Believing, Seeing, Doing

We hear great stories today about the marvels of eye surgery, and how people who had impaired vision have been enabled to see well.  Also, appeals come for contributions to supply medication which can save or improve one’s eyesight.  Having benefited from the expertise of some excellent specialists in this field, I am very grateful to them and to God who gave them this most valuable skill.

Bartimaeus, the blind man in today’s gospel longs for good vision.  Blindness or any ailment was seen at that time as in some way a sign of God’s disfavour.  Though we note in the first reading that the “blind and lame” willl be led back from exile with the rest.  Yet, people among the crowd in Jericho tried to shout down Bartimaeus as he cried out to Jesus to show pity to him.  They would want to lock the blind man in his darkness, or shut the gates against his hope.  But with firm courage and disregard for the scorn heaped upon him, he keeps up his plea for healing.

Perhaps at times we too easily prefer to lie low and keep quiet, maybe to tolerate untrue or unfair situations which we might improve.  Possibly I do not do or care enough for the healing, growth, and progress of others.  A word, a visit, encouragement, sometimes material help can be timely and beneficial.  Prayer for the afflicted and those who are sick in body or spirit is always in season.

Bartimaeus has languished in the dark of material things, but has pure light within him.  This is the “Guide” of St. John of the Cross amidst the “darkness” of sense and intellect, as his poem Dark Night puts it:

‘I went out with no other light or guide,

Except the fire burning in my heart.

That light guided me more surely   

than the brightness of noonday.’

This midday glow of faith shines in the blind man.  His faith captivates Jesus who heals him.  Christ, the high priest of the 2nd reading shows divine power in merciful compassion.

We are led to pray with confident faith and courageous witness to Christ who in his great kindness pities our frailty and failure.  The experience of healing and the magnetism of Jesus draw Bartimaeus beyond familiar places, and “he followed him along the road”.  This is an expression of discipleship; so the Christian goes along the way of the cross with our Saviour to suffering and glory; it is the path of baptismal life in day to day living according to our particular call. Probably Bartimaeus was later a well-known figure in the young Christian church of Jericho, from where Mark would have got his name.  His miracle and faith spurred him to live and practise the way of the Church. This splendid vision similarly urges us to live full life in the Church by the luminous guidance of our faith in Christ. 

Fr. Eamon Flanagan, CM.

29th October, 2006