Oct 27th, 2024: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Oct 27th, 2024: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

by | Oct 30, 2024 | Homilies

In biblical times blindness was very common due to poor hygiene and lack of medical care. Today we have eliminated many of the diseases that cause blindness. And we have invented all kinds of devices to improve our seeing. We have ordinary glasses, bifocals, magnifying glasses, binoculars, telescopes, and microscopes. We can see more and farther than ever before in our history.

Physical sight is a wonderful gift that we should never take for granted. A woman tells how her life was turned upside down when she lost her sight as a result of a car crash. Ever since she has lived in a world of darkness. Now, several years later, she barely remembers what her children look like. She hasn’t seen any of her grandchildren. She says: I ‘d have been happy if I’d been left with one eye and to have got no money by way of compensation. I would just love to be able to tell night from day’.

Physical sight is indeed a great gift. But Jesus did not come on earth to give us physical sight. The miracle he performed for Bartimaeus happens regularly in our hospitals. One example. In May 2009 a woman who had been blind for 46 years had her sight partially restored by doctors in a Dublin hospital.

Does this mean that the gospel story has no relevance for us? No. Because the gospel story is not really about physical seeing. Jesus did not come on earth to give us physical sight, but the kind of ‘sight’ that enables us to perceive heavenly realities. The gospel story is about how a man came to believe in Jesus.

His journey from blindness to sight symbolizes the journey from unbelief to faith, which is a journey from darkness to light. St Paul tells his converts at Ephesus; ‘once you were in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord’ (Eph 5: 8).

There is blindness worse than physical blindness-the blindness of unbelief. Physical sight is a marvelous gift. But faith is more precious still.

Without faith there is a sense in which we will always be in the dark. As sight is to blindness, so is faith to unbelief. Faith opens our eyes to a new vision of the world.

The gospel story is more a discipleship story than a healing story. When Bartimaeus was cured he could have forgot about Jesus and gone off to live his own life. Instead, we are told that he followed Jesus along the road. The expression followed him along the road doesn’t simply mean that he joined the crowd on the road to Jerusalem. It signifies that Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way of Christian discipleship. That is the climax of the story.

From being a mere believer, Bartimaeus became a disciple. There is a big difference between the two. One could be a believer without it having any effect on one’s life. But when one becomes a disciple, one tries to live as a Christian.

Bartimaeus was in darkness until he met Jesus. We received the light of faith in baptism. As in the words of St Paul, in his great love, God has called us out of darkness into the wonderful light of his son.

To believe in Jesus is to have an unfailing lamp for our path. Furthermore, We are called to follow his light by the way we live. St Paul says: ‘the effects of the light are seen in goodness, right living, and truth’ (Eph 5:9).

Here on earth, we can sense God’s presence, but we do not see Him directly. Instead, we journey by the light of faith/ toward that place /where we will see Him face to face, just as He sees us. Like Bartimaeus, we too can offer /the heartfelt prayer: “Lord, let me see.” May we learn to see what truly matters in life and, above all, to see with the eyes of faith.

As we sing the following song, let us pray that we may follow Jesus more intentionally each day, just like Bartimaeus.

St. Martha Prayer

Your faith led Jesus to proclaim, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Your unwavering belief allowed you to see beyond His humanity when you cried out,

“Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

With firm hope, you declared, “I know that God will give you whatever you ask of Him,”

and Jesus called your brother Lazarus back from the dead.

With pure love for Jesus, you welcomed Him into your home.

Friend and servant of our Savior, I too am “troubled about many things.”

Pray for me that I may grow in faith, hope, and love,

and that Jesus, who sat at your table, will hear me and grant me

a place at the banquet of eternal life. Amen.