Receiving Spiritual Sight
Homily for Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time – 27 October 2024
My friend, Megan, is an ophthalmologist. Years ago, when I asked her to give a presentation on eye diseases to a Life Sciences class who were studying the anatomy of the eye, one of the students asked her why she chose this specialization and what was the most rewarding thing about this work. I’ll never forget her answer as she described the joy of seeing someone who had previously walked into the surgery blind with cataracts, leave the surgery being able to see again after a relatively routine cataract operation.
This story of the healing of Bartimaeus in the Gospel today is a literary and spiritual masterpiece. The fact that Bartimaeus is named points to the historicity of this healing event. In fact, Bartimaeus may have still been alive at the time of the writing of Mark’s Gospel and perhaps he was an active member of the Christian community. We might well imagine how he would have told this story himself to others in the Christian community.
So, this healing of Bartimaeus is a real historical event, but St Mark records it as a spiritual message to us. On the surface of things, it may seem to be about receiving physical sight, but on a deeper level, it points to our need to see things through the eyes of God, that is, our need for spiritual sight.
Most often in the Gospels, blindness is depicted as a metaphor for lack of faith. And in Jesus, our eyes are opened to see things as they really are, to see as God sees. In this account of Bartimaeus, this is even more evident in that Jesus says to him after the healing, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” So, the restoration of Bartimaeus’s sight is given to us a message of restoration of spiritual sight, of faith.
We who listen to this Gospel today are invited to see ourselves in the person of Bartimaeus. Like Bartimaeus we come to Jesus in our physical need for healing, but also in our need for spiritual sight, for an increase in faith.
There is no one among us who is perfectly integrated and at peace within themselves. We all suffer some form of brokenness, if not physical then at least emotional or spiritual. And all of us, at some time of our lives, and perhaps from time to time, suffer from spiritual blindness.
We were prepared for this Gospel reading by the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah. We hear that after the destruction and punishment of Judah, there will be a restoration of peace and a new covenant of a loving relationship between God and all the people of Israel. Jeremiah describes the journey of the blind and lame people of Israel from exile to their own land. God guides them from the blindness of slavery and exile, into the freedom of sight. This, we know happened to a certain degree in the return from exile around 530 years before the birth of Jesus. The point of coupling this reading with today’s Gospel about Bartimaeus is that we are proclaiming the complete fulfilment of this prophecy in the person of Jesus, a king in the line of David.
And in the second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, we hear more about this Jesus, the Son of David. Jesus is described as a high priest who understands our human condition because he has experienced the weakness of human nature himself, and so he deals gently with us in our ignorance and our waywardness.
There is an enormous appeal in these Gospel passages which narrate personal encounters between Jesus and individuals, like in the encounter of Jesus and Bartimaeus today. The conversation and interaction between Jesus and these individuals has so much to do with us, because they are a model for the way in which Jesus responds to us and reaches out to us.
As we get on with life and interact more meaningfully with people, we begin the realise about ourselves and others, that our deepest human need is to be loved and to love. We long for a meaningful interaction with others in which we are acknowledged and affirmed. This ties in with our relationship with God. Any progress in the spiritual life, any sense of God, must be based on an individual and personal encounter between us and him in which we are loved, healed, forgiven, and affirmed. And, if we want to know and encounter this God; God who is greater than our imagination; God who is infinite, transcendent, omnipotent ... then we must look to the human face of Jesus. In Jesus, we see and know God face to face.
In the Gospel story Bartimaeus, the blind beggar of Jericho, cried out repeatedly: “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.” The crowd tried to silence him but, in his desperation and faith he persisted in crying out to Jesus. Think of the competing voices in our lives which would try to prevent us from going to Jesus in our need. They are the doubts that arise in our minds and hearts, and the voices of secularism and a society which has lost its sense of God. Bartimaeus knows his need for Jesus, and secondly, he is persistent; he does not give up. Like Bartimaeus, we need to persist in prayer despite the negative voices from inside and outside.
When Jesus called him, he threw off his cloak, which would have been his only security and barrier against the cold of night. As a blind man, finding the cloak again would have been near impossible. The cloak that Bartimaeus threw off is also a symbol of his old life. We need to consider what old way of life do we need to cast off so that we can live the new life of Christ. What do we need go let of? What do we need to change.
When Jesus called him, some in the crowd said to him, “Take heart, rise, he is calling you.” Perhaps this is a message to us that we are meant to encourage others to go to Jesus. We could consider who are the people we are called to take to Jesus? Bartimaeus went to Jesus and Jesus asked him the question, “What do you want me to do for you?” It is the same question that Jesus asks each of us as we stand before him in prayer. As with the rich young man who knelt before Jesus and asked what he must do receive eternal life, Jesus looks on us with love and asks us: “What do you want me to do for you?”
You may recognise in this prayer of Bartimaeus, the beautiful prayer used in the Eastern Church, the Jesus Prayer, which is repeated over and over again in a meditation. It acknowledges firstly who Jesus is, and then it asks for what we most need, acknowledging who we are before God. It goes like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Like Bartimaeus, we can pray this prayer, crying out to Jesus for mercy. And Jesus calls us to him and asks us, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Jeremiah comforted the people by proclaiming that God would never abandon them, not even in exile. Bartimaeus encountered Jesus on the roadside. God never gives up on us, and like Bartimaeus, we can meet Jesus on the roadside of our lives. Whatever our difficulties, Jesus is never far away. Each moment and situation of our lives, no matter how messy or sinful, or broken we may be, is potentially a sacramental moment of encounter with Jesus in which we are loved and healed. Christianity begins with a personal encounter with Jesus, a reaction of love, a feeling deep within us that here is the one person who can meet our need.
It is worth noting that Jesus told Bartimaeus, “Go your way,” but Bartimaeus chose to make Jesus his way. The Gospel says that immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the way. Bartimaeus began with his need for Jesus, then he expressed gratitude in loyally following Jesus.
It is meant to be the same for us. Like Bartimaeus, we call out to Jesus in our need, recognising him as the Messiah and gentle high priest. We ask for the gift of healing and spiritual sight, and in our encounter with Jesus we become new persons, throwing off the old cloak of our lives, and we follow Jesus as his disciples.