AN EYE OPENER

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for the First Friday in Advent is, “An Eye Opener!”

MY  GRANDNEPHEW  PATRICK

I have a grandnephew, Patrick, who is doing a job I always thought I’d love to have: making TV commercials.

After graduating from Maryland that was his dream - and he landed a job in New York City in an advertising firm - but he didn’t get into the creative side of making TV commercials. It was the business side. And so he switched to a second firm. Once more: business - when he thought he’d get into the actual being a part of a team that puts together a great ad that people would be talking about the next morning at a coffee break. He’s now in his third firm in three years. He’s getting closer and closer to his dream.

I have to ask him: “Patrick! What opened your eye to the dream of wanting to do TV commercials?”

I assume that it was great TV commercials and he said, “I would like to do that.” Then he said, “I could do that.” Then the inner comment, “I will do that!”

TOM BARRETT

I say that because I once heard a Tom Barrett, a priest friend of mine, say - how he got the dream of becoming a priest.

As a little kid he was sitting in church with his mom - attending the Our Lady of Perpetual Help novena every Wednesday at their local church.

He watched and listened to the priest giving the novena, preaching, saying the prayers, blessing everyone with the picture of Mary.

One day he said, “I would like to do that.” Then he said, “I could do that!” Then he said, “I will do that.” And then he did that.

THE  BIBLE  AS  AN  EYE OPENER

The stories and the sayings and the moments in the Bible can be eye opening experiences for people.

A TV commercial often gives you a before and an after. It gives an opening scene or sight to catch your eye. Two people are playing Scrabble. One is a caveman. A gecko is crossing the road. A plane is sky writing. Someone is being hit with a water balloon.

You’re caught. Then comes the pitch about the product: insurance, beer, a new car.

The hope is that you’ll remember that product, that insurance company, that car, that beer when you’re shopping for beer or car or insurance.

Today’s first reading from Isaiah Is 29:17-24 gives scenes of good and bad, positive and negative, prosperity and desolation,  good times and bad times.

Then it gives hope: the deaf hear, the blind see, forests bloom and become orchards, tyrants and the arrogant are blown away, the empty is filled.

Buy God and your desert will bloom, your eyes will see, your ears will hear, your children will laugh, the lowly will rise, the dark gloom will fade and you'll experience morning. You'll see the light.

Today’s gospel - Matthew 9:27-31- talks about two blind men - the gospel often talks about blind people - and they cry out to Jesus and they see.

It would make a great TV commercial.

You could see  a blind person suddenly seeing a field full of flowers and then a rush of the birds making circling sweeps in the air.

Then it could jump to someone who was "blind" for years finally seeing what their parents were trying to tell them. You could see kids finally seeing what their parents were trying to tell them. You could see husbands and wives  finally beginning to see what the other has been saying and seeing for years.

YOU TUBE FILMS THAT PRESENT EYE-OPENING MOMENTS

How many of us received that e-Mail film that was about 2 minutes or so. A blind beggar is sitting at the bottom of some steps in a plaza. He has a piece of cardboard and a can to collect coins from people walking by. A lady walks by - she stops - comes back - looks at his sign - picks it up. It says, “I’m blind. Please help!” He touches her shoes while she takes out a pen and changes or adds to the sign or writes on the back of the tan cardboard. After that people reading the newly revised sign start putting lots of money on the cardboard in front of him. Then that woman walks by later on. She stops and he touches her shoes and asks, “What did you do?” And she tells him she just said what his sign said in other words. She walks on and you now see the revised cardboard sign. It simply says,  “It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see.”

And just the other day I received a similar short film. A father and a son are sitting on a bench. The son is reading a newspaper. The camera focuses on a bird. “Chirp. Chirp.” The father says, “What’s that?” The son says, “A sparrow.”

Then there is another sparrow. The father asks again, “What’s that?” The son says, “A sparrow.”

The father asks again at another “Chirp. Chirp!” “What’s that?” And now the son is annoyed. And once more says, “A sparrow.”

And this goes on and on - and the son gets furious - and yells at his father.

Then the father gets up and goes into the house and comes out with a book. I’m think it’s a Bible. The father sits down. The book is open to a certain page. Pointing to a page the father hands the book to the son.
I figure it’s the quote from the gospels about seeing the birds of the air or better, the piece by Jesus about all sparrows being noticed by God. Nope it’s a diary or journal from the father. He tells the son to read what’s written. “My son - aged 3 - asked me 21 times in a row “What is that?” and 21 times in a row, I answered, “A sparrow.” and each time I gave him a hug.

And the son hugs the father and kisses him on the side of his head.

CONCLUSION

We need pauses - commercial breaks - in the movie or show of our life - to hear and to see advertisements for patience, love, service - to care for and about each other.

Then I get the eye opener as I'm putting together this short weekday homily. As priest, I'm  into making TV commercials dummy. You’ve been doing your dream job all these years by being a priest. Each sermon, each Mass, is advertisement of Jesus telling us his values. Each Mass is an invitation to a Supper with Jesus to let him wash our feet and to let him give us his body and blood. Then to hear: Do the same in memory of me! Go out and give your body and blood for everyone you meet today.