The joy of being saved

With a beautiful story we have from St. Mark where two people stand out from among the rest. The one is a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, sitting at the side of the dusty road, begging for his piteous existence. At one time, he had been able to see but for some reason, he had lost the power of sight. No longer could he see shapes and forms and colors. Now he could recognize the faces of loved ones only in remembrance. Unable to see, he was also unable to work. There were no NGOs to help the blind in his day, no way in which he could possibly earn a living. And so, with the other outcasts of society, he was forced to beg for his simple existence.

The other person is a traveling preacher, a carpenter from Nazareth. For a number of months, he has moved around the land, saying wonderful things about the Kingdom of God, giving a new found hope to the poor and the downtrodden, and performing miraculous deeds. He has gathered a group of special friends around him, but wherever he goes there is sure to be a growing crowd of followers. Some hope that he is the one to overthrow the Romans and bring freedom back to the people. Whoever he is, he certainly appears to be a special friend of the poor and the outcast, the lame, the sick and the blind.

These are the two who grip our attention; the one is a lowly individual, as low on the social ladder as a person could possibly be – a blind beggar. The other is a professional carpenter, turned traveling preacher, certainly far higher on the social scale, surrounded by a protective crowd of noisy, adulating, and expectant followers.

On a dusty road between Jericho and Jerusalem these two happen to meet. And once again, Jesus focuses his attention on the individual person in need – just as he had done so many times before, whether it was the mother-in-law of Peter, or the servant of a Roman centurion, or the daughter of a foreign woman. Above the roar of the crowd, he is able to hear the persistent cry from the roadside, "Have pity on me." Hearing that steady cry for help, Jesus gives his entire attention, his heart and his mind, to the blind beggar. In so doing, he tells Bartimaeus that he is important as a person and worthy of respect even if the rest of society holds him in contempt. There is no need to recount the rest of the story, the questioning (What do you want me to do for you?), the response of Bartimaeus ("Master, let me see again!") and the healing itself. What is important though, is the fact that Jesus commends the now-seeing Bartimaeus for his faith. It was his faith that saved him. Salvation is very concrete; it touches Bartimaeus in the healing and wholeness of his humanity. Imagine the greater joy with which the healed man must have followed Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.

There is joy in being served, a joy in being free. Freedom, after all, is another word for salvation. Freedom in all its dimensions. This would include, among other things, freedom to be myself; freedom to be at peace with my past, confident in the future, relaxed in the present; freedom from internal and external oppression and injustice; freedom to accept my poverty before God and to put all my trust in him; freedom to commit my life for the freedom of others in openness to the Spirit of God; freedom to work for a society in which Christian values served as ideal guidelines and where true loving-justice is practiced. If I experience an absence of freedom in any of these dimensions, then I am in need of healing and wholeness; I am in need of salvation. But unless we see ourselves as being in need, as Bartimaeus was and recognized himself to be, we are not open to God’s healing. It is only when we do see ourselves as being in need; it is only when we recognized ourselves as being tarnished and broken and frail, that wee see ourselves as being important in God’s eyes, important as the unique individuals we are. Then we can hear the words of Jesus who brings wholeness and healing, salvation and freedom: "Courage! Get up! Be made whole!" "Go your way; youth faith has saved you!" And we receive back our sight and follow him on the way. – 30th Sunday in OT. Mk 10, 46-52