(Click Here For Archived Homilies)

Reverend Jerry Singleton’s Homily

October 25, 2009
30th Sunday of Year
Cycle B

I think most of us are familiar with the story of Helen Keller, as a child she was struck blind at the age of two, and she describes herself as having been full of rage and anger, and was like a ship in a deep fog with no compass.  She was a prisoner in her own body and she remained in that condition until Annie Sullivan came into her life.  Through Annie Sullivan, who was her teacher and mentor, she transformed her life.  Through the efforts of Annie Sullivan she developed an inner sight, which in many ways was more beneficial to her in her life than her regular sight.  It reminds us of today’s Gospel and the story of the blind man Bartimaeus, and while we focus alot on his sight being restored by Christ, the real story was the blind man’s faith.  We see him calling out to Christ to heal him, and for him to do so had required a great trust that Christ was able to do it, and that Christ would do it.  Then we read that when his sight was restored he followed Christ for the remainder of his time here on earth.  So in other words, his faith and trust in Christ was a critical story in today’s Gospel.

So we ask ourselves where do we fit into all of this and what does it mean to us.  We find it very difficult to identify with a man who is physically blind.  But in reality we realize that there is more to life than physical sight.  We often speak of hindsight, foresight, and insight.  When we speak of hindsight we often refer to “how could I have been so blind” or “how could I have not seen it”.  The reality is that we all suffer from blindness at some time or another, and indeed on many occasions.  Primarily our blindness, whether it is in hindsight, foresight, or insight, has a lot to do with our denial system.  We all have denial systems, and these denial systems in some ways may be necessary for our survival.   So often in life that denial system does us harm, because we block insight and foresight.  For example, in the recent turmoil in the economic world a lot of us were in denial that things would ever change, and our greed was part of our denial system.  We can be in denial in hindsight because we don’t want to admit that we may have made mistakes, so we miss the opportunity to learn and grow from our past.  Consequently we are bound to repeat those mistakes and we fail to make amends. 

We all need to make and own the prayer of the blind man in today’s Gospel when he said “Lord help me to see.”  If we are serious, then we need to have trust that God will help us to see.  Above all we need to have a willingness to see. Because there are none so blind as those who do not want to see.  We need to pray to see what separates us from Christ and each other.  We need to pray that we can see what may be destructive in our lives.  We pray to see what rationalizations I use to continue doing what I am doing, even though it is harmful.  Therefore we truly pray with the blind man in today’s Gospel “Lord help me to see”.

© 2010 Saint Anthony Catholic Church, Fort Laud., Florida