Jesus is asking us: "What do you want me to do for you?"

 

THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN OT B   2021

 

Today’s Gospel describes the beautiful miracle of Jesus giving sight to the blind man Bartimaeus.  In the account, Jesus asked Bartimaeus:  What do you want me to do for you?  He responded: “Lord, that I may see.”

In today’s liturgy, Jesus is asking us the same question that he asked Bartimaeus:  What do you want me to do for you?

Would like you to pause for a few minutes before you answer the Lord’s question to you.

In today’s Gospel, the disciples were the security guard for Jesus as He was leaving Jericho.  To keep some order and to keep people from bothering Jesus, the disciples kept people like the blind Bartimaeus at a distance.  The disciples basically told the blind beggar to shut up.  He was disturbing the peace.

The irony of this Gospel passage is that it was the disciples who were blind.  They had a spiritual blindness to the healing, merciful mission of Jesus.  They simply did not get it.  They were very content to leave people with disabilities as unnoticed people on the side of the road.

Yet, the ministry of Jesus was to reveal the merciful love of God to people in need.

 

Wondering if there is a message for us today.  Do we sometimes suffer from spiritual blindness and sometimes mistakenly try to keep Jesus from people in need?

I wonder if we faithful Churchgoers, starting with the pastor, sometimes act as the security guard for Jesus in the same way that the disciples did in the Gospel account.  Who are the people we tell to shut up, and we want to keep at a distance from our faith community?

Perhaps it is people who we judge are not living a moral life -- people with a different sexual orientation, people who have experienced separation and divorce in their married life, people we judge not to be living a Christ-like life, people we think are phonies, people who are disruptive to the ways we pray. 

Like the first disciples often we are unaware of the ways we can keep people from experiencing the merciful love of Jesus.

May the blind man Bartimaeus represent all the unnoticed people, all the forgotten, people with disabilities, and the people we try to shut up in very polite words. 

And may see have the spiritual sightedness to witness to the merciful love of Jesus to all who are in need.

As we pray over today’s Gospel, be aware of the physical blindness of Bartimaeus, and be aware also of the spiritual blindness of the disciples.  As we pray in the words of Bartimaeus, “Lord, that I may see.”  We pray for both physical and spiritual sightedness to the ways Jesus is present and the ways Jesus wishes to be present to all who are in need.

This week’s Gospel invites us to place ourselves along the way with the blind Bartimaeus.    How would you name your spiritual blindness -- contemplate and admit your own blind spots?  This is bit of a challenge for all of us because it is so easy to be unaware of our own blind spots.

Do we have a blindness to the unnoticed people on the side of the road that we so easily pass by?  How aware are we of the people near us in Church today?  What can we do to connect more fully with the people in our faith community?

Who is the person in our family life that we have built up a wall of blindness that makes it so difficult to reach out to?  Lord, that I may see how your grace can bring healing to this relationship?

A blind spot in our spiritual journey may be the blindness that keeps us from experiencing the merciful healing of Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  What is the last time we have experienced this sacrament?  What would it take for you to remove this spiritual blindness and know the forgiving love of Jesus in this beautiful sacrament?

The dialogue of Jesus with Bartimaeus is the dialogue Jesus has with us today.  Bartimaeus, like each of us, needs to be loved, and is fortunate to receive by Jesus a loving question.  Not “what do you want to do?” asks Jesus, but “What do you want me to do?”  It’s a question that comes from the heart of Christ and shows His compassion.

The Lord is asking us:  What do you want me to do for you?  May we respond with Bartimaeus: “Lord, that I may see.”  Let Bartimaeus be our guide.  He asks for the most important gift God can give.  May we see what is of real value in life.  May we know what is true.  May we judge rightly and walk confidently in the light of Christ. 

Notice in the account that the very first thing Bartimaeus sees when he is healed is the face of Christ.  To know Jesus is the key to the Christian life.   To know Jesus is to know God and our true self.

Bartimaeus’ prayer is answered.  Once he has seen Jesus’ face to face, there is no other life for him except to be with Jesus and to follow him.  He leaves behind his beggar’s cloak and joins Jesus and the other disciples on the way to Jerusalem.  Like a man in love, he has seen the face of his beloved, and there is no turning back.   May we too be cured of our blindness which keeps from seeing the face of Jesus.

What would it take for us to have a vision of life in which we trust that Jesus goes with us in all experiences of life?   What would it take for us to have a vision of ourselves as a faith community in which we welcome everyone as one who is made in the image and likeness of God, and there is room for everyone in our faith community?

Bartimaeus never gave up.  He was persistent.  He made known his request to God.  He was a man of faith.  In this account, he understood the mission of Jesus far better that the disciples did.

May we with the persistence of Bartimaeus ask the Lord that I may see.  May we see and experience the truth of our lives.  God’s love for us is unending.  Whatever anxiety we experience, whatever struggle we are dealing with, whatever disabilities hold us down, we all are the recipients of the abundant merciful love of Jesus.  Lord, that I may see how you are present to me in my time of need.

May God give you the gift of peace and beautiful sightedness.