{"id":2671,"date":"2018-10-28T12:37:08","date_gmt":"2018-10-28T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2671"},"modified":"2018-10-28T12:37:08","modified_gmt":"2018-10-28T16:37:08","slug":"30th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/30th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

30th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B<\/a>
\nJeremiah 31:7-9
\nPsalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6 (3)
\nHebrews 5:1-6
\nMark 10:46-52
\nOctober 28, 2018<\/p>\n

The Bible is the story of God\u2019s people.\u00a0 It is not just history.\u00a0 It does not just<\/strong> tell us what happened a couple of thousand of years ago.\u00a0 It does tell us what happened with the people in the stories we read in the Bible but it is not just their story.\u00a0 It is our story<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It is our story because it tells us how God has cared for his people when they followed him and when they chose to stray and sin.\u00a0 It is the story of God\u2019s love for his people, the love that He offers us today.\u00a0 The story of sin and God\u2019s forgiving love continues today.<\/p>\n

Our first reading today comes the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah.\u00a0 Jeremiah lived 600 years before Christ.\u00a0 As the book begins, the northern kingdom has fallen and the southern kingdom is about to fall.\u00a0 Jeremiah preaches a call to repentance to those in the south (a call we still need to hear today) but the people do not listen.\u00a0 They even plot to kill Jeremiah because they don\u2019t like what he is saying.<\/p>\n

Since they do not repent, God allows <\/em><\/strong>them to be defeated by the Babylonians.\u00a0 Jerusalem is destroyed and many of them are taken away in exile.\u00a0 This is where our passage today comes in.<\/p>\n

The Exile had only recently begun.\u00a0 It will last for 70 years but through Jeremiah, God is already promising an end to the Exile.\u00a0 They will \u201cshout for joy<\/em>\u201d when it happens.\u00a0 The Lord will deliver his people from sin, bringing them back, gathering them \u201cfrom the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

I think it is important to recognize the significance that the prophesy includes the blind and lame.\u00a0 In ancient time, the blind and the lame were helpless and left to beg like Bartimaeus into today\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n

God does not leave the blind and the lame on their own.\u00a0 They too are God\u2019s children.\u00a0 After all, in our sin do we all not become blind to God.\u00a0 In sin, we are lame in our ability to follow God\u2019s ways.<\/p>\n

Often, we think of sin as purely individual and we fail to recognize how our sins impact other people.\u00a0 Sin involves how we treat people.\u00a0 Thus, it affects how we relate to other people.\u00a0 We become distant and unloving.<\/p>\n

Is this not what is happening in our world today?\u00a0 As individuals we are becoming more self-centered.\u00a0 We fail to value life.\u00a0 We see it in the womb when life is not received as a gift.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We see it when we fail to recognize the needs of the hungry, thirsty, sick, dying, and migrants.<\/p>\n

Then we wonder why there are shootings in schools, malls, and restaurants.\u00a0 It is because we have turned away from God.\u00a0 We do not follow Jesus as the way and the truth and the life.<\/em><\/p>\n

God gave the Israelites free will just as we have free will today.\u00a0 The Israelites chose poorly and God allowed <\/em><\/strong>them to suffer the consequences of their sin in exile.\u00a0 Only after being defeated by the Babylonians did they come to repent.\u00a0 What is it going to take before we repent today as individuals and as a society?<\/p>\n

When people sinned in the Old Testament, they went to the priest to ask the priest to offer a sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins.\u00a0 As Hebrews states, the priests were called from among the people.\u00a0 That means they too were sinners.\u00a0 God called, and still does today, men who were sinners to be priests.\u00a0 In being sinners themselves, they \u201cdeal patiently with the ignorant and erring<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 The priests know what it is like to struggle with temptation.<\/p>\n

The sacrifices offered by the Old Testament priests were the sacrifices of animals in accord with what we read in the Book of Leviticus.\u00a0 These sacrifices were not perfect and thus had to be offered over and over.<\/p>\n

Then Jesus came and offered a perfect sacrifice as only He could offer.\u00a0 His sacrifice is perfect because He is perfect as He is consubstantial with the Father.\u00a0 Since his sacrifice is perfect, it does not need to be repeated.\u00a0 Since the primary role of a priest is to offer sacrifice, one might think we would no longer need priests today but here I am as your priest.<\/p>\n

Priests today do offer sacrifice but it is not a NEW<\/em><\/strong> sacrifice.\u00a0 The sacrifice offered by the priest today is the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, giving his life for the forgiveness of our sins.\u00a0 However, again, it is not a new<\/u> sacrifice<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 It is the sacrifice that Jesus offered in his Crucifixion for the forgiveness of our sins made present for us today at the altar in a way that only God can do, transcending time and place.<\/p>\n

As priests are ones who preside at our celebration of the sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins, priests are also the ones who offer absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation where our sins are taken away.\u00a0 Sin blinds us to God\u2019s way and God restores our sight.<\/p>\n

Two of my favorite things to do as a priest is celebrate the Eucharist and hear confessions and absolving people.\u00a0 My third favorite thing to do as a priest is teach (the second Spiritual Work of Mercy).\u00a0 By teaching I mean helping people understand what it means to follow Jesus.\u00a0 This begins<\/em><\/strong> in homilies.\u00a0 It goes deeper<\/em><\/strong> when I offer presentations on topics of faith.\u00a0 It also continues in my website.<\/p>\n

Priests are also called to be present to people in the difficult moments of life (Spiritual Works of Mercy #\u2019s 1 and 4) like funerals and illness, helping people to know God is present in the moment.<\/p>\n

Priests are also called to a role of leadership in the parish as the bishop\u2019s representative.<\/p>\n

We are all called to follow Jesus.\u00a0 We need forgiveness for the times when we sin and so let us be grateful, \u201cfilled with joy,<\/em>\u201d and embrace the gift of forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation made possible by Jesus\u2019 sacrificing his life for us.\u00a0 I truly believe it is a gift when we have sinned.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I just went to confessional myself while I was on retreat.<\/p>\n

We need instruction in God\u2019s ways so that we can better follow him.<\/p>\n

What do you need forgiveness for?\u00a0 What is going on in your life where you need God\u2019s guidance to live as his disciple?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Jeremiah 31:7-9 Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6 (3) Hebrews 5:1-6 Mark 10:46-52 October 28, 2018 The Bible is the story of God\u2019s people.\u00a0 It is not just history.\u00a0 It does not just tell us what happened a couple of thousand of years ago.\u00a0 It does tell us what …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[461,491,82,8],"tags":[512,70,513,514],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-H5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2671"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2673,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671\/revisions\/2673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}