{"id":13611,"date":"2021-10-24T00:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T23:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turski.blog\/?p=13611"},"modified":"2021-10-24T00:00:28","modified_gmt":"2021-10-23T23:00:28","slug":"30th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/?p=13611","title":{"rendered":"30th Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s gospel reading, despite its relative shortness, offers a lot to consider. Because of that, I hope you don\u2019t mind if my sermon takes the form of an introduction to your own meditation. Hopefully, led by the Holy Spirit, we will find something addressed personally to each one of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are three characters in today\u2019s gospel; two individuals – Jesus and the blind man – and a collective of Jesus\u2019 disciples and followers described as \u2018a large crowd\u2019. Let\u2019s have a closer look at each character, starting with the latter.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the biblical narrative, the presence of a crowd is rarely mentioned for a purely descriptive reason. Most often the crowd plays an active role in the event; biblical authors mentioned the crowd\u2019s actions, reactions, opinions and so on. Today the crowd follows Jesus out of the city of Jericho; perhaps they were moved by Jesus’ speech or action, and they accompany him on his journey; perhaps they are discussing various aspects of Jesus\u2019 speech with his disciples. Whatever the crowd is doing, a blind beggar interrupts it in such a way that they urge him to shut up. Some of them might feel embarrassed, some others irritated\u2026 Whatever are their individual reasons to react, they are generally hostile towards the beggar. Only after Jesus has <\/span>\u2018stopped and said, \u2018Call him here\u2019<\/span><\/i> suddenly the crowd becomes surprisingly supportive and helpful: <\/span>\u2018Courage,\u2019 they said, \u2018get up; he is calling you.\u2019<\/span><\/i> It recalls the old saying that <\/span>\u2018success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Then we have Jesus who seems to be unperturbed by the cries from the side of the road. Only when people around him have started showing hostility towards the shouting man, he stops and calls for him to come up. In other words, Jesus seems to react to the lack of compassion by the crowd. Perhaps the crowd needs as much healing as the blind beggar. But then Jesus doesn\u2019t come up to the blind man but expects him to cover the distance. How insensitive in line with our modern standards\u2026 Again, that creates an opportunity for those faithful followers of his to show some active and practical love of thy neighbour by helping the blind beggar to reach Jesus. Finally, when the blind has come up to him, Jesus effectively praises his faith, shown in his attitude, perseverance and actions: <\/span>\u2018Go; your faith has saved you.\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s move on to <\/span>\u2018Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus).\u2019<\/span><\/i> He\u2019s introduced to the audience as the son of his father rather than by his own name; Bar Timaeus literally means the son of Timaeus and effectively leaves the beggar nameless. Furthermore, the name Timaeus is a Greek name, which was a bit unusual in the predominantly Hebrew cultural environment. Mind that St Mark addressed his gospel to the Greek-speaking world, educated by the works of its philosophers. Plato, one of the most influential among them, wrote in about 360 BC a dialogue on the nature of the physical world and human beings; it was entitled Timaeus. It wouldn\u2019t surprise me to find out that St Mark in a subtle way presented the blind beggar as a spiritual heir to Greek philosophy; the enlightened are in fact blind to God revealing himself to humankind through his son Jesus. The beggar sits on the side of the road, marginalised and living on scraps offered to him by passers-by. However, St Mark told the story of Jesus to his pagan audience not to condemn them but to bring them to Jesus. So, the beggar shouts: <\/span>\u2018Son of David, Jesus\u2019<\/span><\/i> which mirrors the beggar\u2019s introduction (son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus), followed by the request <\/span>\u2018eleison\u2019.<\/span><\/i> If it sounds familiar it\u2019s because we use the phrase <\/span>\u2018Kyrie eleison\u2019<\/span><\/i> in the penitential rites at the beginning of Mass. When the beggar uses the phrase, he acknowledges that he\u2019s got a problem and the solution is beyond his powers. When Jesus has responded to his cries, he reacts without any reluctance or delay. Firstly, he throws off his cloak. In the ancient world that was a crucial piece of clothing, offering cover, warmth and dignity. So important was the cloak that there was a specific prescription in the law of Moses: <\/span>\u2018If you take your neighbour\u2019s cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; for it may be your neighbour\u2019s only clothing to use as cover; in what else shall that person sleep? And if your neighbour cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate.\u2019 (Exodus 22:26-27)<\/span><\/i> So, the beggar leaves behind his only safety net in order to get to Jesus. Moreover, a cloak was a long and heavy piece of cloth, restricting movement; by throwing it off the beggar has found the freedom of movement described concisely as that he jumped up. The final element of his reaction is that he\u2019s left his begging patch and moved into the unknown to meet the one he called up. Perhaps someone from the crowd helps him along the way as he\u2019s still blind. When he eventually stands in front of Jesus, he\u2019s asked to state his request. <\/span>\u2018Rabbuni (Master), let me see again.\u2019<\/span><\/i> That\u2019s another twist in this story. The beggar, son of Greek philosophy, accepts Jesus – the Jew – as superior. That must have been quite a cultural shock to St Mark\u2019s audience, used to seeing their culture as infinitely superior to the Jewish one. But the words <\/span>\u2018let me see <\/span><\/i>again<\/span><\/i>\u2019<\/span><\/i> might be a subtle call to look at the audience\u2019s heritage and culture through the prism of the gospel. Jesus\u2019 response: <\/span>\u2018Go; your faith has saved you\u2019<\/span><\/i> leads to the immediate restoration of the beggar\u2019s eyesight. It\u2019s worth noting that Jesus indicates the beggar\u2019s faith as the reason for his healing; the faith in Jesus\u2019 power and ability to do so. From that moment the beggar follows Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Image by Myriams-Fotos<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s gospel reading, despite its relative shortness, offers a lot to consider. Because of that, I hope you don\u2019t mind if my sermon takes the form of an introduction to your own meditation. Hopefully, led by the Holy Spirit, we will find something addressed personally to each one of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-b"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}