8th Week, Thursday, May 30
Once you were not God's people; Now you are God's people.
1 Peter 2:2-5, 9-12
Starr Daily was a hard-core criminal, who ended up in
solitary confinement. One day, when he was lying on the icy floor, something
strange began to stir within him. He suddenly began to wonder what would have
happened had he devoted his vast reservoir of energies to doing good, rather
than doing evil. What happened next is hard to describe. As best he could piece
it together, he experienced the powerful presence of Jesus.
About the experience's effect on him, he said, "I had
never felt such love as I did then. Before it happened, I was a calloused
criminal. After it, I was completely healed."
***
Recall a moment of insight in our own life. "Starr
Daily is the best living proof I've ever seen that 'a new creation in Jesus
Christ' is not just the old man patched up, but an altogether new person living
in the same body." Peter Marshall
***
Introduction
Reborn in
baptism, we have become living stones of Christ as God’s temple and his holy
people, who make God’s name known and offer God a sacrifice acceptable to God.
Jesus cures a blind man. Not only is his eyesight restored,
but he also begins to see with faith who Jesus is. Note that the crowd first
try to silence him but his faith is unstoppable and cannot be silenced.
Opening Prayer
Our living God, you are very near to us in our joys and
pains. Give us eyes of faith and love to see the mission you have given us in
life and the grace and courage to carry it out. Make us also clear-sighted
enough to see the needs of people who cry out their misery or suffer in
silence, that we may bring them your healing compassion and lead them to you. We
ask this through Christ, our Lord.
Intercessions
– Lord, see the eyes of children open to life; see the eyes
full of hope of those who believe in your future and fill them with your light,
we pray:
– Lord, see the eyes of those who suffer; see the lifeless
eyes of those who are physically blind, we pray:
– Lord, see the eyes of those who fail to see others; see
the eyes full of tears of those who mourn for those they loved, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Our living and loving God, the whole world is a sign of you:
your beauty is reflected in every flower and each ray of the sun shines with
your light. Give each of us a grateful heart that rejoices in simple things. Give
us new eyes to discover, in these signs of bread and wine, the love and the
life of Jesus, your Son, and give us faith to see how good it is to be your
people in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
God, our loving Father, we have heard and seen your Son and
recognized him in the breaking of bread. Help us to see with his light what is
right and what is wrong in us. Make us understand the deeper meaning of
suffering and pain. And one day show us yourself as you are, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, for ever and ever.
Blessing
May God give to all of us eyes of faith and may he bless
you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary
Today’s Gospel text tells us about the healing of the blind
Bartimaeus. On the side of the road he cries out to Jesus who was passing by:
"Son of David, have mercy on me."
The name Timaeus is derived from the Greek word meaning
respect or fear. The blind man was named as the son of the fearful one. But he
displays great courage in shouting for mercy even as the crowd were trying to
silence him.
Deep down we are all blind, Bartimaeus' advantage over us is
that he knew it, he was aware of his blindness and therefore capable of crying
out to the Lord who is passing by. We are not so aware of our blindness; we
have a false confidence that we see clearly. That is why we judge, denounce and
condemn … God alone knows the human heart and the why of things.
Bartimaeus is the image of the disciple who finally opens
his eyes to the light of the Master and decides to follow him along the way.
Only those who realize that they are leading a meaningless, unacceptable life,
decide to look for a way out. Bartimaeus is not resigned to the darkness in
which he is immersed. One day “He hears about Jesus” and understands the chance
of a lifetime is presented to him: He screams, asking for help; he no longer
wants to stay in his state of life. But there are difficulties to overcome. He
immediately feels thwarted in his effort to encounter the light of heaven. Yet
he is not discouraged, is not ashamed of his condition, does not hide his
anguish; he cries, asks for help from one who can open his eyes.
Jesus stops! It is an invitation to joy and hope: “Take
heart! Get up, he is calling you” (v. 49). Bartimaeus “jumps up, throws off his
cloak and runs” to Jesus. These gestures have a symbolic value. The mantle was
considered the only asset owned by the poor. The act of abandoning it, along
with a few coins that passers-by kindly placed there, indicates the complete
detachment from his previous life. He is no longer interested in the life he
has up to that moment.
Anyone who comes to Christ must not fancy for a comfortable
and trouble-free life. The experience of Bartimaeus teaches that the journey
that awaits those who have received the light is very difficult; it forces one
to rethink habits, behavior and friendships. It demands that life, time, goods
are managed in a radically new way. Who wants to be enlightened by Christ must
choose between the old mantle and the new light.
Jesus is the light
that illuminates everything, fills everything with life and meaning. That is
why when Jesus opens our eyes we cannot but follow him along the way, because
we have discovered the light.
===============
30 May 2024
Mark 10:46-52
Let us never despair
The Gospel passage recounts the cure of the blind man of
Jericho, Bartimaeus. He heard that Jesus was passing by, understood that
it was the opportunity of his life and acted swiftly.
Bartimaeus is not blind; he is only sightless. He sees
better with his heart than many of those around him, because he has faith and
cherishes hope. More than that, it is this interior vision of faith that also
helps him to recover his external vision of things. “Your faith has made you
well,” Jesus says to him.
There are some temptations for those who follow
Jesus. The Gospel describes two of them in today’s passage.
None of the disciples stopped at the cry of Bartimaeus on the
road. They continued to walk and even tried to stop him from crying
out. If Bartimaeus was blind, they were deaf: his problem was not their
problem.
This is a temptation for us, too: when
confronted with problems, we prefer to move away as if we
did not know. Just like the disciples, although we
are with Jesus, but we do not think like him and refuse to respond
like him.
There is a second temptation, that of falling into a
“scheduled faith”. We are able to walk with the People of God, but we
already have our schedule for the journey, where everything is listed: we know
where to go and how long it will take; we
expect everyone to respect our rhythm. Thus, we run the
risk of becoming those “many” of the Gospel who lose patience and rebuke
Bartimaeus. Just a short time before, they scolded the children (cf.
10:13), and now the blind beggar: whoever disturbs our schedule is
excluded.
Bartimaeus represents people who experience
the miseries of life and feel sunken, depressed, and
alone. But, he teaches us a lesson in perseverance. Let us never
despair. God’scompassion will never fail us.
