Today’s Gospel is about a blind man, Bartimaeus, who becomes the first person outside of the Apostles to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. And his healing is the last miracle Jesus performs before entering the holy city of Jerusalem for His last week on earth, according to Mark’s Gospel.

The scene on the road to Jerusalem evokes the joyful procession prophesied by Jeremiah in today’s First Reading. In Jesus this prophecy is fulfilled. God, through the Messiah, is delivering His people from exile, bringing them back from the ends of the earth, with the blind and the lame in their midst.

Jesus, as Bartimaeus proclaims, is the long-awaited Son promised to David. Upon His triumphal arrival in Jerusalem, all will see that the everlasting kingdom of David has come. As we hear in today’s Epistle, the Son of David was expected to be the Son of God. He was to be a priest-king like Melchizedek, who offered bread and wine to God Most High at the dawn of salvation history.

Bartimaeus should be a sign for us. How often Christ passes us by—in the person of the poor, in the distressing guise of a troublesome family member or a burdensome associate, and yet we don’t see Him. Christ still calls to us through His Church, as Jesus sent His Apostles to call Bartimaeus. Yet how often are we found to be listening instead to the voices of the crowd, not hearing the words of His Church.

Today He asks us what He asks Bartimaeus: “What do you want me to do for you?” We must be able to tell Christ: “I want to see people in the way that you see them and to be able help them out in their needs and difficulties.”

Love and Prayers,

Fr. Charley