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Gospel: Mark 10: 46-52
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
“Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”
Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Have you ever imagined what it’s like to be blind?
As a kid, I’d probably imagine being blind felt like having your eyes closed. It’s just pitch black; dark all the time.
In reality, there are degrees of blindness. A person who’s legally blind may see light, colors, or have blurred vision. Life isn’t lived totally in the dark.
“Perfect vision,” on the other hand, means a person can see with absolute clarity, even recognizing the smallest detail.
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In today’s Gospel, we encounter a man who’s blind, Bartimaeus.
What makes him unique is not his blindness, but his faith. He “sees” something that many do not – Jesus is the “Son of David,” who has the power to heal him.
Hearing the voice of Jesus off in the distance, he casts aside his cloak – and all the coins resting on it, which he received from begging that day – and throws himself at the feet of Jesus.
In doing so, Bartimaeus literally parted with everything he owned. It was a desperate display of faith.
“Master, I want to see,” he says. Bartimaeus wants to see more than the physical world; he wants to “see” Jesus, his Lord.
“Go, your faith has saved you.”
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Bartimaeus received two things that day, one we already have: his physical sight.
More importantly, he received something we all need: salvation. “Your faith has saved you,” Jesus says.
Like Bartimaeus, do we “see” Jesus? And if so, where?
Can we see him in prayer? Can we see him in the Eucharist? Can we see him in our neighbor?
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“Master, I want to see.”
May the Lord remove any blindness within us, giving what he once gave to Bartimaeus, perfect vision through eyes of faith.
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Image credits: (1) Adobe Stock (2) Vision Therapy Center (3) The Messianic Light