Word to the Wise
Sunday, October 24, 2021 - 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
[Jer 31:7-9; Heb 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52]"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. [Mark]
The story of Bartimaeus, the blind man, offers us at least two perspectives. The first is the faith of Bartimaeus. He calls Jesus by a messianic name: "Son of David!" We don't know, exteriorly, how he went from hearing that "Jesus of Nazareth" was passing by to calling out, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!" This is a leap of faith, and one which Jesus recognizes, but the crowd does not. In fact, the crowd tries to silence the Blind Man! We might ask who really "sees" in this story - the crowd or the Blind Man?
The second perspective is indeed the crowd that is following Jesus. They go from rebuking Bartimaeus to encouraging him to approach Jesus, but only when Jesus recognizes him. How good are we at recognizing the faith of others and encouraging them to approach Jesus? Perhaps we should all recognize that Jesus is not only asking the Blind Man, "What do you want me to do for you?", but asking us - the crowd - as well. Can we have the humility to recognize our own blindness and ask the Lord, "Master, I want to see!" AMEN