Our Blessed Blindness

30^th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Jer 31, 7-9 / Heb 5, 1-6 / Mark 10, 46-52

 

We are blessed to be earthy people.  We can touch things and hear sounds.  We smell pine trees and we see leaves changing color.  Our world is full of colors and aromas – shapes and sizes – things hard and things soft.  And so we can understand the plea of the blind beggar to Jesus:  I want to see.

We need to see.  And we need to see on many levels and in many situations.  We need to see trees changing color, but we also need to see purpose and meaning in our lives.  We need to see the truth of our lives.  And we need to see the God of our lives – to see the God in our lives.

Often we do not see our life’s purpose – the truth of our lives.  Often – in fact, if we are honest, very often – we do not see God – we do not see God present in our lives at all.  We are blind to God’s presence.

Today’s Gospel calls our blindness a blessing.  The beggar’s blindness is, in fact, an enlightened blindness.  He knows he doesn’t know.  He knows he doesn’t grasp God’s goodness and presence in his life.  Bartimaeus is honest about his own experience, and he’s humble.  When Jesus asks him the all-important question:  What do you want me to do for you?  What do you really, deeply want? – it’s his very blindness that allows Bartimaeus to honestly answer:  I do not see and I want to see.  I want to see the living God in my life.  It is then that Jesus recognizes that before him is a man of faith: Go your way; your faith is healing your blindness.

The story of Bartimaeus is the last healing miracle in the Gospel of Mark.  It comes as a climax to a theme so important to Mark:  the arrogant blindness of Jesus’ disciples compared to the honest blindness of outsiders such as Bartimaeus.

Today’s story stands in direct contrast to the gospel story in Mark we heard last Sunday.  There Jesus puts the same question to his disciples, James and John, as he put to Bartimaeus, the outsider:  What do you want me to do for you?  What do you really want?  What desires finally shape your life?  Their answer – the answer of Jesus’ disciples and close apostles:  We want glory, recognition, power.  Jesus, we want to sit at your right and left in glory when the kingdom arrives.  Jesus can only answer:  You don’t know what you are asking for.  You have missed the meaning of my message – the meaning of my “good news”.  You are blind to the gospel and blind to your own blindness.

Here we are – the assembly of Jesus’ disciples.  The question now comes to us from Jesus:  What do you want me to do for you?  What do you really, deeply want?  What desires shape our lives – our daily lives?  Do we find ourselves much like our fellow disciples James and John?  Do we share their arrogant blindness?  Do we go for the glory – like being called “Christian” and “Catholic” – but without a thought to so living our lives with one another that a tormented world will see in us the possibility of hope, of honesty and love?

Let us beg for the grace to become honestly blind beggars.  Then we will have a chance of actually grasping God’s goodness and real presence in life.  Let us join with Bartimaeus and with all those blessed with his enlightened blindness.  Like them, we must become outsiders to all religious arrogance, pretense and posturing.  We will choose to live with one another in honest humility.  Then Jesus will recognize in us people of faith learning – or trying to learn – to walk his way of life.  Lord Jesus, we want to see!  We want to believe!  Help our unbelief!

Suffering and Power

29th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Is 53, 10-11 / Heb 4, 14-16 / Mk 10, 35-45

Our readings tell us about two things we already know – and know well.  They tell us about suffering, and they tell us about power.  Suffering and power – these are realities we know intimately and that we must know inevitably.  We all undergo things – we suffer.  And we all do things – have our affect – have our power.  Both suffering and power ebb and flow into our lives – though we run from suffering and run toward power.

The first reading from the prophet Isaiah comes from what are called “The Songs of the Suffering Servant”.  Isaiah is trying to make sense of suffering – the suffering of Israel.  Above all, he is intent on convincing people that suffering is not God’s punishment for sin.  The suffering servant Isaiah describes is sinless.  Yet the sinless servant suffers.  He even portrays the servant’s suffering as coming from God.  But Isaiah’s point – what he would have us understand – is that even if suffering does come from God, God does not send it as punishment for sin.  Suffering – as an inevitable part of our lives – is not punishment from God.  So we should not think of ourselves as somehow tarnished because we suffer.  We are not less because we suffer.

Yet I do think we are tempted to think that somehow we do become less because we suffer.  We take such precautions to protect ourselves from even seeing suffering.  Take for example the suffering that comes with ageing.  Is it possible we have convinced ourselves that ageing is an ugly violation of life – that ageing is to be resented and somehow hidden?  If we choose to shun the real human suffering in front of us, then we have chosen to shun our very humanity.  If we choose to resent suffering, then we have chosen to resent life itself.  Isaiah calls us to embrace our complete humanity – including our suffering – as full of meaning and value.  We are not less because we suffer.

