The Deepest Desire of Our Hearts, Authentic Friendship
INTRODUCTION
Good evening!
Tonight I want to talk to you about friendship. Not utilitarian friendships, not friendships only for pleasure - rather Authentic Friendships.
ME
You probably know from my accent that I am not from Little Rock! We joined the parish in 2010 when we enrolled our kids at Christ the King School.
Little by little my family and I started to know other parents and parishioners. With time some of those acquaintances became regular friends. But it wasn't until we joined a couple of ministries that we discovered that there was another level of friendship beyond utilitarian and pleasure friendships. These new friendships that developed by participating in ministries like Men of Faith and Marriage Encounter were not only based on utilitarian needs, like carpooling the kids to sport events or sharing a meal together, they had something more - they had a particular power to awaken in us a new way of living, a hope for our life to be better.
The underlying characteristics of these friendships is that they have mutual vulnerability.
These are friendships that are able to share from the deepest level of the heart. And it was by being exposed to this vulnerability of these new friends that we started discovering the deepest desire of our OWN heart.
Through these friendships we experienced a beautiful spiritual awakening. It was an awakening that helped us discover our deepest identity. You might be aware that our personal identity in the Christian meaning has two parts:
Who we think we are, and who we think God is.
A healthy understanding of our identity is a key in the battle against the devil. The devil always tries to attack our identity and keep us away from the deepest desires of our soul. The devil might come in your thoughts with something like this: you are not good enough or God punished you because you did something wrong. Or offering to fulfill our deepest desires with something lesser than we deserve. The devil always tries to ruin our soul and often uses the weakest point of our identity. This is why we pray the St. Michael prayer at the end of mass.
These authentic friendships that we established under the holy umbrella of the Church were a turning point in our lives to understand better who we are and who God is.
YOU
In your life have you experienced authentic friendship?
Do you help your kids foster this type of friendship?
GOD
In today’s gospel Bartimeous gives us an example of sharing the deepest desire of the heart.
Jesus with his disciples and followers was leaving the flourishing city of Jericho heading to Jerusalem about 10 miles away when Bartimeous became aware of the presence of Jesus. Bartimeous was a blind beggar like many others begging on the main street where Jesus with his followers were passing by.
Bartimeus showed us that he knew the deepest desire of his heart. He wasn't begging for just money, he was begging to be able to see and be healed. He knew that Jesus could satisfy his desire and he begged Jesus: “Master I want to see.” Bartimeus did not think about how to phrase his desire to Jesus, he did not EDIT the words - his prayer was authentic coming straight from his soul.
When friends share their deepest desires something exciting happens - we start to be known and valued - and our lives begin to change.
When we pray to Jesus from our deepest desires it goes straight to the deepest level of Jesus’s heart. And He is gonna have to respond to that prayer!
Bartimeus’s cry from his heart to be able to see was answered and his life was transformed. After the healing Jesus sent him to go on his way “Go your way, your faith have saved you”. But now Bartimaeus' way was Jesus’s way. After the healing Bartimaeus had only one way to go - Jesus’s way. And so he followed Jesus and his followers to Jerusalem as a disciple.
He became a disciple because he shared his deepest desire of his heart to Jesus. Bartimaeus had a strong identity - he knew who he was, and he knew who God is.
YOU
Do you know what the deepest desires of your heart are?
Do you have friends that have shared theirs with you?
You might have noticed from the gospel’s passage that Bartimeus was not able to be healed by himself. While his prayer caught the attention of Jesus - Jesus stopped and said to his followers “Call him” - Bartimaeus was too far away to hear Jesus’s invitation, he needed others to help him. These followers let him know that Jesus wanted to see him and they encouraged him to go, and helped him get to Jesus. Without the help of Jesus’s followers who engaged and encouraged Battimeous, he would not have had the chance to be intimate with Jesus and be able to share his deepest desire of his heart.
Miracles happen when we are intimate with Jesus and share with Him from the bottom of our heart - without editing the words or paraphrasing. Jesus wants our authentic prayer.
These followers that help Bartimeus are like the people of our church - the ones sitting close to you, the ones you can meet in our ministries.
They can help you get to a miracle.
WE
You and I need authentic friendships to be able to understand who we really are and who God is. My invitation to you is to seek authentic friendship to help all of us discover the deepest desires of our heart.
Authentic friendships lead us to an authentic prayer life. However it is hard to establish authentic friendship.
Our church offers many ministries for this reason. The people in these ministries have a desire for these authentic friendships - like you do. Don’t worry you are not going to like everyone, and that's ok!
Get involved in a ministry that you are interested in - you will meet people that share with you this same desire - to discover their deepest needs and to be healed.
In a few minutes we will become intimate with Jesus in the Eucharist - Jesus is asking you “What do you want me to do for you?” After comunion stay in silent prayer with Him and notice what stir in the bottom of your heart. What does your heart want?
Share that with Him.
