Confident Restoration of Sight

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to seek restoration by the Spirit from our blindness to violence and hatred.

Restoration and Review

The reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah declares Hope for the Future.

* [29:17–24] The prophet presents the positive aspects of God’s plan in terms of a series of reversals: an end to pride, ignorance, and injustice. Cf. 32:3–5.

* [29:22] Who redeemed Abraham: perhaps by revealing himself and delivering Abraham from idolatrous worship; cf. Gn 12:1–3; 17:1; Jos 24:2–3. (Isaiah, CHAPTER 29 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 27 is a Triumphant Song of Confidence.

* [Psalm 27] Tradition has handed down the two sections of the Psalm (Ps 27:1–6; 7–14) as one Psalm, though each part could be understood as complete in itself. Asserting boundless hope that God will bring rescue (Ps 27:1–3), the psalmist longs for the presence of God in the Temple, protection from all enemies (Ps 27:4–6). In part B there is a clear shift in tone (Ps 27:7–12); the climax of the poem comes with “I believe” (Ps 27:13), echoing “I trust” (Ps 27:3). (Psalms, PSALM 27 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus Heals Two Blind Men.

* [9:27–31] This story was probably composed by Matthew out of Mark’s story of the healing of a blind man named Bartimaeus (Mk 10:46–52). Mark places the event late in Jesus’ ministry, just before his entrance into Jerusalem, and Matthew has followed his Marcan source at that point in his gospel also (see Mt 20:29–34). In each of the Matthean stories the single blind man of Mark becomes two. The reason why Matthew would have given a double version of the Marcan story and placed the earlier one here may be that he wished to add a story of Jesus’ curing the blind at this point in order to prepare for Jesus’ answer to the emissaries of the Baptist (Mt 11:4–6) in which Jesus, recounting his works, begins with his giving sight to the blind.

* [9:27] Son of David: this messianic title is connected once with the healing power of Jesus in Mark (Mk 10:47–48) and Luke (Lk 18:38–39) but more frequently in Matthew (see also Mt 12:23; 15:22; 20:30–31). (Matthew, CHAPTER 9 | USCCB, n.d.)

Barbara Dilly comments that just as the people of Isaiah’s time, we seek to hear the word of the Lord and see through the gloom and darkness that surrounds our lives. We also seek a time when those who find fault with the lowly and the just, and are on the alert to do evil, shall receive instruction from the God of the house of Jacob.

But during Advent, we believe and wait for the Lord with courage, trusting that our Lord shall come with power and enlighten us so that we may see with more than just our eyes. At this time of Advent, we can look forward to acquiring spiritual understanding according to our faith. I pray that we will not be afraid of the light that reveals the spiritual truths we seek to understand the loveliness, the bounty, and the power of the Lord. (Dilly, 2024)

Don Schwager quotes “They saw because they believed in the Messiah,” by Hilary of Poitiers (315-367 AD).

"At that point, two blind men follow the Lord as he was passing by. But if they could not see, how could the blind men know of the Lord's departure as well as his name? Moreover, they called him 'Son of David' and asked to be made well. In the two blind men, the entire earlier prefiguration [miracles in Matthew 9:18-26] is complete. The ruler's daughter seems to be from these people, namely, the Pharisees and John's disciples, who already made common cause in testing the Lord. To these unknowing persons the law gave evidence as to the one from whom they sought a cure. It indicated to them that their Savior in the flesh was of the line of David. It also introduced light to the minds of those who were blind from past sins. They could not see Christ but were told about him. The Lord showed them that faith should not be expected as a result of health but health should be expected because of faith. The blind men saw because they believed; they did not believe because they saw. From this we understand that what is requested must be predicated on faith and that faith must not be exercised because of what has been obtained. If they should believe, he offers them sight. And he charges the believers to be silent, for it was exclusively the task of the apostles to preach." (excerpt from commentary ON MATTHEW 9.9) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 9:27-31 comments that we may have a serious need for physical healing, as these blind men did, or we may have any number of other pressing needs. Seeking out the Lord for these things is good and a blessing, but it’s just the beginning of what he has in store for us. Because it is when we seek him out in this way that he captures our hearts and invites us into a deeper relationship with him.

