Thirtieth Sunday in OT ‘B’

The central theme of today’s readings is the overflowing mercy and kindness of a loving, healing and forgiving God for His children.

The First Reading tells us how a forgiving and compassionate God has been healing the spiritual blindness of His Chosen People by subjecting them to captivity in Babylon and now will liberate them, bringing them back to their homeland. The Jerusalem journey of Jesus in the company of the lame and the blind connects the First Reading to today's Gospel. The healing of the blind Bartimaeus in today’s Gospel is also seen as the fulfillment of the joyful prophecy of Jeremiah about the return of the exiled Jews from Babylon to their homeland.

Today’s Second Reading, taken from the Letter to the Hebrews, presents Jesus as the perfect sacrifice for sins and as the true High Priest of the New Testament. It also gives us the assurance that our High Priest, Jesus, is sympathetic to us because he has shared our human nature.

Today’s Gospel explains how Jesus shows the mercy and compassion of His Heavenly Father by healing the blind Bartimaeus. Just as the blind and the lame were God’s concern in the First Reading, Jesus is concerned with the blind beggar, Bartimaeus of Jericho. On hearing that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, Bartimaeus loudly expressed his trusting faith in the healing power of Jesus by shouting his request, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” His meeting with Jesus gave Bartimaeus the gift of spiritual as well as physical sight, and he became a disciple of Jesus.

Let us pray for spiritual sight. We need the light of the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. Anger, hatred, prejudice, jealousy, bad habits, etc., make us spiritually blind, and they prevent us from seeing the goodness in our neighbors and God’s presence in them. Let us pray to have a clear vision of Christian values and priorities in our lives and to acknowledge the presence of God dwelling in ourselves and in our neighbors.

Let us seek Jesus with trust in His goodness and mercy. Sometimes our fears, anger and persistent sins prevent us from approaching God in prayer. At times, we even become angry with God when He seems slow in answering our prayers. In these desperate moments, let us approach Jesus in prayer with trusting faith, as Bartimaeus did, and listen carefully to the voice of Jesus asking us: "What do you want me to do for you?” Let us tell Him all our heart’s intentions and needs.