30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Sunday 28th October 2018)
The Face of God – (Mark 10:46-52)
Today’s readings focus on the image of blindness. We see this image in the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. Now Jeremiah is speaking to a people who are scattered. They are displaced from the Promised Land. They have disobeyed God and many of them have even begun to follow other Gods. They are in physical exile. They are blind, many of them literally. They cannot see where they are going and they are lost. Jeremiah writes that there were blind and lame in their midst. But even in the midst of this immense suffering, God offers them hope. He says ‘I will console them and guide them’. And this message of hope points to the Gospel. In the Gospel we have the story of the blind man, Bartimaeus. Now notice this phrase from Bartimaeus – “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me”. Now Bartimaeus was physically blind but he, like many of his time, saw his physical disability as a punishment for his spiritual sins and he is asking for mercy. This is also applicable for us today. Our sins cause us to be blind. We cannot see the world or our lives clearly and we need the healing touch of Jesus. This story is always amazing to me because I imagine how incredible it must have been for this man, who was blind his whole life, to finally be able to see. When he opens his eyes, the first thing that he sees is the Face of God because the first person he sees is Jesus! That is incredible. Immediately, when he is seeing perfectly and clearly, the only path that he wants to take is to follow Jesus.
In our own lives, much like the people in Jeremiah’s time, we are lost and wondering. And much like Bartimaeus who was blinded by his sinfulness, we too are blinded by the sins and wounds of our past and present. However, Jesus offers us a way out. He offers us the ability to see. Do we have the courage to ask for His Mercy? Do we want to open our eyes and see the Face of God?