Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
Sacrament of Confirmation – Mary Help of Christians (Chinese) Parish
Homily
[Jeremiah 31:7-9; Psalm 126; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52]
I notice a lot of cameras here today. That isn’t surprising, because this is a very important day in your lives, and the people who love you, and are very proud of you, want to record this!
But I have also noticed a recently new, and seemingly very popular, way of taking pictures. The selfie. When I was your age, there was no such thing as a smartphone or other similar devices. There were cameras, yes, but you held it up to your face to look through the lens. Now the arm is stretched out as far as possible, sometimes a selfie-stick is added, with the camera turned toward the one taking the picture. The selfie.
It is fun to be able to do this, but what I invite you to notice is how this has become symbolic of the culture in which we live, and how this culture is having very serious negative effects on people. Ours is a selfie culture. All I am concerned about is myself, my needs, my desires. A lot of the messaging we receive from social media and elsewhere reinforces this. The negative result is isolation. Everywhere, even in family gatherings, our faces are glued to the phones, checking I don’t know what. We isolate ourselves from one another, and are forgetting how to relate meaningfully to one another, or not learning it at all. As a result, many people today are feeling isolated, alone, painfully aware that no one is even noticing them. You know far better than I that this sense of isolation is very prevalent among young people today.
The Gospel passage from St. Mark is about a man who is very isolated. As a blind beggar, he is living on the margins of society, and calls out to people who walk by without even noticing him. But the story does not end there. It ends with a healing of not only his sight but also his isolation. And this happens because he cries out to Jesus, who notices him, calls him to himself, asks what he needs, and heals him miraculously by his divine power.
This is what Jesus wants to do for each of you. He notices you, in fact knows everything about you, loves you beyond measure, and does not want you ever to feel estranged from him, isolated from his love. So, he calls to you, and invites you into a relationship with him, a relationship of love that will change your life and fill you with a meaning and purpose that you can receive from no one else.
Jesus lived on earth over two thousand years ago, but his healing touch still reaches us. It happens not physically as it did with Bartimaeus and other people Jesus healed, but now through the sacraments of the Church. In the sacraments, the Lord Jesus comes to meet us through the gift of the Holy Spirit with the same power he manifested and shared while on earth.
One of those sacraments is the one you are celebrating today: Confirmation. The mission of the Holy Spirit is to unite you to Jesus so that his life and his love flow in and through you. Now, in each of the sacraments, this union with Jesus has distinct effects. When you were baptized, for example, you were freed from sin and became a member of the Church. In Confirmation, the effect is to call you permanently to Christian mission and empower you always for its accomplishment. The crowd said to Bartimaeus, “Take heart; get up, [Jesus] is calling you.” Now, we, who have gathered with you, say the same thing. Take heart! Don’t ever be afraid! Jesus has a purpose for your life and he is calling you to it! Go to him!
Well, today, you can go to Jesus because he comes to you in the gift of the Holy Spirit. He is calling you to mission – to let the world know the truth and power of his love. In today’s terms, your mission is to tell everyone that the selfie culture – the perennial focus on self – is not life-giving; in fact, it is life-destroying, as we see all around us. No, find life in Jesus. The mission that Jesus gives to you, and to all the confirmed, is to say to a broken world “Take heart; get up, he is calling you”. Find life in Christ!
Furthermore, Jesus gives you what you need to fulfill that calling – the Holy Spirit. We can be missionaries of his truth and love only in the power of the Holy Spirit. So, as today you receive this wondrous gift, open your hearts fully to the Lord and his calling. By following him wherever he leads, you will come to know the fullness of life and hope.
Most Reverend Richard W. Smith
Mary Help of Christians Chinese Parish
October 27th, 2024