Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. . -Year B - Sunday, 27 October 2024
https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/cHWUHWxyYH69lMx2lSj5?ru=Paul-Evangelion
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Please listen to the audio recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. . Year B - Sunday, 27 October 2024 - by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-30th-sunday-ordinary-time-sunday-27th-october-2024-year-b-episode-502/s-fMLtLt3RQA7
(EPISODE:502)
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Here is a blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus. He simply will NOT be silenced. He calls out for help even when well-meaning (but wrong-footed) people tell him to be silent. He persistently cries to Jesus for help, because he KNOWS that Jesus is the Messiah. He also KNOWS that Jesus can help him. {FHL}
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I can't help but wonder if Bartimaeus is not the inspiration for Jesus' parable of the persistent neighbour, who keeps knocking and calling out until he eventually gets what he needs. As Jesus said in that parable, other people would have given in to the persistent neighbour what they needed just because they wanted to stop him from irritating them and to give them some peace again. So how much more can we expect from God, who turns a real listening ear to our problems, a sympathetic ear to all people who cry out in their need.
Naturally, God is very much concerned with our welfare and what we need. God doesn't just answer us to shut us up, but out of the deepest care, love and compassion. The Gospel passage also says that Bartimaeus does something very powerful.
As he gets up to go to Jesus, he throws off his cloak. The cloak of a beggar was like their badge to show, I'm a beggar, this is my state in life, this is my job. He goes to Jesus.
He's already showing that he knows he's not going back to that old life and he doesn't want to either. Jesus asks of him what seems to be an obvious question, what do you want me to do for you? Jesus asks each of us, what do you want from me? Think about what you're really asking of me. What do you really want? What do you really need? Naturally, for Bartimaeus, he's asking for his sight back, but Jesus is asking him a deeper question at the same time.
Do you realise the consequences of what you're asking? Do you understand what this request is going to lead you to receive? For Bartimaeus, it doesn't just mean sight, it means a completely new life. When he receives his sight, he's no longer a beggar. His role that he'd been living for so long in that society was now changed and he could never go back to that.
He now faces a new life, a new vocation, a new everything. This is both exciting and scary. A true encounter with Jesus is always a joy and a challenge.
Our encounter with Jesus is a two-way dialogue. We speak to God of what our hopes and needs and fears are, and God replies with a silent question, what is it that you're really asking? And are you prepared for the whole change of circumstances that comes with what you're really asking for? Apparently, Bartimaeus is one of the few people whom Jesus cured that we're explicitly told in the text that he went on to become one of his disciples. So it's clear that as well as regaining his physical sight, Bartimaeus, just as importantly, possibly more importantly, has shown enormous clarity of spiritual vision into who Jesus is and what following him means.
When Bartimaeus regains his sight and Jesus tells him, go on your way, beautifully, Bartimaeus' way from now on is following Jesus along his way because it says he follows him along the way. He becomes a follower, a disciple. As he walks along following Jesus, he will continue to gain new sight, new knowledge.
In another sense, he'll gain the vision to cast off the cloak of his old ways, old excuses and faithfully follow along the new paths that Jesus is leading him along. We are like Bartimaeus. We're asking Jesus to show us and teach us deeper ways to combine love, mercy, justice, faithfulness to his teaching and that compassion for those who've stumbled or are searching for answers.
As we walk along the road of God's mercy, let's explore and celebrate the richness of God's mercy and love. We need to be careful about spiritual blindness. It can be a very subtle thing by its very definition.
The thing about spiritual blindness is we really have to go looking for it because it won't be obvious. We don't know what we're not seeing. We don't know what we've blinded ourselves to spiritually.
It's hard enough to move along the paths of Christ's love and awareness when we're aware of those contradictions in our lives. But Lord, save us from being so inconsistent that we don't even realize it. We can't see it.
That would be even worse. How can we change what we don't even realize? That is some kind of worrying blindness. So, let's ask the Lord to at least allow us to see those areas of hypocrisy and blindness and show them to us and heal us of them.
How is it that we can hear the gospel and not always realize that this very gospel is convicting us of precisely the qualities it criticizes? How is it that when we listen to the gospels, we don't always realize this message is directed at us? That we might be the Pharisees or the critics or the hypocrites that Jesus is talking about in the gospel. It's not just those people 2,000 years ago. It could be me.
It could be us. So, we have to ask ourselves constantly in our prayer and our reflection and meditation, do I do that? How do I do this? And be very wary if we're very quick to say, oh, that's not me. That's other people.
No, that's unsettled me. I'm not going to deal with that. And just go back to very quickly the way we were always doing things, the way we were always seeing things and miss that spiritual blindness.
It's glaring at us. Christ invites us to be transformed. He's doing this to make us more and more free in his love.
If we ask the Lord to free us from spiritual blindness, the Lord will do it. The Lord will lovingly show us the contradictions. But if we ask the Lord, we have to be prepared to sit there in a bit of discomfort as we allow God to pour that healing on us and lead us through it.
And it doesn't always happen overnight. If we know what we're asking for and what it means for us, it's very much worth it. To what extent am I capable of being blind to the challenging message and vision of Jesus? In what ways do we listen and listen and yet not hear? How do we look and look but not see? As Jesus pointed out.
Lord, show us the light, help us to see, give us the courage to sit in discomfort so that we might see those areas that you need to heal in us and to trust in your challenging, loving and healing word.
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References:
Homily Fr Paul W. Kelly
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (or/ The Lord be with You)
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{{Love and joy be with everyone}} welcome everyone, we gather - Ponder with reverence, God's word and sacrament.
Coming together as brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pause and reflect upon our sins before celebrating the Holy Eucharist.
Lord Jesus, you raise us to new life: Lord, have mercy
Lord Jesus, you forgive us our sins: Christ, have mercy
Lord Jesus, you feed us with your body and blood: Lord, have mercy
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
3. Save us, Saviour of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.
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Ps 126: 1-2a, 2b-3, 4-5, 6. "The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy."
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (cf. 2 Tim 1: 10). Alleluia, alleluia! Our Saviour Jesus Christ has done away with death. And brought us life through his gospel.
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PREFACE: Sundays VII
EP II
(theme variation: 4 )
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{May God's grace strengthen your faith hope and love, and may the Lord' love surprise you, even in the trials and challenges of this week. }
Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.
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Archive of homilies and reflections: http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email: paulwkelly68@gmail.com
To listen to our weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks
Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly
Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)
Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)
"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins publishers.
Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).
Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" - By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.
- "Faith, Hope and Love" theme hymn - in memory of William John (Bill) Kelly (1942-2017) - Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Music by Paul W. Kelly. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.
"Quiet Time." Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.
- "Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly. Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.
Sound Engineering and editing - P.W. Kelly.
Microphones: - RODE NT-USB-mini
Editing equipment: NCH software - MixPad Multitrack Studio Recording Software
NCH – WavePad Audio Editing Software. Masters Edition v 12.44
Sound Processing: iZotope RX 6 Audio Editor
[Production - KER - 2024]
May God bless and keep you.
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