Reaching out to God no matter what!
The Sunday of the Blind is the sixth Sunday in the season of Great Lent and brings us into the final two weeks of our Lenten Journey. Bartimaeus (the blind man) from today’s Gospel can teach us many things. We can sometimes fall in to the trap of thinking the things we lack can prohibit us or exclude us from being happy or from reaching out to God and being close with him; Bartimaeus shows us otherwise. Despite being blind and cast off to the roadside, Bartimaeus was not afraid to use what he had to seek out Jesus; using his ears to hear that Jesus was near then using his voice to call out to him. Bartimaeus also teaches us to be courageous; when the people tried to silence him, he ignored them and continued to cry out, asking for Jesus to show him mercy.
In today’s world more than ever, we have many people in opposition to our faith and try to stop us from calling Jesus’ name; however, like Bartimaeus we are called to be courageous and fearless in acknowledging Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. In calling out to Jesus, Bartimaeus showed incredible faith, knowing with certainty that Jesus would stop and help him, he had faith Jesus would bring him to the Harbour of Salvation. As we journey towards Hosanna Sunday and Passion Week, we ask the Lord to remain with us and guide us as we journey towards the Harbour of Salvation.
This week has been another busy one at a parish level with our Stewardship committee meeting on Monday and our Seniors committee also having their fortnightly gathering and activities on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Sodalities led by Fr Youwakim continued with their weekly Lenten lunch in the presence of His Excellency Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, presenting him with two donations from the money that they raised at these lunches. One to take with him to Egypt to help the Christian Churches in May and one to MaroniteCare. Our Youth also took time away from their everyday lives whilst on their retreat this weekend; a thank you to Fr Raphael, Sr Margaret and Subdeacon Charbel for leading them on the retreat. As we know, next Sunday is Hosanna Sunday and I encourage you to take the Program which will detail all the Mass times and spiritual events of Passion Week beginning on Hosanna Sunday through to New Sunday.
I pray you have a blessed week.
Helping others to help themselves
Dearest Brothers and Sisters,
After a break last week from the miracle stories we find ourselves this week in Capernaum bearing witness to the fourth miracle during this season of Great Lent, the healing of the Paralytic Man. We all know this story well and are always captivated by the faith of both the paralytic man and his friends who overcame all obstacles to get to Jesus, even if it meant climbing a roof and some heavy lifting. If we focus on the friends of the paralytic, we can speak about two things, their love for their friend and their confidence in Jesus’ healing power. These two aspects allowed them to be creative and find a way to help their friend help himself to get to Jesus.
This begs the question of us; when we are helping others, are we helping them to help themselves? Or are we trying to find a short-term solution to alleviate some immediate pain and suffering. For example, when we feed the homeless or the needy, is it enough to provide them with a portion of food for a period of time to alleviate their hunger and need or are we being creative in finding a way to help them to help themselves out of the despair that they may be living in. This may be to help them find a job, or help them to learn something new or find an organisation that can also help them. Further, through our good-will, are we helping them to help themselves get to Christ? This may mean that we may need to go beyond giving them a portion of food, it means that there is going to be some climbing and heavy lifting involved. It means that we may need to get out of our comfort zone and do something different that will truly deliver them to Christ. This facilitation will hopefully allow them to truly encounter Christ, so that that they can stand up, take their mat and walk again.
This past week we celebrated two feasts of two women who continue to help us to help ourselves get to Christ. On Thursday, we celebrated the feast of Saint Rafqa who is a remarkable example for us. Saint Rafqa was able to join her suffering with the suffering of Christ on the cross and teaches us to do the same in our brokenness and despair. On Saturday, we celebrated the feast of the Annunciation, that great day when Mary said yes to God and played a major role in delivering the human race from its abandonment. Through their intercession and prayers, they facilitate our deliverance to Christ. May their prayers be with you always.
The program for Passion Week and Easter has now been finalised. I encourage you to take a copy and note all the events that will take place during this Holy Season. This year we will be hosting a spiritual concert for Nizar Fares together with the Syriac Catholic Church on Passion Tuesday (11 April). This and all the spiritual events will help us on our journey toward the Resurrection.
Begging for Jesus’s healing touch
Dearest Brothers and Sisters,
The healing stories in this week’s Gospel continue with two accounts; that of the Haemorrhaging Woman and the other of the daughter of Jarius, who was a leader of the synagogue. Although it seems that these two accounts have no apparent connections, Saint Luke in his intelligent writing style draws us to recognise the connections, uniqueness and commonalities of each. Both are from the same town and need Jesus. Jarius, a father who desperately wants to save the life of his daughter seeks Jesus as his last resort and gets down on his knees and begs him in public to help him. For a leader of the synagogue to do this would have been very undignified, however a small price to pay if Jesus could heal his daughter who was twelve years old and “coming of age”, a cause for celebration in the Jewish context.
The woman who had tried everything to stop her haemorrhaging also saw Jesus as her last resort and would have also needed to get down on her knees to beg (reference to the fringe of Jesus’ clothing) for the healing touch of Jesus without him even seeing her or knowing who she was. In contrast to Jarius, she was nobody of importance, so much so, that Luke does not even give us a name. Further she would have been considered someone who was impure, a sinner, because of her haemorrhaging. What is interesting though and very crafty on the part of Saint Luke, is that he tells us that she had been haemorrhaging for twelve years, the same age as Jarius’ daughter. She hasn’t stopped bleeding since the day the twelve-year-old girl was born and what is experienced as a “coming of age” and a cause of celebration for young girls has become, for this woman, a curse.
There is so much that we can compare in these two stories, however I would like to focus on how in both accounts we find the person begging for Jesus’ healing touch. Two totally different people in the eyes of society, but their action was the same. In the light of this Gospel, we need to ask ourselves the following questions: Are we too proud to beg? Do we have such an elevated view of ourselves that falling on our knees and begging seems beneath us? Are our issues any less in need of Jesus than that of the woman and Jarius? What would you not do to place yourself before the Lord and his grace? This woman would not let anything separate her from Jesus' power to heal her and Jarius let go of his social standing. Both were willing to beg! Amazingly, we don't have to ... even though we often need to! As we continue our Lenten journey, let us not be afraid to get down on our knees and beg for Jesus’ healing touch.
Speaking about woman of great faith, this week a very special woman from our parish received Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay’s Maronite Woman of the Year Award on the International Day for Women, Wednesday 8 March, Eva Charbel. This award has been established in 2017 to recognise and showcase the dedication and achievement of Maronite women in their outstanding contribution to the Maronite Church in Australia and to the Australian society in general. These women inspire us through their achievements and challenge us to make our own contribution to the Body of Christ and Eva is certainly a wonderful example of this achievement. We are very proud of this achievement and congratulate Eva and her family for receiving this award.
