Are his promises meant for you?

Today I’d like to examine the quote from Isaiah 61 that Jesus read in yesterday’s Gospel (3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C).

The spirit of the Lord is upon me

because he has anointed me

to bring glad tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to bring liberty to captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to proclaim a year acceptable to the lord.

Anyone who has read the Gospels knows that this prophecy came true in Jesus Christ as he traveled through the region, taught, healed, exorcised and preached Good News to the poor, the desparate and the despairing. But how about us?

In order to appropriate this passage for ourselves, we need to hear it from a posture of humility and need. We need to look at ourselves and understand that in so many ways, we are the poor. What was your life like before you were seized by Jesus Christ? What would it be like if you rejected Him? And what is it like now during those times when you strip yourself of all the things you use to claim how well you’re doing, and simply kneel naked before the Lord and ask him to touch your life in ways you haven’t allowed yourself to do before.

Just a couple of questions will help:

·         How are you poor? Despite all your wealth, in what area of your life are you destitute and needy?

·         How are you a captive; what would liberty mean to you? Can I be set free from . . . . ?

·         What have you been blind to, even though you think you know and understand so much? Look back and realize how much you couldn’t see 5 or 10 years ago before your eyes were opened?

·         What oppresses you? A habit, an addiction, a sinful tendency, a toxic relationship, circumstances that cause you to suffer and where you feel helpless?

Finally, could it possibly be true that this year will be for you a special year, a year acceptable to the Lord as you continue to reflect, to contemplate, to think about your faith journey and to take the steps that the Lord invites you to take despite all the things that you think weigh you down permanently?

God bless you.

An antidote to pride

Saint Luke’s Gospel tells of a blind man who was sitting by the roadside begging, and who cried out,

“Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.” This is one of a number of encounters that Jesus has with the blind, and all of them are particularly valuable to us for our meditation and growth in spirit and in holiness.

This man was blind; he could not see. That is, he could not see the many things that we see naturally without giving a moment’s thought to them.

The blind man, however, did see in a deeper sense; He “saw” that a great and powerful man was approaching him; he” saw” the reality of Jesus’ lineage (Jesus, Son of David), and he “saw” his own need for merciful pity. The word he uses in Greek is eleison, the same word we use at Mass when we pray Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison. And we usually translate it as “have mercy,” but the current English translation of the Scriptures we are using at Mass has the blind man calling out not for mercy, but for pity.

That might rankle us and shake up our pride a bit. Do we think of ourselves as needing pity? The blind, the lame, the helpless, the lost, the paralyzed, the total loser---all of these need pity, a special brand of pity. They need the pity that is going to lead to action, to reparation, to restoration and to thorough healing.

But do we need pity? What might it cost our pride if we began to think of ourselves, not only as sinners in need of mercy, but certainly as the lost an prideful needing pity?

It might do us some good to humble ourselves in that way. And if we do, then, we will begin to see what we often overlook and what we tend to ignore or hide away.

Jesus has an answer to all of this: His answer: What do you want me to do for you?

Out of your humility, ask him. Now.