30th SUNDAY of ORDINARY TIME, year “B”
“Jesus came out of Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd. Bartimaeus a blind beggar was sitting at the side of the road. Hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth , he began to cry out : ’Jesus, son of David, have pity on me!”
Bartimaeus bothers the crowd, his is dependent on others and here he is beginning to cry out! The greatest of handicaps is not to be able to have access to faith, either because of cultural barriers, or a lack of education, either because people bear a wrong witness against Chrsitians.How many men, women, young people are there, on the road-side, hearing people pass by with Jesus, holding out their hands for a bit of friendship, for someone to cross their path and look at them. For Jesus, the presence of Barthimaeus will be the opportunity to contest the selfish crowd, and each one of us.This man’s cry manifests his misery, the fact that he is closed up on himself, his solitude and his reclusion. Silence has set in all around him! He is told to be quiet. ’Many scolded him and told him to be quiet but he cried out all the louder :“Son of David, have pity upon me!” Jesus’ desire, his cry comes to the ears of Barthimaeus by those who come to fetch him : ’Have pity upon me.’ Jesus’s cry, his tenderness and mercy: ’Go and fetch him.’ Jesus comes to our help : the Church’s missions to continue to be at work! Through us, today, Jesus enters into communication with the man who suffers and he comes to save him. . In this way we experience in the Church the happiness that Jesus puts into our lives. God’s Salvation is seen in acts for so long, his cry will always bring hope again to mankind.
"Many people called out to him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more : ’son of David, have pity on me!’ Jesus stopped and said ’Bring him here.’ They called the blind man and he was told ’Courage, get up, he is calling you.’
Jesus is behaving here like an educator, he educates the crowd to have an active charity, whereas for the blind man it will be his faith that will educate him.: “What do you want me to do for you?” So Jesus has to speak in order that communication is established between themselves. Jesus wants to give this man the joy of expressing his confidence : ’Rabbuni, my master, let me see again!’ In today’s world were hear so many young people at a loss faced with
the suffering in the world, they are taken up in their heart by so much misery poor people have to undergo. These young people can find hope once more by seeing how the Christian community acts.We are attentive to these brothers who are going through a long exile : going back to psychiatric hospital, back to the streets! When an uprooted man comes back at last into his village after ten, fifteen or twenty years of working, he finds at last a smile! God doesn’t abandon his people. in the heart of distress, sounds out the presence and God’s cry : ’Go and fetch him!’ The saved man exults : ’Cry for joy for Jacob, sound out your praise. Your God cannot abandon you.“’The blind man threw off his cloak, jumped up and ran towards Jesus . Jesus said to him, ’What do you want me to do for you?’-’Rabbuni, let me see again.’ And Jesus said, ’Go, your faith has saved you’. Immediately the man began to see and he followed Jesus on the road.”
Here we are a step away from Jesus , we can guess he’s there without seeing him directly : Rabbuni, let me be able to see again! May I be able to recognise your visit, discern the traces of your love, see your hand that invites me, let me see by what path I can rejuvenate my first love. May I attach myself to your steps so as to follow you on the road ’glorifying God’ Jesus brought a sense of peace to Bartimaeus heart, it is his mission to give back happiness to his friends, and wants to go right to the ends of the earth. This man of the Gospel, this “new disciple”, follows Jesus. Is he going to forget his past when a poor man cries out on the road? Will he ignore his cry of distress. Humanity’s cry comes up to us from the four corners of the earth! Christian communities bring up to Jesus the cry of mankind. They are missionaries when they bring about God’s marvels that act today through his hands. Thus it is our part of responsibility to announce the living love that God gives to us. The Church announces the marvels that Jesus brings about in our lives and through our communities.