Tad Brain Power

 THE 30TH ORDINARY SUNDAY OF THE YEAR B!

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a bowl by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help. "Once in a long while someone will stop and drop a coin into his bowl, and he will say “thank you". A man was walking by, and he took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the bowl. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words.

Then he put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see the new words. Soon the bowl began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. The boy almost got tired of saying: “thank you". Towards evening that man who changed the sign came back and the blind man recognized his footstep and asked him what he wrote that made a lot of people to be generous.

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.” I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.” Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how grateful they should be to see.

 Remember, when our lives seems full of troubles and we find it difficult to maintain, an attitude of gratitude, is the only solution to restore it. The attitude of Bartimaeus in today’s gospel is a perfect example to learn  to show our gratitude to our Divine Master for His gratituous gift of new life. The healing of physical blindness of Bartimaeus made him a follower of Divine Master who received his spiritual sight besides physical.

In contrast, when everything just seems to be going smoothly. We often take these precious moments for granted, caught up in the bliss, comfort, and familiarity of it all, we simply forget to be thankful and this spiritual blindness for not being thankful for the gift of life makes us ungrateful and selfish which us us aloof from experiencing any healing and miracles in our lives.

 In the gospel of today we encounter our Lord Jesus Christ again on the move. He seemed to be running a mobile ministry unlike our contemporary location-based ministries with imposing Manson houses. Jesus used any available space for preaching, consultation, prayer and counseling. Today on his way from Jericho to Jerusalem to attend the great Passover a lot of people followed him as well as his disciples. The presence of Jesus brought a lot of people out as he was teaching while taking the 15 miles trek to Jerusalem. No doubt the sick, beggars and other people also came out with their personal reasons which could have included but not restricted to asking for alms. Among the lot was a man called Bartimeus son of Timaeus who a blind beggar was and when he heard that Jesus was passing by, he came out and began calling out to him: “Jesus son of David have pity on me?”

The name or title he gave to Jesus was very significant. The title “Son of David” describes the Messiah which means Saviour. In essence Bartimaeus was actually saying “Saviour there is someone here who needs to be saved!” As he shouted for help something happened! The people around him tried to stop him. For them the son of defilement is not qualified to talk to the Son of God. For them Bartimaeus was so low to have anything to do with Jesus Christ. But he ignored the crowd and shouted all the more. Sometimes in life we face oppositions on our way to our positions. They may come as discouraging voices like the ones that hushed Bartimaeus; but he was not discouraged. There is a YES somewhere in our lives, but for us to get to it we may experience a lot of NOS do not be discouraged.

In conclusion, I want to draw four points out of today’s gospel account. 

The first important point is that Bartimaeus knew he was blind. Do we? Do we know that we really don’t see reality as Jesus sees it, that we miss seeing the works and the hand of God in our lives, that we are bedazzled and blinded by the glitz and glitter of this world, and that our souls are surrounded by a spiritual darkness, and that we often do not let the light of Christ illumine our way through that darkness? Do we realize we are blind when it comes to seeing ourselves as Jesus sees us?

The second observation I have is that those around Bartimaeus tried to hush him up and keep him from Jesus. It is significant because that is the situation in which we find ourselves today. There are a whole lot of voices and forces attempting to keep us from contacting and personally encountering Jesus Christ. If you don’t think so, then you really are spiritually blind.

Bartimaeus took the courageous risk of going against the crowd. He didn’t let his hope be deterred by the local people and the voices of those who tried to keep him down and in his place. Any faith response worthy of the name requires the same sort of risk. Bartimaeus is a true hero because he went against the crowd and, in his darkness, took the risk.

Thirdly, Jesus stopped everything to pay personal attention to him. St. Mark records this as the last miracle Jesus worked before entering into Jerusalem. As He entered Jerusalem to suffer and die, Jesus brought His whole redemptive journey to a halt in order to respond to this blind man’s request that is how important he was to Jesus. I have no doubt whatsoever that we are just as important to Jesus as was Bartimaeus and that, if we call out to Jesus, He will drop everything to give us the same level of attention, love and compassionate care as He gave to Bartimaeus.

Finally I want to note that after Bartimaeus received his sight he followed in Jesus’ footsteps, which is a shorthand way of saying that Bartimaeus followed in the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus. He wanted to see and experience life as Jesus did.

What in this world of ours do we see? What do we deliberately not see? What do we fail to see due to apathy, indifference, selfishness, pride, and arrogance? Do we see the hurting, the hungry, the miserably poor, the outcast, and the little people? The media presents us with the glittering beautiful people, those at the pinnacle of political and corporate power, the superstars in the sports and entertainment industries. Mother Teresa and Pope Francis invite us to see other people, not just ourselves but those around us. Do we see them and really look at them, or do we ignore them?

And what about the little people, the no-names hit by tragedy that never interest television and newspaper reporters? Pope Francis bids us to pay attention to those who are marginalized, those whom this world holds in little regard, whom this world would have us overlook, whom this world condemns to be of little value. This blindness needs to be cured. More tragically, the world would have us not look at an ultrasound picture of a living. The world would have us rid ourselves of the dying. The world would capture our attention by images of the glamorous and the glittering, blinding us to the ones who are really hurting.

All of this leads us to the great question of the day. How does Christ see us? What is Christ’s vision for us? The answer is, of course, not simple. But what is at issue is the question of what it means to be a human person. And what it means to be a human person is the overriding question of our day. Why can’t we see that?

Let us now join in asking our Father in heaven for vision:

Heavenly Father, help us to see ourselves as you see us. Help us to see others in the world around us as Jesus, your Son, sees them.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us all, that we may see what you want us to see. And do what you want us to do.

You have filled your world with beauty. Each and every one of us is precious in your sight. Heal our blindness and bring us to walk in the Light of your Son. For we ask you this through Christ, who is our Lord. Amen.