30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Simham)

by | Nov 2, 2021

Identify and Follow

Today we have wonderful  story of blind Bartimaeus and this is a story about vocation and its story about you and me. The word vocation derives from the latine vocare “to call and for the Christian a vocation is not just something that God call us to be. The christian vocation is a call to share in the life of the most holy trinity. Today we find that we are supposed to follow Christ with courage with audacity with braery.

Bartimaeus sitting by the walls of Jericho

Jericho represent a sinful place. Jericho is believed to be one of the oldest cities in the world. In the bible Jericho is best known as the location of an astonishing miracle God preformed. Jericho was the first city conquered by Israel after crossing the Jordan river and occupying the promise land by blowing the trumpet, walking around the city with faith and the walls came tumbling down, (Joshua 5: 13- 6:23)

Bartimaeus is a blind man, blind physically and spiritually sitting beside the sinful city. we  as humans we only see the physical but Jesus in his divinity sees bartimaeus spiritual blindness. the early Christians were called as ” the people of the way”. they learnt the way of God, the way of Jesus and that’s the way you and i are to learn to follow and to imitate. the poor bartimaeus is sitting beside the way, but He’s is not living the way of Christ. when we respond to our vocation, we learn and find the way to follow Jesus.

The greatness of Bartimaeus

He is a begger and he only knows that he needs help. we know that we too are beggars and we need help, we call out to God for every need. in our journey of life with Jesus, we need to have this wonderful attitude. one of the fears that I see in our community and in our church that many people are just satisfied with what they have and don’t yearn for more spirituality.  the deepest yearning we need to have is for eternal life so don’t be complacent.

Jesus stops and calls

The words “stop” and “Call” have a special attention in mark’s gospel. this is the only time Jesus stops because normally he’s running around from here to there. He is like itinerant missionary. only two times we read the word “call” in the marks gospel. First bartimaeus calls out: lord Jesus son of David have mercy on  me. second time Jesus stops and he tells his disciples to call him. Jesus is more persistent in calling us than we are in calling out for His help. He is persistent for us. He wants us to know our vocation with him.

The disciples told Bartimaeus,,,,, Jesus is calling you…..

The above phrase in Greek sense is to be bold, to be audacious and to dream big. when we know our vocation, we see it according to God’s way not our way, God’s dream not our dream. God way and dream is always going to be bigger more audacious, more beautiful, more bold, more life giving than you can every imagine. If you never listen to God’s call for your life, you will never know about that wonderful way that God is calling you to.

 

Throwing and stating

Bartimaeus first had to throw aside his cloak, and springing up, he goes to meet the lord. The cloak here represents all the things that constitute comfort zones in our lives. He throws off in order to receive the bigger dream of God. The lord asked Bartimaeus to state clearly what he wanted, and he said, ” I want to see, “here we learn how to be specific and clear in our requests to God. Bartimaeus got his sight back and followed Jesus along the way.

Bartimaeus was blind, but he saw Jesus before that historic meeting that restored his sight. How did he see Jesus? by his steadfast faith. He only needed to hear that Jesus was passing that way, and everything changed for him. St. Paul would tell us that faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17) and in another place, he says that we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7)

The blind Bartimaeus saw Jesus with the eye of faith though he could not see him with the physical eye. On the contrary, the hushing crowd showed blindness in their faith as they could not see what the blind man saw, namely the saving power of the son of David who was passing. Bartimaeus could not have been the only blind person on that street but he was the only one that saw the son of David and he had mercy on him as he requested.

Dear brothers and sisters do you know that Jesus is still passing by you daily? how much of the lord do you see in the people and events around you. You could be sitting on the roadside of life like Bartimaeus hoping to get help, but would you be able to recognize the real help when he comes? Challenge your faith today, rise from your comfort zone and meet the lord who would surely deliver you from your spiritual blindness and give you a transformed life and new sigh, to follow with great hope for eternity.. Amen.

Fr. Simham