Are you calling out to the Lord today for some very practical need? He hears you and asks, “Do you believe that I can do this?” Trust that he can do what you are asking of him, even if you don’t receive an answer right away. But trust, also, that he has so much more that he wants to give you. As he invites you into a deeper relationship, he will soften your heart, unburden your conscience, bless you with joy and peace, and share a love beyond measure. Just like these two blind men, the need that brought you to Jesus is just the beginning of a transformation that has no end!

“Lord, let today be the beginning of my journey of following you, hoping in you, and understanding you more deeply!” (Meditation on Matthew 9:27-31, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments that Isaiah celebrates how God transforms gloom and darkness to rejoicing in the God of Abraham and faithfulness to the Covenant that brings meaning to their lives. In healing the two blind men, Jesus asks “Do you believe?” Friar Jude reminds us that God heals us in the way we most need it.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Author John Philip Newell who honors the work of scientist and Catholic priest Thomas Berry (1914–2009) who witnessed God throughout the cosmos.

Berry wanted us to be amazed, constantly amazed, by this one, single, interrelated body of the universe that new science describes as a single multiform reality, or as “Undivided Wholeness in Flowing Movement.” [2] It just keeps flowing and flowing into ever-new form. Four and a half billion years ago it flowed into the form of a planet of burning molten rock. And over the course of four billion years this globe of burning rock, Earth as it was later called, has transformed itself into birds and bees and butterflies, and into the emergence of human thought and music and love. We are each a shining flow of sacred energy.  

Homo sapiens, meaning wise ones, appeared 200,000 years ago. We are latecomers in this story. The term “wise ones” does not accurately describe what we have been to one another and to Earth, but it could yet describe what we will become. As Berry adds, there is good reason to hope that “the universe is for us rather than against us.” [3] Given the dangerous moments that have been navigated thus far in the unfolding story of humanity and Earth, there is good reason to hope. It is now up to us to live from the wisdom of the Spirit that is deep within us. [4] (Rohr, n.d.)

We reflect today, the anniversary of the Halifax Explosion in 1917 and the murder of the young women at the Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989, on the interruption of our vision of peace and progress in gender equality and resolve to work with the guidance of the Spirit to live in peace and love.

References

Dilly, B. (2024, December 6). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/120624.html 

Isaiah, CHAPTER 29 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/29?17 

Matthew, CHAPTER 9 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/9? 

Meditation on Matthew 9:27-31. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/12/06/1146168/ 

Psalms, PSALM 27 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/27?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). The Universe Story Is Spiritual. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-universe-story-is-spiritual/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Do You Believe? Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=dec6 

Forgiveness and Love

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today exhort us to a deeper experience of a living relationship of Love that springs from forgiveness.

Finding Forgiveness

The reading from the Prophet Hosea offers assurance of Forgiveness through sincere conversion and New Life.

* [14:4] These good intentions promise a reversal of Israel’s sins: no more reliance on “Assyria,” i.e., on foreign alliances (see notes on 8:9 and 12:2), on “horses,” i.e., on human power (10:13), and on idolatry (8:4–6; 13:2). Israel will trust in the Lord alone.

* [14:9] Verdant cypress tree: the symbol of lasting life, the opposite of the sacred trees of the Baal cult (4:13). The Lord provides the “fruit” (peri) to Israel (2:7, 10), another instance of the wordplay on Ephraim (see notes on 9:16 and 13:15).

* [14:10] A challenge to the reader in the style of the wisdom literature. (Hosea, CHAPTER 14 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 81 praises God’s Appeal to Stubborn Israel.

* [Psalm 81] At a pilgrimage feast, probably harvest in the fall, the people assemble in the Temple in accord with the Sinai ordinances (Ps 81:2–6). They hear a divine word (mediated by a Temple speaker) telling how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt (Ps 81:7–9), gave them the fundamental commandment of fidelity (Ps 81:9–11), which would bring punishment if they refused to obey (Ps 81:12–13). But if Israel repents, God will be with them once again, bestowing protection and fertility (Ps 81:14–16). (Psalms, PSALM 81 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus proclaims the First Commandment.

