Homily for Mark 10:46-52
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 27th, 2018


For the last couple of weeks, Our Lord has passionately challenged us. A couple of weeks ago, we were asked along with the rich young man, to give up everything and follow Jesus; in other words, we were asked to live our lives in imitation of Jesus, not paying attention to anything that doesn’t draw us closer to God. Last week, we were told to give up our pride and our desire for power and domination over others in order to serve them as if we were slaves of love, slaves of Christ. Today, Jesus again challenges us to believe and be converted more fully.

But again, we can say, I have already been converted; I am already a good person. Yet, today’s Gospel continues to call for a more intense daily conversion by allowing God to transform our life more completely to the way things really are—to God’s way. And so, the story of a physical healing of blindness in the Gospel manifests to us a spiritual conversion and healing it brings about.

Bartimaeus was blind and so he couldn’t “see” Jesus. But he heard the truth about Him from others and as a consequence, Bartimaeus begins to beg along the road that Jesus is coming on; this begging is a sign of his opening his heart to the gift of faith. Consequently, when Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is near, he cries out to Jesus.

Bartimaeus acts in a bold way; however, the others viewed it as nothing but rude behavior so they tell him to be quiet. Here in these others, we see manifested to us the difficulty of conversion and the resistance of the human heart to it. Contrastingly, however, it is in seeing his own sinfulness and his own great need for Jesus, followed by crying out from the depths of his heart for help, that Bartimaeus is able to break through the resistance of his own heart. Bartimaeus accepts the reality of his situation, accepts that he is totally dependent on Jesus; and in his utter poverty Bartimaeus cries out with great trust and with a great profession of Faith in Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David have pity on Me.”

Bartimaeus accepts in humility the truth and reality that he is a poor sinner. (Recall at the time of Jesus, people believed that illness was a direct result of personal sin. Bartimaeus may not have been directly culpable for his blindness, but he, like all of us sinners, was not without guilt). Yet, even so, Jesus stops and commands his disciples to: “Call him, call Bartimaeus.” It is always this way with the mercy of God; God in His Divine Mercy always reaches out to the sinner who humbly calls upon His Mercy, and he always opposes the rich, that is those who in their self-righteousness, think their own goodness is sufficient. For Bartimaeus then, Jesus rewards his humble trust and faith by saying, “What do you want me to do for you?”

It’s interesting that we are told that Bartimaeus’ faith is so great, that in response to Jesus, Bartimaeus literally “throws aside his cloak.” This seemingly minor detail is one that we could easily miss; it is however very significant. Here Bartimaeus, willingly and even with joy, gives up his most prized possession—his cloak, in order to be with Jesus.

To understand this fully, we have to “see” that the cloak of a poor person was his sole source of warmth, his sole source of protection from the elements, and of bedding for night’s sleep—it was usually their only physical possession. Bartimaeus’ jumping up and running to Jesus indicates that he seeks all his strength, security and solace in nothing but the Lord (in other words, not in any so-called security blanket of the world). Bartimaeus believes from his heart that Jesus will provide everything, everything he needs-and so he gives Jesus everything.

Every Christian, every human being, whether they know it or not, longs to hear the question that Jesus puts to Bartimaeus next, “What do you want me to do for you?” We would think that Bartimaeus would ask for money and for material possessions, for a way out of his poverty, to win the lottery, or even to overcome his enemies. But instead, all Bartimaeus ask of Jesus is to be able to “see”. At first, we might think that request is all about Bartimaeus and about his wish to see physically, but it isn’t.

Bartimaeus asks for his sight, but only so that he could “see” through the eyes of faith, in order to follow Jesus truly. Note well here that as Jesus heals him, Jesus also gives him a free choice. Our Lord says, “Go on your way.” Bartimaeus is now free to do as he pleases. Jesus doesn’t command Bartimaeus to follow Him, as was Jesus’ custom (Remember the rich young man). Unlike the rich young man, however, here the poor man, has thrown aside everything already, and so when given the choice, follows Jesus naturally. He has a healing that goes far beyond the physical and so he truly sees in faith what he is to do- He knows this from the heart- a heart full of faith and trust. The healing of his physical sight manifests the inner conversion of his heart and the healing of his spiritual blindness. And so now, being able to see Jesus with faith, Bartimaeus follows Jesus up the road…

Paradoxically, in the end, Bartimaeus who is blind comes to have faith—to see and believe the Truth, while the crowd around him, although physically able to see, nonetheless will not “see,” that is, will not believe and accept that they need radical conversion--they thought they were the good people, but they were the blind ones-they did not see who Jesus really was—the true and living God in the flesh.

The point for us here today in this beautiful story of Divine Mercy, is that we too, like Bartimaeus need Jesus to heal us of our blindness so that we can toss our cloak away; that is, toss away all those riches that we cling to besides Jesus; again, not only material riches but to throw away the cloak of pride and self-righteousness that has spiritually blinded us to our sinfulness and so blinded us to our great need for Jesus and his continual healing and forgiveness available to us in the Sacraments of the Catholic Church.

Spiritual blindness is far worse than physical blindness, because spiritual blindness blinds us to reality, blinds us to the way things really are; it blinds us to the way we really are. It’s clear then, we all, in humility, need to ask, as poor beggars, for Jesus to open our spiritual eyes in order to see ourselves as we are, to see reality as it is, not as we would like it to be or feel it is.
With our spiritual eyes open, we see, if we are honest, that one of the most, if not the most common trait of every one of us fallen human beings is an ever-present and all-encompassing egocentrism. This trait is very connected with the lust for power in order to have others serve us and fall at our feet; it’s the all about Me attitude- the “going my own way, doing it my own way” attitude of so many. But each of us must also admit to some degree, “Yes, my thoughts and desires and inclinations are spontaneously focused not on God or others for love of God, but on myself; my conveniences, my pleasures, my preferences, my possessions, my prospects, my plans, my sufferings, my desires, my aspirations, my reputation, my freedom.” Anyone who reflects a bit, who is honest, knows this to be true. All too often, we want to see things our way and not the way of Jesus.

One writer said that in this concentration on “me” many times we stubbornly cling to how we view things even in the face of strong evidence to the contrary. When someone confronts us with the truth, with strong evidence on how reality really is we say, “I am right because this is my preference and so I don’t need to consider your reasons and arguments seriously.”

It is at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, however, that we can confidently “approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” It is here, that Jesus asks each one of us, “What is that you want from me?” Jesus, I want you to heal my blindness so I can to see that you are the One that I really seek, for you alone can heal me and fulfill the deepest longing of our human heart. Help me to see not only my sins but to see you and to see the goodness that you have placed within me. And help me to see through the eyes of faith that soon, on this Sacred Altar you and your once and for all Sacrifice will become truly present before me for the sins of the whole world.

Through your heavenly mother we throw away our cloak, all that we have placed before you our God, including the false front with which we so often present ourselves before you, and in trust, we offer everything to you so that you would present it before the Face of Your Heavenly Father and ours. Jesus, You have given your everything for us in order to be able to come into us in the Holy Eucharist at Holy Communion, help us to receive you fully so as to possess you and be possessed by you fully. Give us your Holy Spirit so that we may follow you on your way, telling others about you--and not about ourselves, saying to them “Take courage, get up. Jesus is calling you? Go to him and tell him what you want him to do for you.” Finally, Jesus, son of David, Have Mercy on Me, a poor miserable sinner. That I may see. Amen.