October 27, 2024
XXX Sunday of Ordinary Time B
Mark 10:46-52
We are now at the gates of Jerusalem, and what we read today (Mark 10:46-52) is the last of the miracles reported by the evangelist Mark. It is the last, and it is also an indicative miracle with deep symbolic meaning.
The protagonist is a blind man and, strangely enough, Mark mentions the name of this blind man: Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46).
This is the only case in which we know the name of a person whom Jesus heals, and this is no coincidence.
By mentioning the name, the evangelist wants to establish a connection between Bartimaeus and the other people in the Gospel whose names are known, namely the disciples. Bartimaeus is in fact the figure of the disciple, the one who follows Jesus on his way to Jerusalem.
In v. 49, the verb "to call" is heard three times. Bartimaeus is sitting by the roadside and when he hears that Jesus is passing by, he begins to call out loudly for mercy.
Then Jesus stopped and called out to him and the same people who had previously been scolding him to be quiet called out to him: “Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you”. Bartimaeus is a called man, and his call says something about the lives of the disciples, who are not perfect, different, better people, but like all people are in need of salvation, of light. Jesus calls fragile people, and by calling them, he can heal them.
When Bartimaeus heard this, he immediately jumped up, threw off his cloak and came to Jesus (“So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus” - Mk 10,50). This is also another detail that tells us something about discipleship. For the disciple is the one who leaves everything he has behind, just as the first called ones had done. Not out of an effort of will, but because he has found the treasure, something greater and more important than his own security in life.
Finally, the last reference: Bartimaeus, called, healed, no longer sits by the roadside, but follows Jesus, just as the disciples are asked to follow him (“Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way” - Mk 10,52).
However, Bartimaeus shows us that following the Lord Jesus means more than just following him on the road. Following him means learning to look at life and situations in the same way, to call things by the same name and to give them the same meaning. That is why the last miracle, the miracle that can create a disciple, is the healing of blindness, because the disciple is the one who slowly learns to look at things from God's point of view.
How is it that this man, the beggar, the blind man, becomes the figure of the disciple, the figure of us all?
Bartimaeus is above all a man who will not and cannot remain silent. We see him silently on the street, but when Jesus passes by, his cry explodes, and nothing can stop him. He is not intimidated and is courageous, because that is what faith is all about.
Bartimaeus is a person whom Jesus sees.
He is not the one who sees Jesus, for he is blind. But it is Jesus who hears his cry, as is always the case in the biblical stories: God hears the cry of the poor and does not ignore it. Jesus stands still (Mk 10:49) to hear his cry; he does not pass by without looking him in the face and giving him the opportunity to return this look.
In his encounter with Jesus, Bartimaeus experiences profound existential changes. He goes from weeping to praying, from sitting to walking, from being blind to seeing, from being a beggar to being a free man.
The disciple is the one who emerges transformed from the encounter with Jesus.
It is not possible to remain the same as the man who asked Jesus what he must do to have life (Mark 10:17) and who went away sad because he did not accept to enter a process of transformation.
And finally, the key to this whole process of transformation is found in v. 51: “What do you want me to do for you?”
The turning point in our lives happens when, among the thousands of desires that populate us, we recognize the deep and true desire that unites our existence. This happens to us above all in prayer, in our relationship with the Lord, the One who stops to hear our cry and lets us hear his voice.
+ Pierbattista