October 27: “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”

“You did it to me.” Whenever Jesus heals a physically blind person in the Gospel, it is often ends up revealing the spiritual blindness of others. The physically blind, and the lame were considered by many to be terrible sinners. They thought that their blindness must have been a punishment for their sins. Furthermore, at that time they were considered burdens on society. Jesus turns their thinking upside down. He shows us that every person has dignity for being born sons and daughters of our Father, and for being redeemed by his precious blood. It is a dignity shown in today’s Gospel reading when Jesus hears Bartimaeus calling out to him, and even though the crowd tries to silence Bartimaeus, Jesus calls him, he comes to Jesus and Jesus asks the question he asks each of us today, “What do you want me to do for you?” Our answer will be an important one. As we come to the end of October and Respect Life Month, as we near the eve of another divisive election, I’m afraid many within the Church are being leavened by the world rather than being leaven for the world. Many within the Church are forgetting that if we give up on faith, hope and love, all that will remain is the pre-Christian struggle for power. But this is not our way. We are being spiritually blinded by the lure of political promise and fear. With Bartimaeus, we need to respond, “Master, we want to see. We want to see everything, including every person- especially those we disagree with- as you see them in your eyes. Knowing that our dignity is not something we can earn, it is not something we can discern by the amount of worldly success, or health, or wealth one has. Rather, it is something that is there, simply because you love us. Master, we want to see!” Human dignity is a mystery. But like all of the mysteries of our Catholic faith, it’s not completely incomprehensible. We can still understand much about mystery. And one of the saints who taught us about the mystery of human dignity was Mother Theresa. She often referenced the words of Jesus who said, that whatever we do or fail to do for the least among us, we do it to him. And this became her mantra whenever she was helping society’s outcasts, five little words, “You. Did. It. To. Me”. Years ago, I was assisting at Mass at my former parish and during communion, I was distributing the precious body of our Lord. At one point, I grabbed a host and discovered there were two hosts stuck together. I tried to separate them but with the ciborium in one hand, I wasn’t able to do so, I set them aside and continued distributing. Well, there were a lot of people at Mass that day so before long, I accidentally picked them up again. This time, I spent a little longer trying but they were really stuck and I was afraid they would shatter and I end up all over the place. So, I set them aside again. A little later, I ended up with them in hand again, and this time I said, “You know what Lord? This person is just going to get two.” I distributed, the communicant received, and then turned to go back to her pew. And it was only then that I noticed she was with child. That memory has been the source of much prayer over the years. What I hear the Lord saying in my meditation is that they both need fed. We have to feed them both. Obviously in relation to the question of abortion, but also in every area of life where we are being told we have no choice but to pick sides; mothers and their unborn children, the poor, the immigrant, the prisoner, the political left or right, Orthodox Christianity or Progressive Christianity, and the list goes on. We’re told we have to decide, “either this or that”. We remember that Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Without a scapegoat to blame all of our problems on and pacify us for a while, division will come. But woe to those who revel in the division for the sake of division itself, they are inspired by a spirit that is not of God. What Jesus revealed about the worst of sinners, even those who crucified him, was that the Father loves them. And if he even loved them, we can no longer justify the mistreatment or neglect of any human being. We can no longer say of the unborn child being destroyed in the womb for profit, “it’s none of my business”. We can no longer say to the desperate mother, “well you got pregnant, you alone are responsible”. We can no longer say to the immigrant seeking a life of safety and security, “you’re not our problem”. We can no longer say the elderly and the infirm living in isolation, “we don’t have time to visit you”. We can no longer say of the political leaders we dislike, “he or she is evil and therefore, we can speak evil upon them”. You. Did. It. To. Me. How many people today, when we consider what Jesus would do in a given situation happily suggest that flipping over tables and driving people out of the Temple is a legitimate option? As if we can read that part of the Gospel in isolation. And forget that Jesus was willing to die for those same people. There are many serious sins being committed today. Invoking Jesus’ name to justify our hatred and violence is one of the most serious. It was so much easier to have scapegoats, to believe we could justify a crime against humanity by claiming it was the will of god or the gods. It was easier to have a scapegoat, we could blame all of our sins on and either drive it out into exile or slaughter it as was done in every society throughout history. But our God, the lamb of God, the scapegoat who ended all scapegoats truly takes away all the sins of the world. And he proclaims that no crime against humanity is in accordance with the Father’s will, that whether done through commission or omission every crime is a crime against him. You. Did. It. To. Me. So how do we establish peace and order? We’re still trying to figure that out aren’t we? It starts with understanding that governments will no longer be able to the convince entire societies to shut their eyes to the human dignity of a person or group of persons that are being mistreated. It starts when we no longer make excuses for injustices toward anyone. It starts when we remember the promise of our God who said, Behold, I will bring my people back, “I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, the mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng.” It will start when we refuse to pick sides and when we decide we can feed them both. Lord Jesus, we have been blinded to human dignity. We know that we cannot give what we have not received. We cannot see the infinite dignity of others, until we see it in ourselves. In the celebration of this Holy Eucharist, help us to see ourselves as you see us. Master, we want to see!