The Thirtieth Ordinary Sunday                                                                        Mark 10:46-52

The gospel begins with Jesus passing through Jericho, a city fifteen miles from Jerusalem. The law of Moses required every Jewish male over twelve years of age, living within 15 miles of Jerusalem to attend the Passover in Jerusalem. The beggars of Jericho capitalized on the increased traffic through the city to beg for alms. One such beggar was the blind man known as Bartimaeus. 

This blind man suddenly hears a large group of people passing by. To a blind person a large crowd created dust, noise of children laughing and people talking. He could hear other beggars on the fringes of the crowd asking for alms. So he asks, out loud, who is passing and someone tells him it is Jesus of Nazareth. Immediately in the midst of the tumult Bartimaeus cries out above the din of the crowd "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."  “Son of David” is a term that refers to the Messiah. No one would have expected a messianic greeting from a blind beggar? This man, in his blindness, sees with the eyes of faith. He seems to know who Jesus really is, he has obviously heard his reputation. Bartimaeus has been waiting for this opportunity and thought it might never happen. Now is his time. He calls out again, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." The people around the blind beggar tell him — shut up! — be quiet. Picture this blind man trying to get up and someone close to him pushing him back to the ground. They tell him again to keep quiet.

Undaunted, Bartimaeus gets up and again yells out "Son of David, have mercy on me." as again he publicly identifies Jesus as the Messiah. What great faith does this man have? This poses the question to us, how willing are we to call upon Jesus, to mention Jesus, even when others are telling us to be quiet? Are we willing to get up and pray in public even when people are telling us to sit down and shut up? Is our faith as strong as this poor blind beggar? Do we truly see Jesus for who he is? Many people today are telling us not to speak his name, nor to shove our faith down their throats, —  do we back off? Professing your faith, witnessing to whom Jesus is, is not shoving it on anybody. People have reason and a free will, which allows them to make their own decisions. We are called to obey one politically correct command or another; e.g. we are commanded to call a man a woman because he says so. Can we muster the faith to speak above the crowd? 

Wait - Stop! — Jesus heard the beggar’s call and sees the commotion around him. Jesus hears his cry for mercy and tells his disciples to bring the man to him. Jesus shows us that action is more important than talk. Suddenly the same people, who were telling the blind man to sit down and be quiet, are now telling him, “take heart, Jesus is asking to see you.” We are all familiar with these people, they go with the political flow, are easily led by the demons and they have no real belief of their own. 

Bartimaeus, threw away his cloak, and got up. This was the same cloak that protected him from the sun and the cold. In throwing away his cloak he gives up everything that has meaning to him and puts his trust now in the Lord. So, they led him through the crowd and suddenly he stood before Jesus, the Son of David, and Jesus says, "What do you want me to do for you?"  Bartimaeus replies promptly: "I want to see.” Does this not tell us something about our prayers to Jesus? — Jesus knows what Bartimaeus wants but he wants the blind man to express his desire aloud, he wants to hear the strong faith he has in Jesus in the tone of his voice in the body language he shows.  Jesus knows what we want but he wants us to express it from our hearts, he wants to hear the tenor of our faith.

This encounter with Bartimaeus has a definite impact on the early Church. The Church takes the prayer of Bartimaeus to heart as she cries Kyrie Elieson, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, before we begin our eternal sacrifice. His prayer has also become the source of the Jesus Prayer. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner."  And the Divine Mercy prayer, For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” The Church urges us to repeat these prayers frequently, to acknowledge our sinfulness and our need for his mercy. Instead of remaining in spiritual blindness let us pray for spiritual sight. We are blinded by those things that have no meaning for our discipleship, our relationship with Jesus, the Son of David. Would that we may seek, with the zeal of Bartimaeus, the light of Christ into our spiritual sight. Let us pray for the grace of clear spiritual vision to have a clear vision of Christian values and priorities in our lives and to acknowledge the presence of God within us and in our neighbors.

We need to be strong like the blind beggar, and refuse to be silenced by our neopagan society, a society, which desires to eliminate God, to take away prayer and spirituality from our community. Whose primary desire is to be able to murder babies. WE must bring the Light of Life into the world, for we are now the light. We are the light by virtue of our baptism, our confirmation and our communion with Christ. Jesus tells us don’t put your light under a bushel basket, but put it on a lamp stand for all to see. Bring the light of Christ to the spiritually blind.

The end of the story simply says Bartimaeus received his sight and followed Jesus. I’m willing to bet he followed him to the very end, spreading his story to all who would listen. We who have been cured of spiritual blindness with God’s mercy, let us pray that we can do the same.