2 thoughts on “Friday of the First Week of Advent 2020: Scriptures, Homily”
Wow, the gift of SIGHT—what a deeply profound subject to chew on today, hoping that some particles of the message will be digested and become the ability to really see–Christ in everyone, Christ in every situation, Christ in ourselves. I was reminded of an incident that happened in my youth–as a “backpacking specialist” for the L.A. Girl Scouts in their big camp in Big Bear , CA, I was to lead about 26 girls and our pack burros over the mountains to climb Mt. San Gorgonio–and back–40 miles. I had never been to California, much less on that trek–with 26, 13 and 14 year old girls and 8 stubborn burros. But, hey, I was a seasoned Colorado girl of 18 years, so sure!! Among the campers was a blind girl, a regular at the camp. I complained about trying to manage everything else and a BLIND girl to boot!!! We made good time that first day, getting through great thickets of poison oak, scared of rattlesnakes, someone falling on the rocky trail and losing a pack or a runaway burro. Near dusk, we came to a wide, but shallow creek. Everyone splashed through except one burro–she would NOT step a hoof in that water. No cajoling, prodding, whipping or pushing would budge her. A pickup finally came along and the guy had some rope which he tied to her harness and drug her in a legs out-in-protest position through the dread stream. The whole affair put us 2 hours behind and we were benighted. The overnight camp was already set up with folks from the main camp, and waiting with our hot meal–frantic, no doubt. But this is where the blind girl then became the leader, saying that it was always night time to her and you just turn to all your other senses. We made it to camp–me eating humble pie for dinner. The tale’s lesson was not over, however. After successfully summiting the peak we started down, hoping to reach our base camp by sunset. Only then did we realize that a girl was missing–a troubled and troublesome girl who had chosen to “act out” and get lost. The search, finally successful, cost us all daylight and again we were led by the blind girl, who taught us to feel with our feet for the edge of the trail and any stones and trust ourselves. Lord how I prayed for all of us on that long descent in darkness. We made it safely and after a hasty dinner [more humble pie for me–] we crashed in our sleeping bags. That lesson became indelible to me, glad you roused it again–A
On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 3:11 AM Broken But Not Divided wrote:
> Ronald Patrick Raab, C.S.C. posted: ” CLICK here to read today’s > scriptures CLICK HERE to listen to my homily ” >
In reading the Gospel and listening to your homily today, though the emphasis was on sight and seeing, I could not help but focus on the words of Jesus “Let it be done to you according to your faith”. That pre-existing requirement really stirred something in my thinking. I remember Woody Allen stating “90% of success in life is showing up”. I think in the life of a Catholic 90% of happiness in life is faith and belief. Both can be easily sidelined with many conditions less awful than blindness, but the two men while even suffering blindness and not having all of the Church’s guidance that we are fortunate to have, still had great faith as evidenced being able to see. I came away with the great importance of faith as pre-requisite for petition.
Broken But Not Divided 
Wow, the gift of SIGHT—what a deeply profound subject to chew on today, hoping that some particles of the message will be digested and become the ability to really see–Christ in everyone, Christ in every situation, Christ in ourselves. I was reminded of an incident that happened in my youth–as a “backpacking specialist” for the L.A. Girl Scouts in their big camp in Big Bear , CA, I was to lead about 26 girls and our pack burros over the mountains to climb Mt. San Gorgonio–and back–40 miles. I had never been to California, much less on that trek–with 26, 13 and 14 year old girls and 8 stubborn burros. But, hey, I was a seasoned Colorado girl of 18 years, so sure!! Among the campers was a blind girl, a regular at the camp. I complained about trying to manage everything else and a BLIND girl to boot!!! We made good time that first day, getting through great thickets of poison oak, scared of rattlesnakes, someone falling on the rocky trail and losing a pack or a runaway burro. Near dusk, we came to a wide, but shallow creek. Everyone splashed through except one burro–she would NOT step a hoof in that water. No cajoling, prodding, whipping or pushing would budge her. A pickup finally came along and the guy had some rope which he tied to her harness and drug her in a legs out-in-protest position through the dread stream. The whole affair put us 2 hours behind and we were benighted. The overnight camp was already set up with folks from the main camp, and waiting with our hot meal–frantic, no doubt. But this is where the blind girl then became the leader, saying that it was always night time to her and you just turn to all your other senses. We made it to camp–me eating humble pie for dinner. The tale’s lesson was not over, however. After successfully summiting the peak we started down, hoping to reach our base camp by sunset. Only then did we realize that a girl was missing–a troubled and troublesome girl who had chosen to “act out” and get lost. The search, finally successful, cost us all daylight and again we were led by the blind girl, who taught us to feel with our feet for the edge of the trail and any stones and trust ourselves. Lord how I prayed for all of us on that long descent in darkness. We made it safely and after a hasty dinner [more humble pie for me–] we crashed in our sleeping bags. That lesson became indelible to me, glad you roused it again–A
On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 3:11 AM Broken But Not Divided wrote:
> Ronald Patrick Raab, C.S.C. posted: ” CLICK here to read today’s > scriptures CLICK HERE to listen to my homily ” >
In reading the Gospel and listening to your homily today, though the emphasis was on sight and seeing, I could not help but focus on the words of Jesus “Let it be done to you according to your faith”. That pre-existing requirement really stirred something in my thinking. I remember Woody Allen stating “90% of success in life is showing up”. I think in the life of a Catholic 90% of happiness in life is faith and belief. Both can be easily sidelined with many conditions less awful than blindness, but the two men while even suffering blindness and not having all of the Church’s guidance that we are fortunate to have, still had great faith as evidenced being able to see. I came away with the great importance of faith as pre-requisite for petition.