WHAT DO YOU WANT ME
TO DO FOR YOU?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 33 Monday in Ordinary Time is, “What Do You Want Me To Do For You?”

TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE

There are two kinds of people: those who go into a store and love it when a salesperson comes over to them and asks, “What can I do for you?” and then there are those who go into a store and hate it when someone comes over and asks, “What can I do for you?”

There are two kinds of people: those who go through life and love it when they spot people who can teach them something or from whom they can benefit or pick their brains and those who like to learn everything on their own.

I can make these statements because I don’t like it when salespeople come over and ask, “Can I help you?” I tend to try to do and pick up things on my own.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel a blind man wants help. He's the first type of person. He hears a crowd going by him and he asks, “What’s happening? What’s going on?” [Cf. Luke 18:35-43]

And someone yells to him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by!”

So the blind man starts yelling, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.”

The people walking by tell him to shut up – to stop yelling, but he yells even louder, “Son of David, have pity on me.”

Jesus hears him. Jesus stops and says, “Bring him to me.”

As the blind man got closer Jesus says, “What do you want me to do for you?”

He said loudly and clearly, “Lord, please let me see?”

And Jesus says, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.”

And today’s gospel text from Luke says, “He immediately received his sight and followed Jesus – giving glory to God.”

And today’s gospel ends, “When the people saw this, they gave praise to God.”

10 EXAMPLES OF BLINDNESS

Let me give 10 basic examples of blindness. I'm keeping in mind that you are in high school.

1) A teacher expects a brother or sister of a student he or she had two years ago to be exactly like their brother or sister.

2) A mom is always complaining about other drivers – including her husband’s driving. “You’re too close to the car in front of you. Slow down!” “You’re too close to the center!” “You’re too close to the shoulder!”– and her kids laugh and talk about her behind her back – because they consider her a worse driver than their dad.

3) Someone never plastic bagged their dog droppings – every morning, every evening, when they took their dog out to do his duty – that is till the morning came and they stepped in dog gifts from some other dog – in their brand new Nike foot coverings.

4) A LAX player doesn’t start – jumps to another high school – doesn’t start – jumps to another high school and doesn’t start – and bad mouths all three schools – goes to college – and the same thing happens when he tries to make the soccer team – he does the same thing on his first, second and third job – with regards promotions – and he screams all his life about favoritism – and he never looks in the mirror. As a result he never sees himself.

5) A parent is in a car with 2 kids and his wife – and they are coming out of the Macaroni Grill parking lot and dad scrapes another car and the father speeds up his car which is in reverse. Then he shoots out of there – yelling and screaming that the driver of the car he scraped doesn’t know how to park – and a kid in the back seat sees that the other car was parked perfectly – and he says nothing – because he’s seen his dad do the same thing – in many other circumstances.

6) A kid doesn’t study – doesn’t do his homework – and doesn’t make the National Honor Society and his sister sees all this and hears him tell his parents that the teachers are out to get him.

7) A girl flirts with a guy – tempts him – excites him – loves to bump into him - dumps him and then brags to the other girls that he’s a chump – and an easy target.

8) A guy does the same thing with a girl – and then tells the other guys what a dimbo she is.

9) This kid could always find the exact button – the exact nerve – to push – in others – whatever it is. It might be that the other kid is too short or too tall – or too skinny or too fat. It might be that the other kid dropped the key pass or allowed the key goal in a big game. All changed when a new school year started. There was this new kid who was better than he was on picking on others – and he got picked upon for his nose and then his acne – and then his walk and he didn’t know why he hated this new kid – but two kids in his class could see that he was looking in the mirror and seeing himself without knowing himself – because he was all steam.

10) A person every time they walk into a room – takes over the conversation – immediately – and centers it on themselves - and they never noticed that other people walk into a room – remain quiet – and listen to what the current conversation was about.

MOVING INTO SELF – LOOKING IN THE MIRROR

We all have blind spots. We see the blind spots in others – and often are blind to our own – but sometimes others see our blind spots – the ones we don’t see.

A person hears this sermon and they see they are #4 or #10 or some other number when it comes to being blind and they scream inwardly to Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.”

And Jesus seems to do nothing – so their prayer, their inward scream becomes even louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.”

And Jesus says, “What do you want me to do for you?”

And the person says, “Lord, please let me see.”

CONCLUSION

And Jesus gives that person one insight.

Then they get another insight a year from now.

Then they get another insight two years from now – then another good one after they finish college and they are at their first job.

And life goes on and this person’s family and friends know that this person is one insightful dude or duchess – and they love being with him or her – because he’s wise but he’s still learning.

[This homily was for our St. Mary's high school today - Nov. 15, 2010.]