Christian Community Homilies: Luke 18:35-43

Showing posts with label Luke 18:35-43. Show all posts

Sunday, August 21, 2022

5th Trinity III 2022, Divine Working Within

5th Trinity III

Luke 18:35-43

Julia Stankova

It happened as he approached Jericho: a certain blind man was sitting by the road begging. Hearing the crowd going by, he wanted to know what was happening, and they told him Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He cried out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, "What do you want that I should do for you?"

He said to him, "Lord, that I may look up and see again."

And Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you." [or, your faith has healed you.]

At that moment, his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being—and all who saw it praised God.

5^th Trinity III
August 21, 2022
Luke 18:35–43

Christ is always willing to work with us. He moves along with us in our lives, always nearby. But a veil of opposition, all the attempts of the adversary to prevent a face-to-face encounter, blind us. Christ waits for us to call out to him. And with great respect, he asks us: “What do you want that I should do for you? (Luke 18:41).

What would each of us answer? What is our deepest wish?

The blind man asks for vision. His physical blindness is a metaphor for the blindness of all humanity. He is asking not only for the healing of his earthly sense of sight. He is also asking to be able to perceive the beings and workings of the upper worlds. He is asking for the healing of the old, deep wound; it was caused long ago by the Fall when we were catapulted out of conscious companionship with the angels. We are blind to their presence and working.

Julia Stankova

The blind man himself had taken the first few steps. He had overcome outer obstacles. He asks for a deeper level of healing, and because he is ripe for it, Christ can point out that the potential for healing is already within him. “Through your faith and trust,” he says, “the power for healing [the old human wound] has been awakened within you” (Luke 18:42).

At that moment, his eyes are opened. And what
does he see? He sees the miraculous paradox. He sees standing before him the highest Son of God within the flesh of the noblest human being. God in the flesh.

In the Act of Consecration, we, too, have the opportunity to become seeing. We have overcome obstacles and resistances to arrive here. We ask that we, too, may look up and see. Our eyes open, and we perceive the miraculous paradox — the highest God in a body of bread and wine. And we begin to see on a higher and deeper level.

“Thus is revealed the working of the divine within the human being” (Luke 18:43).

Sunday, August 22, 2021

5th Trinity III, 2021, Unthinkable

5th Trinity III

Luke 18:35-43

It happened as he approached Jericho: a certain blind man was sitting by the road begging. Hearing the crowd going by, he wanted to know what was happening, and they told him Jesus of

Brian Jekel

Nazareth was passing by. He cried out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, "What do you want that I should do for you?"

He said to him, "Lord, that I may look up and see again."

And Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you." [or, your faith has healed you.]

At that moment, his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being—and all who saw it praised God.

5^th August Trinity

August 22, 2021

Luke 18:35-43

Imagine only being able to look downward, to only see the ground under your feet. Certainly there are small miracles there—the beauty of sand grains or green grass. But looking up, elevating our gaze, opens up whole worlds. We can take in the majesty of mountains, the ever-transforming sky, the magnificence of the stars. We can perceive the wonders of all our fellow creatures. Whole levels of meaning emerge.

Jorge Coco Santangelo

The blind man asks Christ to help him look up and see again. He wants to elevate his gaze, to take in the expanse of the universe, to experience new levels of meaning. And Christ tells him that because he trusts that this is possible, the power to enlarge his vision is already operating in him, is already elevating his gaze. His openness allows him to receive his sight.

In a sense, we are all blind. Yet the ability to see, the power of vision, is not merely given to us from without. It is an indwelling capacity given to us by God, a capacity we can further cultivate. It is partly a matter of ignoring those inner and outer voices which would squelch our attempts to elevate our gaze. And it is a matter of trusting that it is possible, and listening for the Voice that says that we have the power to heal our own inner blindness, to raise our gaze upward.

And ultimately, when our eyes open and our gaze rises, we encounter the One speaking to us, the One who helps us heal, the One who gave us our sight.

And in the words of the poet, He tells us to look at the true yet commonplace miracles:

…a small and airy cloud
is able to upstage the massive moon.

...

A miracle, just take a look around:
the inescapable earth.

An extra miracle, extra and ordinary:
the unthinkable can be thought.*

*Wislawa Szymborska, "Miracle Fair"

Sunday, August 23, 2020

5th Trinity III 2020, Found Word

5th Trinity

Luke 18:35-43

Julia Stankova

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I should do for you?”

He said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.”

And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.” (your faith has healed you.)

At that moment, his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God.

5^th Trinity

August 23, 2020

Luke 18:35-43

Light itself is invisible. Light only reveals itself in its working with darkness. In permeating the darkness, light creates color. Color is a manifestation of the creative work, the deeds of light.