In the gospel we learn how Jesus deals with suffering and also how he deals with power.  We recall he predicts his suffering, his passion to the disciples.  Jesus reckons with the violent suffering he correctly sees he will face.  And deliberately he moves toward it – in the sure hope that even out of suffering life will flow and flourish.  Life will triumph.

And in the gospel Jesus calls into question the way the powerful use their power.  The powerful in Jesus’ day were much like the powerful in our own day.  They measure themselves and their power by their ability to make themselves felt by others.  In the end they base their power and authority on their ability to make others submit.  Submission is crucial to the powerful.

Jesus rejects the kind of power which maintains itself through the submission of others.  Real power does not threaten – nor does it seek to impose itself.  Rather – for Jesus – real power serves.  Real power gives itself away.  In Jesus’ understanding – which to us seems to create a world that is upside down – real power seeks to expend itself – not expand itself – seeks to give and not to get.  And this kind of self-giving power Jesus identifies with the very presence of God.  This is the way God is.  This is simply how God is powerful.  So our God does not know how to lord it over us.  For Jesus anyone who seeks to lord it over others is merely indulging in self-pretense.  They have no real power.

As people – as a nation – and as a church we still have much to learn about suffering and power.  Especially in times of crisis and decision we need to learn to put our final trust in the Servant God – Jesus’ God whose self-giving-away goodness is recognized as the power at the very heart of all creation and life.

Once in a Sunday sermon the German mystic, Meister Eckhart, told his congregation: “When God created man, he put into his soul his equal, his active, his everlasting masterpiece.”  As God’s equal masterpiece, should we not be powerful as our God is powerful.  Let us become servants to one another and to all.  Let us live in the recognition that we are more when we give ourselves away.

We Are More

28th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Wisdom 7, 7-11 / Heb 4, 12-13 / Mark 10, 17-30

Jesus, looking at the man, loved him and so said to him:  “You are lacking but one thing.  Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor; then come, follow me.  At that statement the man’s face fell and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

What words here in this gospel scene do we not understand?  The man came to Jesus wanting more from life – wanting to find more in life.  Jesus recognized that in the man and loved him for it.  He offers him a way to find the more in life.  But the man – disappointed and saddened – turns from the way Jesus offers.

For myself – before the man’s face falls into sadness – I see fear.  I see fear in his face – fear of losing what he holds to be most necessary in his life – fear of losing what he has.

I see fear in the man’s face.  I remember making a ten-day retreat in 2003 at a Benedictine monastery in Pecos, NM.  Much of the retreat was spent reflecting on the reality and role of fear – in my own life, but also in our church and in the world.  The retreat was made when the sex scandal in the church and its fallout were very fresh.  The fear that I encountered in those reflections was not a fear that results in screams – but rather was a fear that brings on silence – silence and secrecy in response to the awful scandal.

As I prayed, I learned to ask: Why?  Why do I allow silence and secrecy to stifle and suffocate the Spirit of Christ given to me in baptism?  Why?  Why did – why do some bishops persist in the ways of silence and secrecy – ways so alien to the way Jesus offers us to finding life’s more, as we see in the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation?  These sacraments are ways to find life’s depth.

Also during the retreat I did some reading.  I read about Pope John Paul II – how on his first visit back to Poland as pope – he publicly and defiantly confronted the Warsaw regime, as he yelled to his fellow Poles:  You are not what they say you are.  You are more!  You are more!  And I reflected.  We are not what our fears say we are.  We are more.  We are not what silence and secrecy say we are.  We are more.

Likewise powerfully, publicly and defiantly we need to call into question those minimal, meager identities that our fears lock us into.  These are the identities which tell us:  You are what you have.  You are what you appear to be.  You are what people think of you.  These identities will only make our faces fall as we sadly walk away from life – from life’s depth – from the more in life that we already bear within us.

We may not tranquilize our sense of self with such trivia.  We may not choose to live only on our own surface.  For we are more!

Our way to conversion and liberation we will walk as we learn to loosen fear’s tight hold on our hopes and expectations for ourselves and one another.  They will happen as we learn to approach ourselves – approach one another – with reverence and wonder – as where God’s Spirit is present – learn to approach ourselves as capable of great and generous love.

In conclusion, let us hear again from today’s gospel – from today’s Good News.

They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves:  Who then can be saved?  Jesus looked at them and said:  For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.  All things are possible for God.

And so, sisters and brothers, we can live in hope.  We can live with one another in hope.  As church, as parish we are a community of hope.  We are more!

Sermon on the Amount

You have heard of the Sermon on the Mount.  We are calling this the Sermon on the Amount.  I am going to be talking bottom-line stuff, facts and figures- money.  And I’ll be also talking about our real bottom line:  our people, our resources and our commitment to building up the kingdom of God here in Charlotte.  You already know we are a growing parish.  I want to put a clearer face onto our growth.

