Jeremiah 31:7-9 / Psalm 126 / Hebrews 5:1-6 / Mark 10:46-52

The timing of this Gospel is ironic to me because after Mass I will head to Cedar Rapids for a Healing Mission, very similar to the one that we had here (in Bellevue) a year and a half ago.  While I haven’t seen anyone that was completely blind regain their sight, I have seen people regain their sight partially, like they went from needing glasses to not.

Last night I was watching football with my dad and I asked him “what's the best eye healing he has ever seen?”  My dad does a ton of healing ministry, three nights a week plus appointments - it could be his full time job, and he could stand up here and tell you healing story after healing story, new ones every week. 

So he said “well there was that one in Omaha and then there was that really good one at your Mission at Nativity…” And I looked at him and he wasn't wearing his glasses. I was like “can you see the words on the TV?” It was a 45 inch TV split into 4 games so the words were pretty small. He said “yeah I can read Michigan in the upper left, but I can’t read those words in the blue in the upper right, although in the black and white is that Florida State and Miami?” And I said “Yep.”

So we went on to discuss his eye healing. At my first parish healing mission, he went from wearing trifocals back to regular glasses he wore ten years before that, his eyes got healed to the point that he can read close up perfectly without them and his distance is good too, he proved that last night, but I think he just likes to wear the glasses at this point.

Healings still happen in our world because it is a sign of God’s presence, proof that the Kingdom of God is here, Jesus ushered it in, and we are living in it now, the prophecy from Jeremiah has already been fulfilled and we are living in it here.  

Sometimes the sufferings that we go through force us to go to God.  We have nowhere else to turn, so we turn to Him, and He comes through for us again and again, which begs the question since he is here, “why didn’t we go to Him sooner?”

It seems to be a matter of trust.  Do we trust God?  What keeps us from trusting Him more? 

Trust builds over time, just like love, they go hand in hand.  Trust and love both get tested in our human relationships, I feel like we are hesitant to test it with God.  We know He is here, we believe He loves us, but yet, we don’t go to Him as quickly as we should. 

Often we don’t ask for the things we need, because there is a fear there, what if He doesn’t come through for us, does that mean He doesn’t love me?

For instance, I wear contacts.  I have asked God to heal my eyes probably 10 times at these parish missions.  I still wear contacts because I can’t see distance.  Does that me He doesn’t love me?  Absolutely not.  So I keep asking.

But there must be something there that stops us from receiving healing, stops us from going to Him more quickly.

My encouragement is to really ask for what you need, to go to Him sooner, to give Him the chance to earn your trust, give Him the chance to love you.  

We are His beloved children, and He is a good Father who doesn’t want to see us suffer, rather, He wants to see us healed, but He also wants us to ask Him, so we can be sure it was Him, and we can experience His gracious love in our lives.