Selections/Long shots (2011-04-03, Lent)

This is my homily for Sunday, 3 April 2011. I am a Catholic chaplain at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) campus and for the FDU Newman Catholic Association. We celebrate Catholic Mass - during Fall and Spring semester - every Sunday Mass (7:30 p.m.) at the Interfaith Chapel, 842 River Road, Teaneck, NJ.

Exodus 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a | Psalm 23 | Ephesians 5:8-14 | + John 9:1-41


[__01-surprise, dark horse candidates__]

Sometimes, we are surprised regarding who makes it to the finals, the finals of a tournament, a competition. Or in the case of the Pharisees, they are concerned about the finals of salvation, they are concerned with who is worthy to be saved.

In the Book of Samuel and the Gospel of John, we see two individuals who are selected, but seem unlikely choices.

The envelope, please. What is really written there? Do they measure up? The Pharisees would want to know.

[__02-who? David, beggar__] David, in the Book of Samuel is the first of these two long shots.

The second long shot is the blind beggar in the Gospel of John.

[__03-David__] David is selected, then awarded – anointed – the King of Israel by Samuel. An unlikely starter, David has 7 (seven) older brothers who are stronger, more experienced, blue-chip prospects, right?

This youngest one, David, is not even at home when the important call comes in. David must be retrieved from the sheepfold, from the field. We wonder if they have a uniform that will fit him.

David of Bethlehem is an unlikely selection, just as Jesus himself appears to be when he is born in Bethlehem.

[__04-Blind Beggar__] The second longshot is the blind beggar, the blind man of the Temple who finds his way to the Final Four in Jerusalem.

Immediately do the spectators – Pharisees and Christ’s disciples alike – wonder who he is, how could have made it this far?

And, why is this man blind. Surely this would hurt his candidacy for salvation, his worthiness, for happiness. This is the Pharisee view.

[__05- why convict?, comfort = see? - PHARISEES __]

The Pharisees feel comfortable with those whom they can see …and those who can see them.

“Stay where I can see you.”

Aren’t we – also -- most comfortable speaking with someone we can see, or someone we can visualize? On the telephone, I cannot see the other person. However, I feel comfortable with someone whom I know moreso than with someone I do not know.

Sight and light and vision matters in a relationship.

The Pharisees want to be recognized, to be seen.

They express a desire that we also have – we want others to understand us, notice us, see us…

And, if they ignore us…well … then we may pay them back by ignoring them also.

[__06-why convict, comfort = see? – YOU & ME] We also require, at times, evidence of another person’s love or friendship. Give me something I can see … something real, something tangible.

There is a time and place for this – we are called, at times, in committed relationships – especially in marriage and family – to back our commitments with actions.

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks of, for example, husbands and wives serving each other. This mutual service is evidence – visible evidence - of commitment.

Paul also writes … we are not people of the night but of day. Let us throw off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

In all of these ways, we want to see and to be seen and to be known.

[__06__] The Lord, however, sees something which others miss in the blind man. And, he invites us to do the same – to love one another as he loved us, which includes not only tolerating the faults and weaknesses of another person, but discovering a worthiness in each person apart from his or her faults.

The faults one can clearly see just as one could see that David lacks – at the current time – the height and strength of his brothers. Still, he is chosen.

And, still the blind man is healed.

[__07__] Jesus says here is the Good News. To the Pharisees who are so dead set on other “favorites” that they choose to single out the blind man for sinfulness and they miss their own sins. Well, to the Pharisees who are stuck on the blind man’s sinfulness, Christ says – see, I have given my grace to the guilty, to the sinner, the prisoner.

And, to those who do not worry so much about the blind man’s worthiness but their own (this is the rest of us), we see that the Lord wants to uncover, to see, to bring to light the gifts which others might leave in darkness, for God has an entirely different selection process and road to the finals. [_end_]