The readings for The Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102421.cfm
Today, Jesus and the crowd are on their way to Jerusalem where they come across a blind beggar sitting by the road, named Bartimaeus.
And when this blind beggar hears that Jesus is passing, he cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Bartimaeus may have been physically blind - but he saw - he saw who Jesus was - even when most around Jesus did not yet understand who Jesus really was.
Now, Jesus had a reputation that preceded Him. Bartimaeus had heard about Jesus, but when he called out to Him, he did so with insight and understanding. He cried out to Jesus as someone who could heal him and make him whole.
Now, the crowd and many of the disciples following Jesus, thought Jesus was way too important to stop for a blind beggar and many people told Bartimaeus to be silent.
Imagine that…someone in desperate need, calling out to Jesus, surrounded by people trying to quiet him down.
I hope none of us would ever prevent someone else from coming to Jesus. But we might do that sometimes, without recognizing it.
We may not stand in the way of Jesus explicitly, I mean we’re all here in church today. But as they say, “actions speak louder than words”.
We’ve all done the right thing by coming to Mass, but thinking about what we’re going to do after Mass or someplace else we’d rather be, or visibly annoyed by a crying baby or chatty child or being outwardly judgey about someone else’s appearance - do we move from “Peace be with you” to “Peace Out” and blow it before we even get out of the parking lot?
Too many times others who would come to Jesus could say, “If that’s what being a follower of Christ is, I want no part of it.”
To Jesus, Bartimaeus was not a speed bump in the road, he was the reason Jesus had come.
Jesus did not go to Bartimaeus, but rather called him.
And in much the same way, Jesus calls us. Do we drop what we are doing immediately and go to Jesus?
Tossing aside his garment, basically, all he has, this blind beggar rose and went to Jesus. His garment is what he laid out on the ground for people to toss their scraps into. His garment is what kept him warm at night. His garment was everything he had. But nothing was going to stand between him and Jesus.
So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” To which the blind man answered, “Master, I want to see.”
In humble trust Bartimaeus asked not for wealth, power, or success, but only for sight.
Then Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.
Pretty awesome, isn’t it?
But this is where it gets hard because this story is not about Bartimaeus - it’s about us.
In the course of our troubles in life, do we see Jesus?
Do we call out to Jesus or do we sit on the side of the road held back by our own blindness, in the form of the wounds, hurts, and diseases that we have?
Do we inadvertently get in the way of others around us trying to get to Jesus?
And if we did take our problems to Jesus, and He were to ask us this very second, what could He do for us, what would we say?
Would our faith be strong enough for us to ask?
Would our faith be strong enough to save us?
Like Bartemaeus, we can all ask Jesus for the power to see.
This week, let us pray that our Lord strengthen our faith so that we more readily bring our brokenness to Him.
Let us pray that our faith be made strong enough to save us and those around us.
And let us pray that by doing this, we can become better followers of Jesus and be reminded that there is nothing in our lives, no matter how big or small that God cannot use to save us.
Amen.
