Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on the 30^th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B) on October 24, 2021, at St. John XXIII University Parish and Catholic Center in Knoxville, TN. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Jeremiah 31:7-9; Psalm 126; Hebrews 5:1-6; and Mark 10:46-52.

Today’s gospel passage is the culmination of the middle section of the Gospel of Mark: the story of the healing of Bartimaeus. Most of us who have driven down Broadway in downtown Knoxville have met people who look like Bartimaeus: people with physical ailments, on the side of the road, screaming at the top of their lungs. I think a lot of us treat these people as the disciples treated Bartimaeus: we want them to shut up and go away.

Nevertheless, Bartimaeus is something of a hero in the Gospel of Mark. More than the apostles, he is the disciple of great faith.

God will continue to console us and guide us, even in the midst of affliction. Let us celebrate God’s infinite gift of mercy!

Lord Jesus, you preached the good news to the poor. Lord, have mercy.

Christ Jesus, you taught us to love one another as you loved us. Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, your love continues to bind us closer to one another. Lord, have mercy.

The healing of Bartimaeus concludes the central portion of the gospel of Mark. Jesus has predicted his passion, death, and resurrection three times. After each prediction, the apostles fail to comprehend what it means to be Jesus’ disciple. Last weekend, only 20 miles from Jerusalem, Jesus asked James and John, “What do you want me to do for you?” They asked him to promise them thrones of honor in heaven. 

Immediately after that exchange, we come to today’s passage with Bartimaeus. Here’s someone who’s had every disadvantage in life, and yet he is the one who understands. He is the first to call Jesus the “Son of David,” and he won’t be quiet even when everyone else tells him to shut up. He has faith in Jesus. So when Jesus asks him the exact same thing as he asked James and John – “What do you want me to do for you?” – Bartimaeus does not hesitate to ask for the impossible: to see. 

What does it mean, to see? Surely, Bartimaeus wanted to regain the use of his eyes. But it’s something more. As my beloved colleague from my time here at John XXIII, Dr. Ruth Queen Smith, used to say, in the Bible, the request “to see” is the request to come to an even deeper faith, to truly understand what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Clearly, Bartimaeus receives all three of these gifts: to see, to believe, and to take action. Immediately after receiving these gifts, he follows Jesus. 

We might not appreciate how amazing this is, because we won’t hear the subsequent passage in Mark next week. We heard it 7 months ago instead. When Jesus, Bartimaeus, and the other disciples ascend from the oasis of Jericho up through the desert into Jerusalem, they find a lot of people there doing something similar – and yet very different – from what Bartimaeus did in Jericho. They have laid their cloaks on the road and are shouting for Jesus, calling him the Son of David. However, these people are also waving palm branches, because they expect that Jesus will lead a military revolution to overthrow the Roman government. Bartimaeus – when he was still blind – saw who Jesus was more clearly than these multitudes do. 

This crowd reminds us of the early days of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee – where crowds followed him, to see him work miracles. However, as Jesus has begun to teach of the sacrifice required to be his disciple, the crowds dissipated. 

Even if it causes his own crowds of admirers to thin out, Pope Francis seems to be shifting him into a new, bolder phase of his papacy. In his video recording to the Fourth World Meeting of Popular Movements last Saturday, he boldly stated what changes he believes need to happen in the world for the Beatitudes to truly take root. Repeatedly invoking the name of God, he begged a variety of organizations to place people over profits. In the name of God, pharmaceutical companies should release their patents, financial groups and international credit institutions should forgive the debts of poor countries, extracting companies should stop destroying the earth, large food monopolies should not inflate prices, arms manufacturers and dealers should close their businesses, technology behemoths and telecommunications companies should stop promoting hate speech, the media should combat misinformation, and powerful nations should end unilateral interventions in other countries.

As much as we all say that we want a more just and equitable world, I’m sure that each and every one of us are personally challenged by several of Francis’ petitions. A lot of us would rather walk away than throw off our cloaks and challenge many of the most powerful organizations in the world! We want to say that Francis is over-simplifying things, or that he doesn’t understand how the world really works. But could it be that we find that we have more in common with the rich and powerful than with the poor and downtrodden, and that’s why we chafe at what Francis suggests? 

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus’ mission appears to conclude in failure. Jesus is rejected, abandoned, and crucified. But in his death, there is a glimmer of new faith: a Roman centurion looking upon Jesus’ crucified body is the first person to recognize him as the Son of God. Some women who have accompanied Jesus go to his tomb and find it empty. Mark makes it clear: it is up to US – not Jesus – to proclaim the kingdom of God.

After today, we have only three weeks remaining with the Gospel of Mark; we’ll begin a year with Luke after Thanksgiving. But in our remaining three weeks, we will meet two more people who are as unlikely as Bartimaeus to have deep faith and true insight: a scribe we expect to be part of the group plotting for Jesus’ death and a poor widow who gives her entire livelihood to the Temple treasury.

So, what’s holding us back on the journey of discipleship? Physical disabilities didn’t hold back the blind beggar. Belonging to the privileged few didn’t hold back the scribe. Financial means didn’t hold back the widow. As Jeremiah proclaimed on behalf of God, in the time of bleakest despair for the nation of Israel: “Shout with joy…. I will bring them back…. so that none shall stumble.”

If Bartimaeus could find his way to deeper faith, so can we!