BLIND TO OUR BLINDNESS.
October 24, 2021
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - B.
A Tunisian proverb says: “There is no blindness but the
blindness of the heart.” And a British proverb adds: “There is no blindness
like ignorance.”
The Christian life is a journey from darkness to light, from
blindness to perfect sight. This journey, however, requires firm faith, great
hope, and sincere love. It is by lack of faith in God one falls into idolatry
and is blinded by sin. Sin makes us blind to our
blindness. We therefore need the eyeglasses of faith to see. It is through
faith, hope, and love that our sight can be restored. And every disciple of
Christ is in that journey of purification and restoration of sight and of life.
Perfect faith is not without trials. The Catechism says,
“Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of
evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of
stopping evil. But in the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his
almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by
which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and
the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the
weakness of God is stronger than men." It is in Christ's Resurrection and
exaltation that the Father has shown forth "the immeasurable greatness of
his power in us who believe".” CCC 272.
However, Faith is what can bring us back from darkness to
light, from sin to restoration. The people of Israel had had to go through that
journey of purification. In today's first reading, through the Prophet
Jeremiah, the Lord promises restoration to his people, the "blind
Israel". They were brought into the Babylonian exile because of their
wickedness and idolatry, because of sin that blinded them and made them unable
to see God's love for them. Now, the Lord announces their restoration. He
promises to deliver the remnant of Israel, and bring them back to their land.
They will be taken from the darkness of exile and slavery and brought into the
light of freedom. The Lord promises, “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...”
Freedom from sin is the most perfect restoration. We all are
like blind people, living in the land of exile of our sins. We travel in the
darkness because of our lack of faith, love, and hope in God. The Lord,
however, has come to set us free from sin and restore our sight. The experience
of the blind man of the Gospel is that of each of us. Like Bartimaeus, we are
all blinded by sin. Therefore, in need of God's pity and merciful love.
Bartimaeus, hearing about Jesus passing by expresses that need: "Jesus,
son of David, have pity on me." Because sin blinds us and prevents us to
see God, when asked by Jesus, "What do you want me to do for you?"
Bartimaeus did not hesitate: "Rabbuni, let me see again."
The inner and greatest thirst of all human beings is to see
God. And because sin blinds us, we can only call for God's mercy and cry for
restoration: “I want to see.”
To see again is our thirst. Hence the famous axiom of Saint Irenaeus
of Lyon: “The glory of God is man alive, but the life of man is to see God.” And
that thirst, when satisfied, it opens us to a life of discipleship, that is, to
follow the Lord, the new light of life. St. Mark reports that, once his sight
was restored, Bartimaeus did not stop following the Lord along the roads. The
healing was made possible by Bartimaeus' faith. It is that same faith that
transformed him into a new disciple.
The Letter to the Hebrews, speaking of the priesthood of
Jesus, presents him as the means through which the sinful humanity is restored
to newness of life. He is the High Priest who offered the most perfect
sacrifice of restoration and forgiveness of sins. The Lord, through his
self-sacrifice, took us from sin to righteousness, from blindness to new sight,
from darkness to light. And this, he did it because of his love and compassion.
We live in a world filled with so much darkness and
corruption of sight. Sadly, no one is exempted from those corruptions. We are
blinded by materialism and the danger of consumerism. And for this material, we
can give up everything, even our freedom. Many people have only one thirst
today: money at all costs, power at all costs, pleasure at all costs. To
satisfy that thirst they have, the life of others can even serve as means. We
kill, we abuse, we deprive others of their rights, just because we have to get
what we are longing for. And many others will also do all that is in their
reach to prevent you get your need. The example is clear with the people who
rebuked Bartimaeus, telling him to be silent. But like the blind man, we must
not get discouraged, but keep calling out all the more. The Lord who hears and
sees all things will surely tell us: “What do you want me to do for you?”
The encounter between Jesus and Bartimaeus sounds a warning to us that the things of this world are not the most important for our life. What we truly need, is openness to faith to see again. For, we live by faith, not by sight alone. And the best way to see divine light is to put out your own candle, that is, our selfishness and open to faith.
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