphases added]. 

In my first encyclical, in which I set forth the program of my Pontificate, I said that 'the Church's fundamental function in every age, and particularly in ours, is to direct man's gaze, to point the awareness and experience of the whole of humanity toward the mystery of Christ.'

The Church's universal mission is born of faith in Jesus Christ, as is stated in our Trinitarian profession of faith: 'I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father.... For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.' The redemption event brings salvation to all, 'for each one is included in the mystery of the redemption and with each one Christ has united himself forever through this mystery.' It is only in faith that the Church's mission can be understood and only in faith that it finds its basis.

Laudate Dominum

Composed by Jacques Berthier

Sung by Bethlehem Choir, Catholic Church of the Nativity,

Festac Town, Lagos, Nigeria

Laudete Dominum (Praise the Lord)

Omnes Gentes (All the People) Alleluia!

Composer Jacques Berthier composed hymns for the ecumenical  Taizé Community where Scripture verses are repeated, the refrain in Latin and the verses and sometimes the refrain in a contemporary language, as in the video above. Latin/French here. Latin/Malayalam here; Malayalam is spoken in Kerala, India, where most of the Christians are members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, in full communion with Rome.

6 that people may know, from th rising o the sunand from the west, that there is none besides me;I  is no other.

Traditional Latin Mass

Twenty-first Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-22-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: Ephesians 6:10-17. Gospel: Matthew 18:23-35.

The Preaching of St Paul in Ephesus

Eustache Le Sueur [Web Gallery of Art]

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might (Ephesians 6:10; Epistle).

'They realised that they were both children of the same God.' Sunday Reflections, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St Peter in Penitence

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art] 

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 18:21:35 (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.^”

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Stretcher Bearers, Passchendaele, Belgium, 1917

[Wikipedia; photo]

Today's gospel brings us in touch with what is perhaps the most difficult demand for Christians: to forgive. El Greco's painting shows us St Peter praying with hope and trust in God's merciful and forgiving love.

An example of forgiveness is found in an extract from a letter of Fr William Doyle SJ, an Irish priest who died in August 1917 in Passchendaele, Belgium, while serving as a chaplain in the British Army in World War I. The extract is taken from a post on the website The Father Willie Doyle Association, the official site for the canonisation cause of the Servant of God Fr Willie Doyle SJ. 

Father Doyle wrote to his father in Dublin about events of 5 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme in France [emphasis added]:

In the bottom of one hole lay a British and a German soldier, locked in a deadly embrace, neither had any weapon, but they had fought on to the bitter end. Another couple seemed to have realised that the horrible struggle was none of their making, and that they were both children of the same God; they had died hand-in-hand praying for and forgiving one another. A third face caught my eye, a tall, strikingly handsome young German, not more, I should say, than eighteen. He lay there calm and peaceful, with a smile of happiness on his face, as if he had had a glimpse of Heaven before he died. Ah, if only his poor mother could have seen her boy it would have soothed the pain of her broken heart.

To Father Doyle no German soldier was an enemy. Indeed, one of the remarkable things in the literature that came out of the Great War, as the First World War was known until the Second World War began, is that soldiers didn't seem to have hatred for the official 'enemy'. It was more often against their own generals and bullying corporals. Photos and videos from the war show prisoners of war, especially wounded ones, being treated with the same kindness and consideration as others.

Father Doyle's description of the British and German soldiers holding hands in death illustrates poignantly and powerfully what Jesus asks of us in this Sunday's Gospel. Pray for the souls of all who died in that terrible conflict.

The Banks of Green Willow

Composed by George Butterworth

Played by the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields

Conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

George Butterworth, an officer in the British army, was killed in the Battle of the Somme. 5 August 1916, a month before the event described by Fr Willie Doyle in his letter to his father. Pray for the souls of all who died in that terrible conflict, The Great War / First World War.

Madonna of Mercy

Blessed Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]

Traditional Latin Mass

Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-17-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: Ephesians 3:13-21. Gospel: Luke 14:1-11.

The Preaching of St Paul at Ephesus

Eustache Le Sueur [Web Gallery of Art]