FIRST READING Jeremiah 31:7-9
Thus says the Lord: Shout with joy for Jacob, exult at the head of the nations; proclaim your praise and say: The Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, the mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng. They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble. For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.
SECOND READING Hebrews 5:1-6
Brothers and sisters: Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. In the same way, it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest, but rather the one who said to him: You are my son: this day I have begotten you; just as he says in another place: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
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.
My sisters and brothers in Christ,
The Prophet Jeremiah speaks the word of God to us in the first reading today: I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst.
God wants to gather all of us to Himself. For God we are all His creation and God is determined to share His live with us. So often we forget the love of God. We end of thinking of God as a judge (which He is, for sure) or God as a demanding presence (which He also is) or God as only a Creator who then abandons us (which is totally untrue). This Sunday we are invited to reflect on our own sense of God. Who is God? Who is God in my life? Who is God in my world?
We must also try to understand who God is from His own words, the Scriptures. We have to remember that for us Christians, all of Scripture is one book and must be read as one document—all of the parts commenting on all of the other parts. This is an enormous challenge because most of us love the gentle parts, the redeeming parts, the loving parts of Scripture. We don’t want to struggle with the ugly parts, the killing parts, the destructive parts of Scripture.
On the other hand, when we take Scripture as a whole, we begin to have an understanding of God that is not one sided and not fundamentalist. We come to meet a God who has created us and who loves us and who agonizes over our lives.
Jesus is God and shows every aspect of God in His life among us. He Himself told us that many would follow him just for the miracle of bread. We know that many followed Him because of the miracles of healing. Today we have the miracle of Bartimaeus, the blind man, from the Gospel of Mark. Bartimaeus is very direct with Jesus: Master, I want to see.
We also need to ask the Lord to see. We are deceived at times, thinking that we see and understand. Instead we are far too often blind and don’t have the sense to ask to see. Today each one of us can ask: Lord, I want to see!
What do I want to see? The presence of God at work in my life. The presence of God in our world. The love that God has for me personally. The love that God has for His Church and for this world that He has created. That is enough!
Have I ever asked to see?
We can echo the Letter to the Hebrews today and recognize that Jesus is our High Priest. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring—and there I find myself.
Lord, heal my ignorance and my errors. Let me see.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip