26.10.2003 30th Sunday Ordinary Season
First Reading: Jeremiah 31, 7-9
Psalm 125
Second Reading: Hebrews 5, 1-6
Gospel: Mark 10, 46-57
"I am a father to Israel and E'phraim is my firstborn". And so concludes today's prophecy from Jeremiah announcing joy and peace while everybody is suffering the terrible punishment of deserved deportation for being unfaithful. If during this suffering the people turn back to live in obedience to God, He will once again be a thoughtful and caring Father. He desires the salvation and well-being of man: all will see Him, even the weakest, "the blind, the lame, the woman with child and she who is in travail! We should rejoice and be happy for God keeps His promises! Suffering and pain will not be for ever, they last only as long as it is necessary for us to convert definitively!
The significance of Jesus' miracle in Jericho is to show us that God keeps His promise: it is Jesus who is the means of the miracle, it is Jesus who leads the people to their true and permanent home, to their true well-being! Jesus is the Son of David as the blind man, Bartimaeus, cried out, and he is more. If he restores sight, it is a sign that through him, God visits His people to guide them, to accompany them, to save them! The miracle, for Jesus, is not only a gesture of compassion, but also a way of revealing himself, of showing that he is the Messiah, God with us, He who does not deceive man for he is not acting out of his own interest! Jesus is, in fact, on the way to Jerusalem to offer his life for us.
The blind man is sitting on the side of the road, begging. He is an excellent representative of man, or rather, of humanity. Because of the sin of egoism or selfishness, we are all incapable of using and enjoying the freedom that God gave us. We are dependent on each other, incapable of walking alone, we have no light to illuminate our paths in life, we are incapable of enjoying the goods of this earth. Others may ill-treat us, laugh at us, use the precarity of our situations.
The coming of Jesus gives hope to the blind-man: he begins to shout in order to attract attention to himself. He shouts his faith in Jesus, faith that, though not perfect, is not wrong. Jesus is the Son of David, whom his people are waiting for, even though what they are waiting for is not quite the same thing as God's much greater and more universal promises. The others do not help the blind man, if anything, they discourage him; just as what happens so often to us. We are afraid to demonstrate our weak faith, for fear of what the others will say. The blind man had overcome this fear. If faith overcomes the block created by man, then it is true faith, it cannot be ignored.
Jesus stops and has the man fetched; he asks him to come to him, helped by those who disapproved. The blind-man threw off anything that might have got in he way, he threw off his mantle which was probable filthy, because used to sit on. In front of Jesus, he must formulate his wish, his prayer, he must make public his faith. And it is this faith which saves him.
Faith in Jesus! Whoever believes in Jesus is accepting a gift from God, is touching the hand of the Father who profers the gift and in this way he finds himself close to God from whom sin was separating him. Whoever accepts Jesus is no longer far from God, but is, therefore, saved. That is why the Church insists on proclaiming Jesus to all, young and old, the good and the sinners! Whoever lets Jesus into his life, whoever approaches him in freedom and determination, like the blind-man Bartimaeus, is close to God and has overcome the distance that forced him into sin.
Then the blind-man follows Jesus on the road. Previously he was sitting at the side of the road, then the road lies under his feet and he uses it to follow Jesus, to walk towards Jerusalem to carry the cross with his Saviour and Master.
The second reading helps us look at Jesus with open eyes, open like those of
the blind man and to see him as God the Father sees him: Jesus is High Priest,
the true Son of God, the bearer of divine life! We can turn to him for everything
with confidence and trust. He himself, did not claim any honour or title: he
carried the cross with absolute obedience to God and love towards us, from whom,
in so doing, he has removed our sins. We love him, we follow him, we adore him,
we try to obey him and let him lead us on the road which will bring us to meet
the Father and bask in His Light!