Breaking through spiritual blindness

Today’s Gospel describes Jesus passing through Jericho on His way to Jerusalem. He is stopped by a blind man who wants to be healed. This account of Jesus healing a blind man comes after Jesus accuses the disciples of spiritual blindness (Mark 8:14-26).

The healing of Bartimaeus was an object lesson in the spiritual blindness of the crowd and the disciples. It becomes a lesson in persistent faith that breaks through spiritual blindness. Indeed, in this account we can see that even his cloak is much more than just a cloak. It represents a way of life for him: we learn how he has managed to cope and survive an existence devoid of intimacy, connection, kindness, or care. The cloak he later throws away as a sign of the significant change in his life.

His blindness was like a great wall in front of him, isolating him from the rest of the community. In his reflective isolation, he believed that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah and acted on that belief by asking Jesus to have mercy on him. In the person of Bartimaeus we see all of us poor sinners who live in spiritual blindness.

This poor blind outcast gives a double testimony of how we must turn to the Lord. Firstly in feeling His gentle but clear and concrete presence in our hearts and souls. We must recognize His voice and His promptings. He wants to heal us, but we need to let Him in and only at that moment is He able to bestow His healing balm to our souls.

Bartimaeus was persistent in his desire to interact with Jesus; he did not give up after his first cry for mercy. Although he was not heard the first time, he was persistent in his cry until the Lord heard him and answered his prayer.

His innocent, even childlike, response to Jesus, “Master, I want to see again,” suggests that there was once a time when he could see. Most of us will never know what it means to lose the gift of sight. It is a gift that stays with us until we die, even though it diminishes as we grow older, so it is fair to deduce that his blindness was not just physical, it was spiritual.

We are able to see the power of Jesus, as well as His compassion for those who are poor and hurting. That is our hope: that we have a God who cares about the difficulties and obstacles in our lives and who responds to all who turn to Him in faith.

When we reach out to God in prayer, we remove assumptions and are true to our inner most feelings and needs. Bartimaeus was simple and direct with his needs; he just said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

Today’s Gospel helps us understand that we too should make every effort to seize the opportunity when it passes by: when we know what we want, it becomes easier to seek the opportunity. Bartimaeus was a beggar, people saw him as a person who wanted money, food, etc. Perhaps it would never have occurred to him nor to others that he needed something much more profound. However, when he saw Jesus, it became evident he wanted to break free from the sad state he was living in. This motivated him to do everything he could to get Jesus’ attention; to grasp life in its fullness, and this meant being willing to let go of some ideas, behaviours, beliefs that obscured his relationship with God, portrayed in the casting of his cloak.

God always places wonderful opportunities before us. Let us be strategically ready to seize them, let us be ready to cast off anything that blocks our relationship with Him; our lives will surely change forever.

*  Custody of the Holy Land

By Fr Luke Gregory ofm*