In 2009, we had 799 registered households.  Today, we have 1425 registered households.  Our average age is 35.  57% of us are under 40.  27% are under 18.

Comparing ourselves to other Catholic parishes in Charlotte, whereas since 2006 they have experienced 15% growth, we have had 70% growth.  Taking a look at this year alone, 2012 up to the present:  123 new families have registered and their average age is 28.  So far in October alone, 11 new families have registered.  This is all a blessing.  We are grateful.  But the blessing of our growth brings responsibilities and challenges.

So at this point, I am going to be moving into money matters.  I want to talk about our parish collections, our basic source of income, and I want to say something about Diocesan finances.  My question is:  how are we doing at supporting ourselves as a blessed, growing parish?
Here are some important figures about our weekly income and expenditures.

In fiscal year 2008-2009:
-average weekly income- $16,414
-average weekly expenditures- $15,540
-an average of $874 in the black every week

In fiscal year 2011-2012:
-average weekly income- $17,853
-average weekly expenditures- $18,736
-an average of $883 in the RED every week

It is important to note this:  in going from 2008-09 to 2011-12, we had grown from 799 households to close to 1400 households.

Our present budget for 2012-13 projects:
-average weekly income- $18,665
-average weekly expenditures- $21,400
-an average of $735 in the RED every week

We have had the blessing of growth, but we have fallen significantly short of meeting the challenge of our growth.  In our present budget, we project a deficit of over $100,000.  Clearly, we cannot continue on this path.  It is unsustainable.

As your pastor, I ask you to give more money to the parish.  If you are a weekly contributor, I ask you to consider giving more.  Just a $5 increase will make a difference.  If you have not been in the habit of weekly giving, I ask you, upfront, to get into the habit.  We need more weekly income!

I also need to say something about Diocesan finances and how we fit into the system.  In particular, I want to talk about the Diocesan Support Appeal and the Priests Retirement Fund.

DSA (Diocesan Support Appeal) is an annual campaign to support the major works of the Diocese, including the many social justice works of the Diocese.  Each parish is assessed a certain amount as its campaign goal.  Our assessment is $83,451.  So far, we have received in payments and pledges, $50,995.73 giving us a shortfall of $32,455.27.  What is very significant is that from our parish with over 1400 families, we have had 131 individual donors give to the DSA.  That is a 10% participation.  Also, you should know this about how the Diocesan finances work.  If we as a parish do not meet our goal, then the Diocese takes the shortfall out of our operating budget.  In other words, one way or another, that goal of $83,451 will be met.  People have told me they want to support the parish but not the Diocese because of Amendment One, or the Nuns, or other issues.  So they do not give to the DSA but continue to give to the parish.  That does not work.  Not giving to the DSA amounts to not giving to the parish.

Finally, the Priests Retirement Fund.  This works like the DSA to support retired priests of the diocese.  Our assessed goal is $28,416.  We have collected $10,662.  Our shortfall is $17,753.  Our participation level parish wide has been 11%.  Like the DSA, our shortfall will be taken out of our operating budget.  Again, the goal will be met one way or another.  There is some confusion here because the priests here at St. Peter for the last 26 years have been Jesuits, not regular diocesan priests.  The thinking is that this retirement fund doesn’t apply to Jesuits.  But, the Diocese does pay into the Jesuit Retirement Fund.  So, Father Vince is presently enjoying a retirement supported by the Priests Retirement Fund, as did Father Jim Devereux before him.  As will Father Tom and myself after him.  I told you we already anticipate a budget deficit of $100,000.  Adding on to that deficit of our present shortfalls with DSA and the Priests Retirement Fund of $32,000 and $18,000 will increase our deficit by $50,000.

To help forestall that, next weekend we are having a special second collection and calling it:  Assessment Shortfall Collection.  Please, please try to give what and as much as you can.

My final conclusion to this Sermon on the Amount.

As a parish, we have had and continue to have the promise of growth.  And we have the problems of growth.  But above all we have PROMISES to keep.  We have promises to keep to our children.  If we want Catholicism, our Catholic faith to be part of their future, then we simply must make the effort including providing the needed financial resources.  National research centers rank Catholic students lower in religious knowledge than any other group, including non-believers.  We do not want that for our children.
We have promises to keep, promises to keep here in Charlotte.  As Catholics, we have made promises of social justice, promises of living a way of life that Jesus would recognize and applaud.  People in Charlotte, the care-receivers and the care-givers have come to rely on us to keep our promises.

So, please, as your pastor, I ask you:

 -reflect more deeply on our needs and responsibilities as a parish

-imagine more clearly those needs not being filled, see the people involved and turned away

-and yes, I ask you to DIG MORE DEEPLY INTO YOUR POCKETS AND YOUR HEARTS

Let us together keep the PROMISE of St. Peter’s parish.

Fr. Pat Earl, SJ