The Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, B October 28, 2018
Fr. Albert St. Peter’s, New Iberia
“What do you want me to do for you?” What a question! This man is a blind beggar, what do you think he wants, Jesus? Even worse, Jesus is God; he knows what this man wants even before talking to him. Really, Jesus could have just healed him from a distance as soon as he heard the man calling. He could have snapped his fingers or simply willed it to happen. Why not give him what he wants right away?
But that’s just it. This story is not just about what Bartimaeus wants. Really, it’s about what Jesus wants; what Jesus wants Bartimaeus to want. The physical inability to see – blindness – is really incidental to the whole situation. The real story is that Jesus wants this man to follow him. Jesus wants everyone to follow him. That’s the story of creation. That’s the story of redemption: God’s desire to be loved and followed by the people he created. God’s desire for us to recognize that that’s what we want too.
If that’s the case, why is Jesus so indirect? Why not simply walk up to the man, heal him and say “see, I am God and you should follow me?” I’ve heard that question many times. If he’s really God and he really wants us to follow him, why make it so hard to know? Why not just appear to everyone, make it obvious, and simply tell us all what to do? Why? Simple. Because that’s not how human beings work.
In the first place, God did appear to people to say “I am God” and simply tell them what to do. He did it with Adam & Eve: that didn’t work. He did it with the Israelites and the Ten Commandments: again, didn’t work. Free Will is an amazing gift, but it is also an immense liability. If we are going to follow God, he cannot simply demand it. We have to freely choose to accept it.
And that’s also why God does not overwhelm us with obvious proof. If the #metoo movement has taught us anything, its that people can be easily overwhelmed by power; so overwhelmed they might say “yes” but not truly consent. If God were to explicitly reveal his full power to each person, it would overwhelm us. Ever since the first sin of our first parents, we cannot handle the full power and glory of God. In the Old Testament it caused instant death. So great is the glory of God that our minds cannot grasp it. It’s like going from a pitch-dark room to stare directly at the sun. Our minds would shut down and any apparent decision we made would lack real freedom.
But God does not want zombies, robots, or frightened pets. He wants men and women to make the fully conscious and totally free decision to give everything to him. That is love. Love requires free will and it is worth all the risks of disobedience and sin that come with it.
So, Jesus is subtle with Bartimaeus just as God is often subtle with us today. Only God knows when is best to be obvious and when to be indirect. It always comes back to the single constant desire of God: to have the freely given love of his children.
Since Bartimaeus is blind, the crowd thinks he is less capable. But he is better off because, unlike many people around him, he knows that he is blind while they live in denial that they are spiritually blind. Human beings can only see God and be healed if they look for him. It is God’s grace that prompts that desire, but his respect for our freedom is absolute. The existence of Hell is proof of that.
So the drama of desire, God’s and Man’s, unfolds in miniature in this scene. It begins with the grace of God invisibly prompting a man to recognize his need and to look for what he is missing. Since human beings are fickle, God does not immediately answer the first request. He lets Bartimaeus – as he often lets us – ask repeatedly in order to strengthen our desire, to confirm that our resolve is genuine, that we really want what we ask for. Just as the crowd tries to silence Bartimaeus, so the world and our own flesh try to silence our search for God. But perseverance wins the day.
“What do you want me to do for you?” “I want to see.” Actually, Bartimaeus wants more than that, though he doesn’t recognize it. But Jesus does. And Jesus knows that, by allowing this man the freedom to come to this point on his own, Bartimaeus will now be able to handle seeing Jesus and then choosing freely to follow him. It is the desire to be with God that Bartimaeus wants, but he has to get there by stages. Thus Jesus answers his prayer and thus Bartimaeus follows him with joy, having reached the goal that all human beings should strive to reach.
But what does this mean for you? It means that you have free will not so that you can do whatever you feel like but so that you can freely come to the decision to love. And no one can do it for you. So, you have to prayer. “I don’t pray because God knows everything, and he knows what I need, so why waste the time?” That is the devil’s reasoning. You don’t pray so God learns what you want, you pray so that you learn what you want.
And it can’t be a lazy prayer. You have to keep at it just as Bartimaeus shouted over the annoyed crowd. But then comes the hard part. Look at Jesus’ first answer to Bartimaeus. It is not “you are healed!” It is “call him.” And we see that word “call” three times. God answers many of our prayers not with “yes” or “no,” but with a call. Prayer is not a magic wish, but the beginning of a journey; it often requires work. If you ask, but won’t respond to the call, your prayer won’t help you.
Finally, notice that Jesus’ answer, his call to Bartimaeus, comes through his disciples. Though your prayers and desires are personal and often private, they are not isolated. Inevitably, God’s connects it to the community, to the Church. “Me and my Jesus” doesn’t work. God’s desire and your desire meet in the Church. That’s where my desire comes in. I want you to follow Jesus. I, as the representative of the Church, want you to follow Jesus by following the Church. It is what God wants as well. Ultimately, it’s what you want, even if you haven’t been given the sight to recognize it yet. It’s what you want because it’s the way God asks us to come to him because, well, the Church is his body and we cannot try love the head without the body.
So, pray. Persevere in prayer. Make all your desires known: all of them. The more you exercise that desire in prayer, the more it will become clearer and the more you will be able to see what you truly want.
Pray, but also listen for the call and be ready to answer it. God likes to make us co-workers in his plan. We are co-workers in the answer to our own prayers.
Finally, do all of this through, with, and in the Church. This parish is not a drive-thru. Catholicism is not a chain restaurant where you just look for the locations, times, and menus that you like the most. With all its faults and failures, the Church is still the body of Christ. She is the bride of Christ and the answer to your prayers, the fulfillment of your ultimate desires, will always involve the Church. So you may as well stay close to her.
Do you want to see? Then open your eyes. See that your faith, our faith, has saved you.