Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle B October 24, 2021

 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time   Cycle B      October 24, 2021

In our first reading today from the prophet Jeremiah we heard, “Thus says the Lord: Shout with joy for Jacob!”

And our Psalm Response today, I am sure you will recall:  “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”     We are filled with joy!

Are you filled with joy?   Not happiness, not just good feelings, but something a little different, a little deeper.  Filled with joy!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see a lot of joy around these days.  If you listen to the news, or follow tweets on social media, or pretty much listen to anything, you get a lot of divisiveness, a lot of stress, a lot of anger, a lot of unhappiness, lots of accusations and blaming, lots of dire warning and threats, lots of hand wringing and bemoaning the awful situation in the world: the economy, relations with China, the on-going pandemic, worries over inflation, supply chain snafus, political idiocy, a hopelessly degraded environment, stubbornness, obstinacy, and just plain mendacity and meanness.  //  Am I right?

What we are living in can spiritually be diagnosed as BLINDNESS.  Not physical blindness, but emotional, relational, and especially spiritual blindness.   People are blinded by their own self-interest, by fear of others who are different than themselves, by fear of losing what they have, by fear of change, by fear of losing control:   FEAR.   Fear causes spiritual blindness.

In the Gospel we just heard Jesus heals a blind man.  This guy, Bartimeaus, was physically blind.  But he was also emotionally and spiritually blind.  He is a stand-in, a representative, for each one of us.  Not so much in physical blindness, but in all the other ways we are blind: emotionally, psychologically, socially, and especially spiritually.  Blindness comes in many forms. 

This is why Jesus asks that odd, and seemingly otiose, question.  “What do you want me to do for you?”  The guy is blind, what does Jesus think, he wants a hot stock tip?  Of course he wants to be healed of his blindness.  But Jesus asks, I think, in order to make Bartimeaus face and own his blindness.  He cannot be healed until he realizes and admits that he is blind.

And for us, we cannot be healed of emotional, psychological, and spiritual blindness as long as we keep denying that we are wandering around in the dark like blind people.  We have to recognize our need and admit our need for salvation, for Jesus.  Jesus can’t heal us until we drop our pride, our false self-sufficiency, our attitude of “I can do it on my own” and don’t need help, don’t need saving. 

To be healed by Jesus we first of all have to admit, to Jesus and to ourselves, our own deficiency, our need for salvation, our spiritual blindness.

Notice that Mark gives us a peculiar detail in the story.  When the crowd said to the blind man, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”  the Gospel says: “He threw aside his cloak, sprang up and came to him (i.e.., to Jesus). “

He threw aside his cloak.  What was this cloak?  Could it be Bartimeus’ “cloaking device” to hide his weakness, his needs, his fears, his deficiencies?  Do we not use anger and condemnation of others as our cloak to conceal our weaknesses, our fear, our deficiencies?  //   Can you say “projection”????

To come to Jesus and ask for healing, we have to throw aside the attitudes and beliefs and ways of thinking that we use to hide our weaknesses and fears.  We have to cast aside the anger, the blaming, the prejudices, the accusing others of being the problem.  Only by casting aside these can we come to Jesus honestly and freely, to admit our need, and so be healed.

In the Gospel today, Jesus asks you, yes you, “What do you want me to do for you?”  

Well, if you are just fine, and all together, and the problems are all the other people, not you, then Jesus can’t heal you.  But if you cast aside the anger, the blame, the accusations, the demeaning of others, and come to Jesus as you are in your need, then Jesus can heal you.  And Jesus wants to heal you.

And once healed, you can join in the Psalm response fully and joyfully and with gusto: “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”

Jesus loves you and wants you to be filled with joy.  But to heal you, you must first throw off your cloak of excuses and blaming others, and come to Jesus as you really are, and ask to be healed. 

Then we can truly sing together the responsorial Psalm, and mean it for ourselves:  “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”