The Archdiocese of Cincinnati

By Father Timothy P. Schehr

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jeremiah 31:7-9; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52

We are always so careful about our eyesight. We will spend good hard-earned money to correct and improve our vision. But, do we value our spiritual vision at least as much? This Sunday’s Gospel should motivate us to work on our ability to appreciate the things of God.

The narrative opens with our attention drawn to a blind ma begging by the roadside on the way out of Jericho. His name is Bartimaeus. Maybe no one care who he was before. But, after his encounter with Jesus, this Bartimaeus would be well worth remembering.

When Bartimaeus learns that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, he begins to cry out for His attention. The people around try to silence him. They probably imagine this blind man is interested only in begging from Jesus the kinds of things he gets from others who respond to his cries for help. But this time, Bartimaeus has something else in mind altogether. And he does not allow the crowd to intimidate him from crying out for Jesus.

At last, Jesus stops and asks the others to call Bartimaeus over. Mark then tells us Bartimaeus “threw aside his cloak, sprang up and came to Jesus.” His actions are inspiring. First of all, he discards his cloak, something all the more im­pres­sive if this was the only thing he owned. Then he springs to his feet and makes his way to Jesus. We can almost feel the anticipation in his heart. Is it likely that Bartimaeus had ever reacted this way before when someone stopped to help him? Clearly Bartimaeus is not seeking from Jesus the usual things he got from others.

Surprisingly, Jesus asks what He can do for this blind man. For us it should be obvious that Bartimaeus seeks to be healed. But, is that what the crowd expected? If so, why did they try to silence him? That crowd needed to hear from the blind man’s own lips that he wanted to see. His faith was so strong that he sought for Jesus what no one else could ever give him.

And certainly the people in that crowd could have asked the very same thing of Jesus if they had recognized the limitations within them­selves to see with the eyes of faith. In this way, Bartimaeus becomes a model for all others who need to be spiritually healed so they can see the world in a new light, so that they can see the world as a gift from God.

The prophet Jeremiah looked forward to the same kind of spiritual transformation within the people of his day. He believed the day would come when the power of God would be appreciated by the people, and they would allow God to heal their spiritual ills. On that day, those who had once been spiritually blind and lame would make their way back home to God.

In earlier sadder times, the people trusted in their own resources for security. Jeremiah compared that to trusting in faulty cisterns that could never hold water. But trusting in God is like having access to brooks that never fail to provide life-giving water.

(Father Schehr is a member of the faculty at the Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati.)