A Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday, October 26 & 27, 2024
Prince of Peace Catholic Church – 4:00 & 8:00 Masses
Jeremiah 31:7-9; Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52
Audio Recording
In today’s gospel passage, we encounter Jesus on his journey toward Jerusalem, a journey which will end in his passion and resurrection. He is just outside the city when he encounters the blind man, Bartimaeus. Interestingly, this is the only time in Mark’s gospel that someone Jesus heals is named. This suggests that Bartimaeus remained a disciple after his healing and was known throughout the early Church.
Imagine the humiliation you might experience if your only way to survive each day was to sit on the side of the road and beg. As a blind man at that time, Bartimaeus was not able to work and support himself. Many saw his blindness as a curse from God and the result of his sin or the sins of his parents. He would have been treated as an outcast of society and as a burden to his family and community. The mental and emotional trauma a blind person experienced at that time would have been just as difficult to deal with as the physical blindness itself.
The symbolism in this story is extraordinary and teaches us many things about our Christian journey.
First, we must strive to identify with Bartimaeus’ humility and weakness. On a spiritual level, we are all blind and, in our fallen natural state, we are spiritual outcasts. This means that we cannot attain Heaven by ourselves. Bartimaeus is a symbol of our fallen natural state. We need to humble ourselves every day and see ourselves as people in dire need who are incapable of saving our own souls.
Bartimaeus is also a symbol of what we must do in order to be drawn out of the blindness and misery we experience in life. The moment he heard that Jesus was walking by, he cried out for mercy. But he didn’t just cry out to our Lord. He did it with perseverance.
The people who heard him crying out rebuked him and told him to stop. Those who were following Jesus had not yet learned to bring people to him instead of sending them away. I wonder if we don’t often do the same thing today when we encounter those in need. We may shun someone who is crying out for healing and acceptance because they’re different from us or they don’t match up with our idea of what constitutes holiness. Maybe we judge that they wouldn’t fit in with our community or our circle of friends. But the crowd’s rebukes only lead Batimaeus to be more fervent in his prayer.
Also, it appears that Jesus ignored Bartimaeus at first. Why would he do that? It certainly wasn’t because he didn’t care. It was because our Lord knew that Bartimaeus would persevere and He wanted him to do so. Jesus wanted Bartimaeus’ prayer to become more resolute, and it did.
The prayer of Bartimaeus must become the way we pray. It is very easy to become discouraged in life and to lose hope. When that happens, our prayer becomes weak and ineffective. At times, we will experience temptations to give up on prayer. The rebukes by the crowd are a symbol of these temptations. When they come, we must double our effort and strengthen our resolve to persevere in prayer.
Jesus’ silence when first encountering Bartimaeus must also be seen as an invitation to pray with greater faith. If we pray and feel as though God is not listening, we must know that He does hear us and His initial silence is His way of inviting us closer and to a deeper level of faith and prayer.
When Jesus stopped and told the disciples to bring Bartimaeus to Him, Bartimaeus immediately got up, threw off his cloak and went to our Lord. His cloak is a symbol of everything we need to shed in life that keeps us from immediately and quickly responding to the promptings of grace.
Bartimaeus’ throwing off his cloak symbolizes his leaving behind his former life so as to follow Jesus. As Christians we “throw off” our old nature at baptism and we must continue to do so throughout our lives. We must always be ready and willing to eliminate anything from our lives that keeps us from responding to God when He calls to us. Anything that prevents us from following him more closely.
Finally, Bartimaeus’ prayer was perfect. “Master, I want to see.” Of course he did! He was blind and I’m sure to see had been his life’s deepest desire. He asked decisively and simply. He didn’t use a bunch of theological words or memorized prayers. He asked just as we should ask when we bring our petitions to Jesus. He got right to the point because he knew Jesus was listening to him and nothing was more important to him than regaining his sight.
Spiritually speaking, we must work to foster the deepest desire to see God, to see our Lord. If we desire the gift of faith, the ability to see spiritual truths and understand them, then our Lord will answer that prayer. Our Lord will also say to us, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Reflect, today, upon this poor blind beggar, Bartimaeus. See in his humble soul a model of how we must see ourselves and of how we must pray. Observe the humility of our fallen state, the isolation we experience from our sin, and the perseverance we need to have in prayer.
If we follow the example of Bartimaeus, our Lord will remove the blindness of our hearts so that we can follow Him more and more closely every day. Make your prayer today that of Bartimaeus: “Master, I want to see.”