{"id":230,"date":"2012-10-28T10:00:16","date_gmt":"2012-10-28T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=230"},"modified":"2012-10-25T10:04:31","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T15:04:31","slug":"healing-blindness-in-todays-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=230","title":{"rendered":"Healing Blindness in Today’s World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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30th Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/span><\/h1>\n

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Jer 31: 7-9, Heb 5: 1-6, Mark 10: 46-52<\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n

By Deacon Larry Brockman<\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n

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How strong is your faith?\u00a0 <\/span>Are you willing to give up everything to cure your blindness?\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s what the blind man did in today\u2019s Gospel- he gave up everything because he believed that Jesus could cure him of his blindness.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Now you might say, \u201cWe\u2019ll, what did he really have to lose;\u00a0 <\/span>After all, he was desperate\u201d?\u00a0 <\/span>But you see, he stood to lose his cloak; and a cloak, in first century Jerusalem, was a critical possession.\u00a0 <\/span>It was protection against the elements- like wide swings in temperature and winds; and it doubled as a blanket at night. \u00a0<\/span>Because he was homeless, that cloak was Bartimaeus primary protection.\u00a0 <\/span>It may have even been his only possession.\u00a0 <\/span>It was unthinkable for him to drop it, and walk away because he might never be able to recover it.\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, Bartimaeus stood to lose whatever stability he did have in the world if he lost that cloak.\u00a0 <\/span>He stood to lose everything.\u00a0 <\/span>But Bartimeaus did just that- dropped it and walked away from it!\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s how deep his Faith was in the power of a man he couldn\u2019t even see- all on faith, a promise of something literally and figuratively unseen.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Now the faith Bartimaeus had in Jesus was all word of mouth from others as well.\u00a0 <\/span>So, something they told Bartimaeus must have really moved him.\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps it was because he could see with his heart what others did not see with their senses- that Jesus\u2019 message was different, not like that of the Pharisees.\u00a0 <\/span>It was compelling; revolutionary; and gave real and lasting meaning to life; and so Bartimaeus decided to take the risk, stepping out of what little comfort zone he had.\u00a0 <\/span>Because of the Faith he had in Jesus, he was cured of his physical blindness, and then he followed after Jesus.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Now most of you don\u2019t consider yourselves blind.\u00a0 <\/span>So what does this have to do with you?\u00a0 <\/span>Well, you know something; there are all kinds of blindnesses.\u00a0 <\/span>And I suspect that all of us could benefit by recognizing our blindnesses, and doing something about them.\u00a0 <\/span>Let me just talk about blindnesses that we might have.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Some of us are blind to how our society is becoming more and more secular; how our values are slowly eroding away.\u00a0 <\/span>Maybe it\u2019s because we are too busy working or caring for our families, or just trying to deal with life\u2019s trials, like illnesses, our children\u2019s events, sports, and social activities.\u00a0 <\/span>And so, we hear about things, but we really don\u2019t see them in the proper context; and we don\u2019t step out of our comfort zone to cure them.\u00a0 <\/span>Bans on school prayer, holiday trees rather than Christmas trees; the push for gay marriage rights; public funding of abortion; the HHS mandate forcing Churches and their institutions to cover immoral procedures and drugs- these are all evidence of eroding public morality.\u00a0 <\/span>Our Church teaches that acts like abortion and gay marriage are intrinsically evil, and must always be opposed by Catholics in good standing. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>But some of us are passive, inactive, yes even blind to these things and their consequences. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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When we are blind to what God\u2019s natural law is.\u00a0 <\/span>Then we are blind to the disastrous affects that changes in our values on marriage and life have on our society.\u00a0 <\/span>But they are leading society to acceptance of Euthanasia and alternate family styles that are contrary to God\u2019s plan.\u00a0 <\/span>That kind of blindness does harm to the body of Christ.\u00a0 <\/span>To correct it, we need to realize our blindness and step out of our comfort zone to act.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Secondly, consider our situation compared to the third world.\u00a0 <\/span>We consume at an ever faster rate and dump unspeakable amounts of garbage and waste- like plastic bags that virtually never degrade which clog our oceans and water ways, killing birds and animals along the way.\u00a0 <\/span>Meanwhile a very large percentage of the World\u2019s population lives in poverty.\u00a0 <\/span>Millions are starving; millions can\u2019t read or write; millions have inadequate shelter.\u00a0 <\/span>And while we pride ourselves that slavery is gone; many human beings are tricked by unprincipled people into the slavery of human trafficking.\u00a0 <\/span>Yet these offshore poor and the victims of human trafficking are ought of sight; out of mind.\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, it\u2019s another form of blindness.\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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The blindnesses that I just mentioned have a common theme- they are all characterized by a form of self-centeredness\u00a0 <\/span>A sort of tunnel vision which keeps us from seeing the reality of the larger world- a larger world that we are all called to see and to respond to.\u00a0 <\/span>Most of us are in some kind of comfort zone, and don\u2019t really want to step away from it to do something.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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Today, Jesus is calling all of us to do what Bartimaeus did- to throw off the protective cloak that keeps us in a safe haven; that protects us from things we would rather not see or deal with; and through Faith, resolve to open our hearts and minds to see these things as they really are so we can do something about them.\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a tall order, and it is hard to see what we can do that would really make a difference or even how we can get started.\u00a0 <\/span>But, the very first step is actually very easy- it is prayer.\u00a0 <\/span>Ask Jesus the very same thing that Bartimaeus asked Him: \u201cMaster, I want to see\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>Because when you do that, Jesus will respond, as in the Gospel: \u201cGo your way, your faith has saved you\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>And you have only to follow the urgings of the Lord in good faith, he can and will do the rest through you.\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Jer 31: 7-9, Heb 5: 1-6, Mark 10: 46-52 By Deacon Larry Brockman \u00a0 How strong is your faith?\u00a0 Are you willing to give up everything to cure your blindness?\u00a0 That\u2019s what the blind man did in today\u2019s Gospel- he gave up everything because he believed that Jesus could cure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[155,4,6],"tags":[156,157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}