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Seeing Our Own Areas of Blindness

This is a summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily delivered at St. Charles on October 26, 2003

"MASTER, I WANT TO SEE." Mark 10, 52

What would you miss most if you could not see? What color? What person? The Gospel today focuses on Bartimaeus the blind man. Many of us have had some experience of visual impairment.

When I was a teenager I was hit in the eye by a hurling ball and suffered a bruised retina, but with the omnipotence of youth had no awareness of how close I was to losing vision. My hard head saved me!

Visual impairment is often accompanied by economic problems. 70% of people with physical challenges are unemployed in the USA today. It was no accident that Bartimaeus "sat by the roadside begging". I worked with a group of parents of children with developmental disabilities in the foundation of Gabriel Homes. They made clear to me how much more difficult it was for their children to deal with their disability when it was burdened with attitudes of exclusion. The crowd in the gospel story wanted Bartimaeus to 'be silent', out of sight.

On another level this narrative calls attention to spiritual blindness. There are none so blind as those who would not see. The women of Cambodia were so disturbed by the constant scenes they witnessed in the killing fields, that they lost their vision, even though they had no organic deficit.

The psychological model Johari's Window outlines four different areas of awareness; there are things that you know and I know, there are things I know about you that you do not know, there are things I do not know about me that you know and the last great mystery, there are things I do not know about me that you do not know either. The situation of the addicted person most painfully demonstrates denial in the face of dysfunction that is obvious to others. Bringing our darkness to the light can be a painful, yet necessary, disclosure.

Jesus asked Bartimaeus, "What do you want me to do for you?"

Each of us is challenged to identify our area of blindness and bring it to the Lord. Do we believe that he can heal? Sometimes it is easier to ask forgiveness for sins than to identify the blindness that underlies our selfish actions. In each of us is a Bartimaeus crying out for light.

Jesus does not call the blind man directly. He asks the crowd who had marginalized him to turn around and extend an invitation in his name. We Catholics can be an exclusionary group, based on positions we hold on certain issues. Healed of our arrogance we are asked to welcome others in Christ's name.

New members of a congregation can attend Mass for years before they feel a part of a community of faith. At our welcome reception today we offer the hand of hospitality to all who are newly registered, or, perish the thought, not yet registered! Our youth sometimes struggle for understanding. Their parents often wonder at their certainty on so many topics! On World Youth Day we reach out through Way and On the Way offering them a place of belonging at St Charles.

Finally we cannot forget the basic call of the Gospel: make room for people with disabilities. When group homes are developed in our neighborhoods and fears for property values are fomented, we Catholics need to be the first to make room for Bartimaeus.

We are asked to join the shepherd in his gathering role. "I will gather them form the ends of the earth, with the blind and the lame in their midst." Jeremiah31, 9

  or  2003 Homilies