The blind man in today’s reading wants to look up and see again. He asks the one who calls himself the Light of the World to be merciful to him, to interact with his darkness, so that together they may create. We can imagine that already the man’s courage to ask, his refusal to be silenced, has an inner color we could picture as a strong red. He has the clear green hope of healing. Christ verifies that a deep level of trust lives in him, which we might see as a deep blue. Indeed, the Light of the World is already working in him. Christ’s proximity already works to create the inner colors that light up in the soul’s darkness.

Though we may be blind to him, Christ is always near.

We hear his words whenever we hear the gospels, whenever we listen to the inspirations of conscience. The light of his presence works with us to create the inner colors of the soul – the blue of trust, the red of courage, the green of hope. For the light shines in the darkness, and although we may not grasp it, we can receive it, bear it, gestate it, so that the soul gives birth to the Light’s colors. We can invite God to enter us, to work in us.

In the words of John O’Donohue:

… when we come to search for God,

Let us first be robed in night,

Put on the mind of morning

To feel the rush of light

Spread slowly inside

The color and stillness

Of a found word.*

www.thechristiancommunity.org

*John O’Donohue, “For Light”, in To Bless the Space Between Us.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

4th August Trinity 2019, Unthinkable Can Be Thought

August Trinity

Luke 18, 35-43

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I should do for you?”

He said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.”

And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.” ( your faith has healed you)

In that moment his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God.

4^th August Trinity 2019

Luke 18: 35 – 43

Imagine only being able to look downward, to see only the ground under your feet. Certainly, there are small miracles there—the beauty of sand grains or green grass. But looking up, elevating our gaze, opens up whole worlds. We can take in the majesty of mountains, the ever-transforming sky, the magnificence of the stars. We can perceive the wonders of all our fellow creatures.

Whole levels of meaning emerge.

Brian Jekel

In a sense, we are all blind. Yet the ability to see is an indwelling capacity given to us by God, a capacity we can further cultivate. It is partly a matter of ignoring those inner and outer voices which would squelch our attempts to elevate our gaze. And it is a matter of trusting that it is possible, and listening for the Voice that says to trust the power to heal our inner blindness, to raise our gaze upward.

And ultimately, when our eyes open and our gaze rises, we encounter the One speaking to us, the One who helps us heal, the One who gave us our sight.

And in the words of the poet He tells us to look at the true yet commonplace miracles:

…a small and airy cloud
is able to upstage the massive moon.

...

A miracle, just take a look around:
the inescapable earth.

An extra miracle, extra and ordinary:
the unthinkable can be thought.*

* Wislawa Szymborska, "Miracle Fair"

Visit our website!

Sunday, August 19, 2018

5th August Trinity 2018, See Clearly

5th Trinity August

Luke 18, 35-43

Brian Jekel

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I should do for you?”

He said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.”

And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.” ( your faith has healed you)

In that moment his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God.

5^th August Trinity

August 19, 2018

Luke 18: 35-43

If at night the lights suddenly go out, we stop. For we can no longer see our surroundings. We cannot even take in what light there is, for we are temporarily blind.

Josephine Wall

Once upon a time in Paradise, humankind could see the creative divinity, working in the flowing ether light that forms and shapes the world. But since Adam and Eve ate the fruit of knowledge, humankind has inherited a kind of blindness. We no longer look up and see God; no longer see the angels; no longer see the Light behind our daylight. We are blind without even knowing it. The common light of day obscures our vision. But we can still hear.

Holman Hunt

The blind beggar hears that Jesus is passing by. He engages Him and asks to look up and see again—not just to see common objects; not even to see the faces of his loved ones. He wants to look up and see God, see the angels, see the Light behind the light. His firm knowledge that there is such a realm, and his trust that his eyes can be opened to it, opens his vision. And he sees before and above him—Christ—the Light of the world, the creator of Life, the very essence of Love.

We too will one day look up and see again. For we can hear the promise in Paul’s words as he says, ‘For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face.*

Or as a modern version puts it:

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!**

Visit our new website!

*1 Corinthians 13:12, King James version

** 1 Corinthians 13:12, The Message (MSG) Bible, by Eugene Peterson

Sunday, August 20, 2017

5th August Trinity 2016, Looking Upward (Redux)

5th Trinity August

Christ Heals the Blind Man, Gioacchino Assareto, WikiCommons

Luke 18, 35-43

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I should do for you?”

He said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.”

And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.” (Your faith has healed you.)

In that moment his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God.

5th Trinity August

Brian Jekel

August 21, 2016

Luke 18, 35-43

In today’s reading, a human being, blind and begging, hears Christ Jesus passing by. He recognizes an opportunity for healing. What he asks for is to be able to ‘look upward and see once again.’ This implies that he wants to ‘raise his sights’. It implies the restoration of something lost.

