God’s Wondrous Work of Healing Our Blindness, 8th Thursday (I), May 27, 2021

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury
May 27, 2021
Sir 42:15-25, Ps 33, Mk 10:46-52

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following thoughts were attempted in the homily: 

• In the Book of Sirach today, Ben Sira, helped by the Holy Spirit, tries to “recall God’s works” and does so even though “even God’s holy ones must fail in recounting the wonders of the Lord.” He describes with wonder God’s creation at his word, his capacity to plumb depth and heart, his knowledge, wisdom, beauty. We continue that praise in the Psalm, trying to sing him a new song since “by the word of the Lord the heavens were made” and all God’s works are trustworthy. That spirit of praise is meant to influence our entire life, but with regard to the redemption we must go, as our prayer on Christmas day bids us, from “mirabiliter” to “mirabilius“: “O God who wondrously created man and even more wondrously redeemed him.” We see the whole pattern of the even more wondrous redemption in the extraordinary Gospel scene with Bartimaeus, the blind man.
• Jericho is the lowest place on earth, more below sea level than any other location. Jesus was passing through the depths of the human world in order to ascend the 15 mile road up hill that leads to Jerusalem, where he would suffer and die to lift us up.  St. Mark tells us, “Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road side begging.” Bartimaeus was not born blind, but had become blind over the course of time. We see that in the verb he uses later — anablepo — asking Jesus in the Greek to “see again.” But he hadn’t just lost his sight. To some degree, he had lost the dignity he would have had. He was sitting by the road side begging. He could not rely on himself anymore. He needed help. He had hit rock bottom. He was in the depth of the valley of darkness in the lowest place on earth. But it was precisely in that spiritual poverty that Jesus would come to meet him, as many times he has likewise come to us. When he heard that Jesus was passing by, he didn’t cry out for alms, which would have been small. He didn’t cry out at that point for a miracle. He cried out simply for mercy. “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me!” He had doubtless heard of Jesus’ reputation for working miracles to the north in Galilee and was responding in faith. The fact that he called him “Son of David” was a sign he believed Jesus was the Messiah. The word St. Luke uses for crying out means basically an animal cry, something coming deep from his woundedness. And his prayer would be answered. Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” Like rabbis were accustomed to do on all their pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the major feasts, Jesus was teaching the crowds along the journey. But when he heard Bartimaeus’ pleas, he stopped in his tracks and ordered that Bartimaeus be brought to him. For Jesus caring for this man was more important than what he was teaching at that moment, because he was about to show the Gospel rather than just verbally describe it. He was also going to show how he responds to persistent prayer. They said to Bartimaeus, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.” It would have been very easy for Jesus to come to meet Bartimaeus exactly where he was begging. But Jesus loved him too much and understands the human heart too well to do that. Instead he drew near, he got close, but then he had Bartimaeus get up to come to him, to exercise Bartimaeus’ freedom, to stoke his desire, to give him greater participation in the miracle Jesus himself was about to accomplish. It takes courage to get up and leave our comfort zone to respond to the Lord. Bartimaeus had that courage and did. “He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.”  The cloak was his outer garment that kept him warm at night. It was in a sense his security blanket. It was quite valuable to him and part of his life. But he was intentionally embracing a new life and establishing a new security. He left it behind, which is not just a fact but an important symbol of how he was thinking more about clinging to Jesus and the new life for which he was hoping than clinging to the past. And even though he was blind, he got up immediately. He always raced to respond to his being called by the Lord. Unlike the excuse makers in other sections of the Gospel who said that they would follow Jesus after they had buried their father (who might die three decades later), inspected their oxen, enjoyed their honeymoon, etc., Bartimaeus responded with alacrity. “What do you want me to do for you?,” Jesus asked him. “Master, I want to see.” The Latin words for this have become a very popular Christian aspiration, “Domine, ut videam!” Bartimaeus says, “I want to see! I want to live in the light. I want to see things as they really are. I want to see you!” The verb used here in Greek is “I want to see again.” He wants to live in grace again. He wants to live anew in the light. He knows what he lost and he knows where to find it. To say to Jesus, “I want to see!,” is not just to turn to a healer and ask him to restore his vision. It’s to say I want to live in your vision. St. John would write in his Gospel, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life.” That’s the gift for which Bartimaeus was begging. But Jesus gives something even more. “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”  The Lord not only gave him his wish to see but heard his initial cry to have mercy on him, and Jesus’ generosity far outdid Bartimaeus’ imagination to ask. Faith in response to God leads to salvation, and even though Bartimaeus didn’t dare ask for that, God gave it.  St. Mark tells us, “Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.” Bartimaeus used his freedom to follow Jesus. He left the depth of Jericho behind and followed him up to Jerusalem, he followed him on Palm Sunday, he followed up on the Way of the Cross, he followed him. And St. Luke comments, “He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God, and when they saw this, all the people gave praise to God” (Lk 18:43). He spent the rest of his life glorifying God in such a way that others joined him in that divine praise. This doxological sequela is what the Christian life is all about!
• This journey is something each of us is called to make as a disciple. Jesus is constantly passing by and he’s calling us. He asks what we want. And we respond we want to see things in his own light. And then he wants us to help others to learn how to live in the light of Him who is the Light of the World, spreading that light, spreading that desire to praise God for all his works. This explains the life of St. Augustine of Canterbury, whom we celebrate today. He sought God as a Benedictine monk in the monastery founded by the future Pope St. Gregory the Great in Rome and eventually was sent by St. Gregory the Great to re-evangelize Anglo-Saxon England, to help the whole country “see again.” Today at this Mass, after having cried out for mercy at the beginning, we respond to Jesus’ query, “What do you want me to do for you!,” by asking for the grace to see Him in the Eucharist, to see him in those we serve, to see him in all those crying out, and finally with them one day to see him face-to-face forever, where we hope to join in the everlasting praise of Sirach, the Psalms, all creation and all the more wondrously redeemed!

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Gospel Mk 10:46-52

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
“Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”
Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.

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