“God gave us eyes to see with. The purposes of these eyes were so that we would not walk into the briar patches of life which, of course, are dangerous in many ways to our physical, mental and Spiritual well-being.

Yet, we are oftentimes blinded by our curiosity, our lust, our greed, our desire to seek power over others, and many times because we are attracted to and by what others are like and what they have.

We were not born with our hands tied so we could not use them. Our hands are like specially formed high-tech pieces of machinery.

Yet, we many times allow our hands to be tied when we allow others to physically or mentally handicap the ability in the properties of our hands.

To have our hands tied physically has a tremendous effect on our mental welfare. Our hands being tied restricts our mobility, our being able to properly take care of ourselves in so many areas of life, even in the small act of folding them in prayer.

When someone wants to control our physical actions, there is a restriction on our hands to eliminate our ability to fight back for reasons we feel justifies the use of our hands. We should always be aware that we were born to use these hands for what God intended them for.

Self-inflicted blindness can rarely be called a contagious disease. In reality, it is more of a cop-out to reject responsibility.

When the enemy attacks us and he or she does not want us to see where we are going, a blindfold is used to not just cut out light, but to victimize us by cutting off the reality of where we are, what is happening, and who the real enemies are, surrounding us. Sometimes the captors are fanatical, chauvinistic, political, mafia, criminals, or in some cases, for some reason, legal authority.

Yet, too many times a false blindness is an excuse when one is active in demoralizing speech or actions to others, about others, with others. The expression, ‘I didn’t see it,’ covers many excuses, oftentimes ignoring the responsibility of what one has truly seen.

Tonight the blindfold is only to remind you that an individual many times puts their own blindfold on to escape the responsibility of choosing right over wrong.

God’s Commandments are available to each of us.

Sometimes we do not bother to put a physical blindfold over our eyes. We just justify our decision of wrong over right, pretending that we did not see the full impact of our actions, our thoughts or our words.

The expression, ‘I was victimized because my hands were tied by my need at the moment,’ this need should have been justified by its value, by its results, not by the weak excuse of one’s hands being tied; for instance, adultery, harmful drugs, excessive alcohol, social success, business opportunities, financial gain, and many other such selections in life that we have to choose from.

Faith in God should never wear a blindfold nor should we ever allow our hands to be tied by anyone else’s superior thinking or authoritative position in the institutional structure of religion. We, as Roman Catholics, must look at Holy Mother Church in this outline: Its History, Its Leadership, Its Restrictions, Its Purpose, Its Longevity, Its Monetary Demands on Its People, Its Changes, Its Power, Its Status Religiously, Politically.”