Gospel Mark 10:46-52
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more,”Son of David, have pity on me.” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.” He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.
Homily
Sight is so normal and commonplace for most of us that we take it for granted and fail to recognize how much sight allows us to navigate this very complicated world in which we live. Sight not only allows us to navigate the physical world, it also allows us to move around in the world of emotions. We interpret the expression on faces and the body language of others and act on these interpretations. In fact so important is sight to our daily lives, even outside of the physical, that we use expressions like “I see what you mean” or “I cannot see with you.” I had these seemingly philosophical thoughts as I read the Gospel passage given to us for our meditation this weekend.
To understand the Gospel passage we must go back to the incident in the Gospel passage of last weekend in which the disciples James and John go to Jesus to ask him a favour and Jesus asks them “What do you want me to do for you?” The disciples want power and glory, they want to sit on the right and left of Jesus in his kingdom. They of course have not understood the meaning of the Jesus event, even though Jesus has been telling them over and over, that the Son of Man has to suffer, to die, and rise again. They have not seen or understood.
In this Gospel passage, Jesus asks Bartimaeus the same question, he had asked James and John “What do you want me to do for you?” St Mark tells us that the blind man replied to Jesus “Master, I want to see.” Jesus replies to Bartimaeus “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” And we are told that “Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.”
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There have been throughout the Christian era many persons who have seen and followed Jesus on the way. We call them saints. Having seen, they changed their lives and lived imitating the Lord Jesus.
St Francis saw; he changed from being a playboy, returned all that he had received from his merchant father, embraced “Lady Poverty” and became the Father of a religious movement which exists up to today.
Francis Libermann, a newly baptized converted Jew, saw that faith and love of God and neighbour demanded that something be done for the liberated and abandoned African slaves and so founded a religious Congregation to evangelize them.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta saw that the condition of the homeless dying on the streets of Calcutta was a social sin crying out to the Lord and she founded the Missionaries of Charity who now work throughout the world for the homeless and destitute.
St Teresa of the Child Jesus saw that what was essential to the following of Christ was the doing of every task, even the most menial with love. She lived this and her little way has helped many on the road to holiness.
St Oscar Romero, looking at his assassinated friend Fr Rutilio Grande, lying in his coffin saw that the social injustices present in his beloved El Salvador could not continue and preached tirelessly against them. He too was assassinated. Archbishop Anthony Pantin and his brother Gerard saw that the plight of the poor in T&T was not God’s plan for the poor. They did something about it.
These men and women understood the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and they let that understanding shape their attitudes and actions. “They saw and they followed Jesus on the way.”
The witness of these persons poses several questions for us. The most important is probably this – is my life an expression of the “Way of Jesus”? Can I say that I see the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and its implications for my life? Do I want to see so that I may follow Jesus on the Way? Let us pray that like Bartimaeus we may recognize our blindness and call out to Jesus to heal us so that we too may “follow him on the Way.”
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, when your Son Jesus asked Bartimaeus; “What do you want me to do for you?”Bartimaeus replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Help us to recognize our own blindness Father and help us to cry out as Bartimaeus did; I want to see! Give us the gift of understanding Father, of understanding the life death and resurrection of Jesus, your Son. Help us to understand the horror of sin, so that we may see and seeing may follow Jesus on the way. We ask this through the intercession of the same Jesus, your Son and Mary our mother. Amen