* [12:13–34] In the ensuing conflicts (cf. also Mk 2:1–3:6) Jesus vanquishes his adversaries by his responses to their questions and reduces them to silence (Mk 12:34).

* [12:28–34] See note on Mt 22:34–40. (Mark, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, n.d.)

Mary Lee Brock notes that Jesus says we must: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”  And before that profound message can begin to sink in, Jesus says: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus says, “there are no other commandments greater than these”. 

I am grateful for the ways I have been able to grow in my ability to love God and my neighbor, but I do not yet feel I am loving with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength.  As I prayed for the grace to understand how to grow in my ability to love, I was led to the Fall in Love prayer:

Fall in Love  by Joseph Whelan, SJ and often attributed to Pedro Arrupe, SJ

Nothing is more practical than
finding God, than
falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything. (Brock, 2024)

Don Schwager quotes “The fire of God's love,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Gravity keeps everything in its own place. Fire climbs up, while a stone goes down. Elements that are not in their own place are restless until they find it. This applies also to us. My weight is my love; wherever I go, I am driven by it. By the love of God we catch fire ourselves and, by moving up, find our place and our rest." (excerpt from Confessions 13,9) (Schwager, 2017)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Hosea 14:2-10 comments that Hosea’s message is a moving reflection of how deeply God desires a living relationship with his people. He makes it clear that returning to the Lord does more than wipe our slate clean. It also opens up a process of healing between those who love one another.

God doesn’t want us to wallow in guilt, just as he didn’t want the Israelites to be lost in their sin. He doesn’t want to burden you with shame; he wants to set you free so that you can live as the beloved child you truly are.

Let’s all bring our words to the Lord so that he can bring us his healing, reconciling love!

“Holy Spirit, help me to speak words of truth and humility and love as I confess my sins.” (Meditation on Hosea 14:2-10, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler notes how the Two Paths of Deuteronomy and Jeremiah resonate in the passage from Hosea who asks “Why not accept the gifts of God?” Sin imprisons us in our selfishness and self centred attitude. Friar Jude reminds us of the connection of Jesus' declaration of the Greatest Commandment to the Shema Israel, the creedal formula that focuses our mind, possessions, conscience on single minded pursuit of God and surrender to Love.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, acknowledges the shift that is required to recognize and honor the soul of nature.

When God manifests spirit through matter, then matter becomes a holy thing. The material world is the place where we can comfortably worship God just by walking on it, loving it, and respecting it. Everything visible, without exception, is the outpouring of God. What else could it really be? The incarnation is not only “God becoming Jesus.” It is a much broader event, which is why John’s Gospel first describes God’s presence in the general word “flesh” (John 1:14). This is the ubiquitous Christ that we continue to encounter in other human beings, in a mountain, a blade of grass, a spider web, or a starling. [2] When we can enjoy all these things as holy, “we experience the universe as a communion of subjects, not as a collection of objects” as the “geologian”  Fr. Thomas Berry said so wisely. [3]

When we love something, we grant it soul, we see its soul, and we let its soul touch ours. We must love something deeply to know its soul (anima). Before the resonance of love, we are largely inattentive to the meaning, value, and power of ordinary things to “save” us and help us live in union with the Source of all being. In fact, until we can appreciate and even delight in the soul of other things, even trees and animals, we probably haven’t discovered our own souls either. Soul knows soul through love, which Jesus teaches as the great commandment (Matthew 22:37–39). [4] (Rohr, 2017)

We ponder the role of forgiveness in our experience of the ancient Shema Israel that calls us to love God and neighbour with all our being.

References

Brock, M. L. (2024, March 8). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/030824.html 

Hosea, CHAPTER 14 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/hosea/14?2 

Mark, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/12?28 

Meditation on Hosea 14:2-10. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/03/08/908854/ 

Psalms, PSALM 81 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/81?6 

Rohr, R. (2017, November 9). God in All Things. YouTube: Home. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/god-in-all-things/ 

Schwager, D. (2017, November 9). You Are Not Far from the Kingdom of God. YouTube: Home. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=mar8