We can perhaps remember a time in our own lives, perhaps in childhood, when everything we looked at was kissed by the ineffable. Everything sparkled with a kind of gentle magic. Part of the underlying sorrow of adolescence is due to the loss of the numinous. A kind of blindness sets in that makes everything now seem common and ordinary, colorless.

What created the magic was a child’s lingering relationship to the living world of the divine spirit. We still partially saw through heavenly eyes.

It was part of the course of human evolution that we should lose this kind of connection in order to gain our freedom and self-awareness. The sense of being cut off and blind is a necessary step on the way to seeing again in a new kind of way.

Now we have the freedom to ask for a healing of our vision. Christ gives us the capacity to look up and to see everything through the eyes of love. Our eyes can be saturated with wonder and awe; they can radiate gratitude and compassion. This is the renewed working of the divine within. This is the holy, healing spirit that drenches our beholding with spiritual light. We can see the healing spirit, shining in all that we behold.

Visit our website!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

5th August Trinity 2015, Corn Maiden

5th Trinity August

Brian Jekel

Luke 18, 35-43

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I should do for you?”

He said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.”

And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.” (your faith has healed you)

In that moment his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God.

5th Trinity August

August 23, 2015

Luke 18, 35-43

We can think of our senses as doorways between our souls and the world. They bring the outside world into us. Even if one or the other of the senses is weak, the others can to some degree compensate.

In today’s gospel, the blind man is lacking the vision’s input into his soul. All the more acutely does he depend upon his hearing. He is aware of the crowd passing, all abuzz with something happening ‘out there’. And he rouses himself to find out what is happening. When they tell him that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, he becomes even more active. He shouts for an interaction with Him. He knows that this is not only someone called Jesus of Nazareth, but also that this is a Son of David, of the kingly line, and so he asks for His mercy and grace. He lets no one stop him from an interaction with Jesus.

Jesus asks what He can do for him. Again the blind man must become active – this time inwardly. He searches his soul and recognizes that he wants not only to see again in the ordinary way, but that he wants to ‘look up and see again’. He wants not only to see earthly things, but also things of heaven. And when the blockage is removed and his vision restored, he looks up and sees – Christ, the one who has brought heaven to earth. And so he resolves to follow him and become a disciple.

This reading encourages us too to ask for mercy; to override hindrances, to ask again. It asks us to recognize that what we truly and deeply want is a relationship with Christ, actively pursued. We want our senses to be healed so that we can see and recognize Him, the Lord of Life, here and now on the earth.

The poet Mary Oliver writes about our longing to see and our faith that it is possible:

Every summer

I listen and look

under the sun's brass and even

Corn Maiden, T. Lambert

into the moonlight, but I can't hear

anything, I can't see anything --

….

And still,

every day,

the leafy fields

grow taller and thicker --

[the corn’s] green gowns lofting up in the night,

showered with silk.

And so, every summer,

I fail as a witness, seeing nothing --

all of it

happening

beyond any seeable proof, or hearable hum.

And, therefore, let the immeasurable come.

….

One morning

in the leafy green ocean

the honeycomb of the corn's beautiful body

is sure to be there.*

*Mary Oliver, “Little Summer Poem Touching the Subject of Faith” in West Wind

Visit our website!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

5th August Trinity 2014, Rush of Light

5th Trinity August

Brian Jekel

Luke 18, 35-43

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I should do for you?”

He said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.”

And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.” ( your faith has healed you.)

In that moment his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God.

5^th August Trinity

August 24, 2014

Luke 18: 35-43

Light itself is invisible. Light only reveals itself in its working with darkness. Permeating darkness, light creates color. Color is a manifestation of the creative work, the deeds of light.

The blind man in today’s reading wants to look up and see again. He as the one who calls himself the Light of the World to be merciful to him, to interact with his darkness, so that together they may create. We can imagine that already the man’s courage to ask, to refuse to be shushed, has an inner color we could picture as a strong red. He has the clear green hope of healing. Christ verifies that a deep level of trust lives in him, which we can see as a deep blue. Indeed, the Light of the World is already working in him. Christ’s proximity already works to create the inner colors that light up in the soul’s darkness.

Though we may be blind to him, Christ is always near. We hear his words whenever we hear the gospels, whenever we listen to the inspirations of conscience. The light of his presence works with us to create the inner colors of the soul – the blue of trust, the red of courage, the green of hope. For the light shines in the darkness, and although we may not grasp it, we can receive it, bear it, gestate it, so that the soul gives birth to the Light’s colors. We can invite God to enter us, to work in us.

In the words of John O’Donohue:

… when we come to search for God,

Let us first be robed in night,

Put on the mind of morning

To feel the rush of light

Spread slowly inside

The color and stillness

Of a found word.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] John O’Donohue, “For Light”, in To Bless the Space Between Us.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

5th August Trinity 2007, Christ Light

5th Trinity August

Luke 18, 35-43

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I should do for you?”

