Sunday Homily Feb 27, 2022 Deacon Ted Pijacki

many preachers like to start their homily with some humor like god did not create anything without a purpose but mosquitoes come really close jesus starts today's teaching with two humorous questions can a blind person guide a blind person and why do you try to remove the splinter in your neighbor's eye when you don't even see the wooden beam in your own eye that image of a blind person leading another blind person belongs in a charlie chaplin movie with all the possible dangers that could happen but jesus uses this very dangerous image to highlight what happens when a person is spiritually blind jesus then takes us even further asking us to picture a two by four wooden beam in someone's eyes why does jesus use such wacky illustrations well sandwiched between those two outrageous questions was the key to answering them no disciple is superior to his teacher but when fully trained every disciple will be like his teacher what was jesus constantly teaching his disciples that has to do with blindness he taught them to see as god sees now remember that because there will be a quiz at the pearly gates and that's why there are so many references by jesus to people who are blind not just physically but mostly spiritually to learn how to see as god sees starts on the very first page of the bible as we go through the days of creation each day ends with a saying and god saw that it was good and goes even one step further with humans saying and god saw that they were very good however every day we're bombarded with news that's bad war environmental destruction poverty violence abuse goodness has often become distorted redefined and politicized and it's in that sandstorm of insanity that our eyes can become blinded by specks of anger prejudice hostility and fear very often in the bible jesus prophets the angels say be not afraid and that is precisely when jesus calls us to remove from our spiritual eyes that wooden beam which blinds us to see the good in all people and therefore to see as god sees jesus told us in the gospel last week love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you pray for those who mistreat you what that's not easy but our faith teaches us that people like saint paul saint augustine dorothy day thomas merton can change that the good with which they were born is always within their soul and so when we hear news that is bad or tragic our faith calls us to ask the question what needs to change what do we need to do to bring out the good here's a key teaching of jesus that i hope you will always remember you will never look into the eyes of any person whom god does not love again you will never look into the eyes of any person whom god does not love there's a saying an entire sea of water cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship likewise the negativity of the world cannot put you down unless you allow it to get inside of you how we see life in our daily experiences is within each one of us it's something we control and we can change we do not see things in life as they are we see them as we are on wednesday we begin the 40 days of lent where ashes remind us that while we live in an imperfect world we're still capable of seeing past that to an inner goodness that god sees that's not easy which is why daily prayer is essential it can help us to strengthen our perception with a clearer focus on seeing goodness in all people and all creation perhaps that should be our theme for lent to train our mind to see the good in every situation i recently received an email from a former student about something we had discussed in class years ago he sent me this story a class was learning about the salem witch trials and the teacher told them that they were going to play a game i'm going to come around the teacher said and whisper to each one of you whether you're a witch or a regular person your goal is to build the largest possible group that does not have a witch in it at the end any group found to have a witch will get a failing grade and the larger groups without a which will get the higher grades while the students dove into grilling each other one fairly large group formed but most of the students broke into small groups turning away anyone that even sensed that they might be guilty okay the teacher said you've got your groups time to find out where the witches are all witches raise your hands no one raised their hand the kids were confused they told the teacher he had messed up the game did i he said was anyone in salem really a witch or did everyone just believe what they'd been told my sisters and brothers that is how you destroy community shunning scapegoating and dividing destroy far more than they protect and that's why jesus said the greatest commandment is to love love god and love your neighbor because love unites and that brings about peace and justice during lent i invite you to a new habit in your prayer to see the good in every situation so that amid all the conflicted talk that you hear every day we might turn inward and hear the voice of god the voice of god remind us daily and god saw that it was good very good even the mosquitoes you

Channel: St. Joseph University Parish

Views: 190

Keywords: St Joseph University, Sunday Homily

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Length: 8min 29sec (509 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 26 2022