Today I resort to the “random thoughts” homily method that I learned from my old seminary rector Fr. Denis.  It is the homiletic approach I opt for when I have too many different things to talk about and don’t want to go to the hassle of weaving all the thoughts together.  I have five thoughts for us today:

1. Our Gospel today is about blindness.  Jesus has the power to heal a blind man!  Jesus can work miracles!  Believe it, and when you get a miracle, testify!
   .  
2. Speaking of blindness, sometimes we are blind to what others need.  Example: the five love languages, which I always talk to my marriage prep couples about. We humans typically show love in five ways: service, time, touch, gifts, and affirmation.  It’s good for us to know what the “primary love language” of our spouse and kids and so on is.  Sometimes a woman needs to hear affirmation from her husband, but her husband is blind to what she needs here.  Sometimes we can be blind to what folks in our lives really need.
   .  
3. The blind man in our Gospel, Bartimaeus, is a good example for us.  Here is a man born blind, a man with a great suffering.  When he gets his time with Jesus, he doesn’t say:  JESUS!  WHY DID YOU MAKE ME BLIND???  WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?  Instead, he goes to Jesus, recognizing that Jesus is the source of goodness and healing and love.  We sometimes go to God with an accusing finger. WHY DO I HAVE THIS? WHY MUST I SUFFER SO?  If it’s good – it came from God.  If it isn’t, it came from the evil one. We go to Jesus knowing he has the power to fix it, and knowing the the didn’t cause it.
   .  
4. Courage.  Today the Gospel says: “Take courage; get up. Jesus is calling you!”  I love that.  The phrase “take courage” is a good one. I imagine Jesus with a big bucket of all we need. We just need to go there and take a little courage, a little grace, a little strength. And then we can answer Jesus’ call!
   .  
5. Priesthood Sunday. Today we celebrate Priesthood Sunday.  We must pray every day for more priests, not just in general, but from St. Joseph and St. Vincent.   Hebrews says: Priests come from among us. They come from our families, our parishes. They don’t fall out of the sky. We must do all we can to encourage vocations!  A priest can make a world of difference in someone’s life, even bring him to heaven.
   .  
6. I’m also thinking about change.  A lot of trees are finally starting to change.  I was reflecting on this.  You know – change is not only possible, it is necessary. The tree can’t say, “I’m not going to color my leaves this year.” Change is also natural, maybe even supernatural.  It is a necessary reality.  It’s a sad thing to find someone who refuses to change. Sometimes we resign ourselves to thinking: this is just the way it is, I can’t change.  But Jesus says change! And he has organized a world that is always changing to remind us to change. We should always be looking for new ways to pray, new ways to serve God, new ways to serve the parish, new ways to put love into the world, new ways to live!  The parish should change as time goes by also. Change is inevitable, and like the leaves, even beautiful.

Well, there’s my five thoughts. Mabye one will stick