He said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.”

And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.” ( your faith has healed you)

In that moment his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God.

5^th August Trinity

August 19, 2007

Luke 18: 35 – 43

In deep darkness, the world seems to shrink down to a few feet. At dawn the world bursts open and is recreated for us. Pictures begin fill the air and spring to life. The light re-creates the world and heals our separation from the world and from the light itself.

Christ, the Sun God, came to shed His light, to create His light in the darkness of earth existence. He came to bring His creative light to human beings, for we had all become blinded by earthly darkness. But fortunately we could still hear.

The blind man near Jericho hears the crowd of those around Christ. He inquires and then cries out. Despite all resistance, he connects himself with the Light, puts himself at the mercy of the Light that heals, the light that elevates, the light that reveals. His directed will, his trust and his faith, working in the Light, bring about the healing of his separation from the world. For him Dawn breaks; he can look up and see – Christ, the Sun God, walking, enlightening, and healing here on earth.

The seasonal prayer speaks of the Healing God who illuminates the world. This Spirit created the world in all its order, form and beauty. We pray that we may see the evidence of this spirit in the world. We pray that we may grasp the Healing Spirit and let it work within ourselves, illuminating what and how we see. We pray that the Spirit Light enlighten what we know. Aware that we are subject to earthly darkness, we pray that the Light of Spirit approach us, shining in the world, to shine on us, in us, out of us, in all our soul’s ways.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

Friday, August 30, 2013

5th August Trinity 2008,The Working of the Divine

5th Trinity August

Luke 18, 35-43

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I should do for you?”

He said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.”

And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.” ( your faith has healed you)

In that moment his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God.

5^th August Trinity

August 24, 2008

Luke 18, 35 – 43

Incidents often have several layers to them. On the surface they may seem simple enough. But opening the layers reveals a richness of complexity.

Today’s short reading seems simple. A blind man asks for and receives his sight. But there are further rich layers to be mined.

First of all, this takes place near Jericho. Jericho is the place where the Hebrews, faithful to divine instruction, conquered the city. They circled around it for seven days, blowing their ram’s horns and shouting so that the city wall collapsed (Joshua 6). Out of this incident there also emerges one of Jesus’ possible female ancestors[1]. Today’s reading plays out against this historic backdrop of faith and sound.

The man, though blind, is not cut off from his surroundings; he perceives much – he hears; he is attentive, even curious. When a crowd goes by, he takes the initiative to ask what is happening. When he discovers that the well-known Jesus is in the crowd, he amplifies his initiative. He cries out in a loud voice, addressing Jesus as the son of David, hinting at the hope that because Jesus belongs to the house of David, He could indeed be the expected Messiah. He asks for mercy, that is, for compassionate consideration of the imprisonment of his blindness.

Immediately he meets with an adversarial reaction from the leadership. He is threatened and told to be quiet. But he does not let pressure or fear overcome his desire to connect with Christ. He cries out all the louder.

Jesus, meanwhile, doesn’t just storm over and cure him. He stops. He stills Himself. He invites, by having the blind man led over to Him. The blind man must be courageous and walk toward the one he cannot see. And then Christ asks the blind man what it is that he wants. In effect Christ lets the blind man determine his own outcome by having him define what it is that he wants.

And the man’s reply bears looking at closely: “Lord, that I may look up and see again.” Luke 18:41[2] He is asking, in effect, asking not only for everyday eyesight. He is also saying, ‘May I raise my eyes to the heavens, to the divine, and once again perceive that to which I am now blind. May the evolution of my being move forward again. ’

Jesus’ answer is “Receive your sight again.” Luke 18:42. He doesn’t say, ‘I have cured you’ or even, ‘You are cured.’ It is as though He holds out to him his sight, which inwardly the blind man must receive and accept. And then Jesus makes it clear that what lives in the man’s soul, his trust, his faith, the power for healing that already lives in him is what the man himself has awakened through his interaction with Christ. “And in that moment his eyes were opened.” Luke 18:43 He looked up and saw again.

After this climax of healing it is easy to overlook the important line that follows, for it says that the blind man then got up and followed Christ, and that it is this that reveals the working of the divine within the human being. The working of the divine in the human being – initiative despite resistance; the desire and movement toward evolving again, trust in the power of healing, following Christ – this is the revelation of the working of the divine in the human being. This is Christ in all of us.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] She is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. There are two Rahabs: Joshua 5, Rahab, an inhabitant who cooperated with the Hebrew spies and subsequently joined the Hebrew people. Another Rahab is the only other Rahab in the OT - the mother of Boaz - definitely in the family tree.

[2] Literal translation of the Greek anablepso