Bartimeus: When Seeing is not Enough

Julián Carrón - Bartimaeus must have woken up that day, like other days, with the usual prospect of going begging. A few hours later, he was found "Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, who was blind, sitting on the road begging. Sitting and begging was his daily habit. Even if it had occurred to him to do otherwise, he would have immediately bowed to the evidence that his life was marked by blindness.

For him, "the unexpected was the only hope," as Montale wrote, and even if he did not expect it, he could not prevent it from happening; even in his daily routine, so ordinary, something unexpected could happen. In fact, we never know when the unexpected can happen; we only know when it does.

Bartimaeus knows that the unexpected has happened because of the gasp he takes when he hears the name "Jesus Nazarene. The sobriety of the Gospel is striking: "When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, something awakened his whole humanity. In his case, the unexpected took the form of a presence.

But not just any presence. He had heard about Jesus, so when he heard that the prophet was passing by, he began to cry out. It was his presence that immediately awakened in Bartimaeus the desire to see.

How do we know this? By his cry: "Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!

The blind man was well aware that he could not satisfy his need to see on his own. Even at that moment, like so many others in his ordinary day, the expectation of some alms was dominant, because that was the only thing he could expect from his situation. What makes her need, of which she was well aware, a cry? The recognition of the presence of someone who could respond. If he had not heard about Jesus, he would have spent the whole day as usual.

He was not the only one who thought this way; many of the people around him had the same attitude. Therefore, when he began to shout, "many rebuked him to be silent. He was disruptive! The rebuke was an invitation to resign himself to his situation; everything around him conspired to keep him silent. And in a moment he has to decide whether to remain silent and be content with his lot, or to continue to cry out as his heart urges him to do. It is always the drama that each of us faces when we hear about Jesus the Nazarene. 

In retrospect, one might think that he had missed this unique opportunity! For it was not obvious to go along with the inner shock. So many times Jesus could not work miracles because he could not see this openness in people. In fact, many rebuked Bartimaeus for his silence, but this is his irreducibility: he does not let himself be determined by the rebukes of others, by their attempt to silence him, but follows his own heart, his own desire awakened by this presence.

In fact, "he cried out even louder: 'Son of David, have mercy on me.'"

We may be slumbering in our daily torpor, busy with ordinary affairs, surrounded by the reproaches of others who want to silence our cry, but the presence of Jesus always awakens all the need to see and urges us to cry out even louder. How can we not understand that Jesus begins to reveal who he is before our very eyes, demonstrating his ability to awaken our slumbering "I"?

Those who go along with this awakening and "snap" to cry out allow Jesus to continue to reveal all of His passion, as with the blind man, "Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him!

They called the blind man and said to him, "Courage! Get up, he is calling you!" The man threw off his cloak, sprang to his feet, and approached Jesus. Then Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man answered him, "Rabbuni, that I may see!

Jesus does not want to come into our lives by force, He just waits for a nod, our openness to His grace, so that He can meet our need: "Go, your faith has saved you. And immediately he saw again. He could have been content with fulfilling his desire to see, but it is no longer enough for the blind man to see. This is clear from what he says immediately after: "And he followed him along the way. Jesus always does this, he begins to respond to his desire to see, but by healing him he reveals the depth of his need. 

This is not a matter of course. On another occasion he had healed ten lepers, and nine of them were satisfied with the healing, while only one returned to Jesus. 

Nor was it a foregone conclusion that Bartimaeus, having received what he wanted-to see-would not simply return home to enjoy life with the new perspective of sight. Nevertheless, he "followed him on the way. 

Sight" was not enough for him, for one can have sight and not have the joy of life that Jesus had brought to him. Jesus had restored his sight, but also the ability to see all his desires for abundance that he had not seen before!

Each of us can understand what it is like to hear the name of Jesus like the blind man. Do we take it for granted or does it jump in us like John the Baptist jumped in Elizabeth's womb? History has changed since Jesus came into history, into the history of each one of us; but if this leap is no longer repeated, we miss the best and the name of Jesus becomes something empty that no longer awakens in us the desire to live.

Christianity becomes habitual and is no longer the event that led the blind man to follow him in order not to miss the newness of his presence. "Following Him" is the way the blind man shows that he does not want to miss the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to him, which is not just "seeing" but recognizing the One who fills his life with His presence - Jesus.
XXX Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year B

Notes from the homily by Julián Carrón, not edited by the author.

(First reading: Jer 31:7-9; Psalm 125 (126); Second Reading: Heb 5:1-6; Gospel: Mark 10:46-52)

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