Sunday, October 27, 2024, is the thirtieth Sunday in ordinary time, year B. In the entrance antiphon, we pray: “Let hearts rejoice who search for the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek always the face of the Lord. Amen.”
In the first reading, from the prophecy of Jeremiah, the people of Israel in exile are assured of God’s restoration. They remain dear to God, and despite decades of waiting, the remnant will return from their distant exile. God will bring them back in a new exodus; he will restore them to their homeland, turning their suffering into joy as he leads them through the desert and never lets them be thirsty on the way.
In the second reading, the sacred writer of the Letter to the Hebrews clarifies what a high priest is and then applies that description to Christ, who, during his life on earth, was a high priest among men, chosen by God and, as such, the greatest priest of all. Christ intercedes for us as the Son of God, and God receives us because of Christ’s solidarity with our condition.
In the Gospel, Saint Mark presents us Bartimaeus, the blind man of Jericho, who cries out in humble faith to Jesus and receives back his sight in recognition of his humility. Once his sight has been restored, the blind man follows Jesus as he enters triumphantly into Jerusalem, where he is proclaimed the Messiah. This is the last healing before Jesus goes to his passion and death in Jerusalem.
Let us pray in the course of this Eucharist for the grace of humility, which will enable us, too, to shout after Jesus, Son of David, to cure us from the blindness of our faith.
First Reading: Jeremiah 31: 7-9.
The Lord says this: Shout with joy for Jacob! Hail the chief of nations! Proclaim! Praise! Shout: The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel! See, I will bring them back from the land of the North and gather them from the far ends of earth; all of them: the blind and the lame, women with child, women in labour: a great company returning here. They had left in tears, I will comfort them as I lead them back; I will guide them to streams of water, by a smooth path where they will not stumble. For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first‑born son.
Comment
In today’s first reading, we meet the prophet Jeremiah, the second of the Major Prophets, the first being Isaiah, the third, Ezekiel, and the fourth, Daniel. Jeremiah lived in the last decades of the kingdom of Judah, an important period since it saw the collapse of the Assyrian empire, the rebirth of the Babylonian empire, and the complete disappearance of the kingdom of Judah with the deportation of its leading families to Babylon.
Jeremiah lived in Judah when the forces of King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 587 BC and deported its inhabitants to Babylon. Jeremiah was well placed to see all these events and he was familiar with the conditions in Judah after the deportation. He was born into a priestly family and received his prophetic mission from God round about the year 626 BC, while still a young man. During his long ministry that lasted over forty years, Jeremiah never tired of reminding his people of their covenant obligations and warning the incompetent leaders that their infidelity would bring down God’s anger and punishment on the whole land. Even though he was a peaceful man, Jeremiah was constantly in conflict with his people, kings, priests, and false prophets but he was not afraid because he knew that this was the duty God expected him to fulfill.
His warning of impending doom for Judah went largely unheeded until King Nebuchadnezzar’s forces came storming into Jerusalem. They conquered the Holy City and exiled its population to Babylon. Some Church historians believe that Jeremiah stayed back in Jerusalem for a while before being taken to Egypt by force by some Jews, who fled after the assassination of the king the Babylonians had put in place. This tradition holds that Jeremiah was eventually assassinated by his fellow Jews and is therefore thought to be buried on the African continent.
In the passage selected for our meditation, we hear the prophet promising his people in exile that God will restore them to the glory they once enjoyed and Israel will once more come under God’s protection as it makes its way through the wilderness to find peace and prosperity in the Promised Land. The prophet predicts the happy return of the exiles and the restoration of Israel and of the holy city of Jerusalem, which is given the glorious name of Zion. The people will return home rejoicing at the goodness of God, who will continue to shower blessings on them because he is a good, compassionate, and understanding God.
The Psalmist, in the Responsorial Psalm of this day, re-echoes the joy of the people whose mouths are filled with laughter, and on their lips are songs of joy as the Lord rescues them from exile. Even their captors are marveled at their joy. The heathen themselves wonder at the marvels the Lord has worked for his people, who indeed are glad. Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage of sins so that we can come back to you with songs of joy on our lips because when we sow in tears, we sing when we reap. Amen.
Second Reading: Hebrews 5:1-6.
Every high priest has been taken out of mankind and is appointed to act for men in their relations with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; and so he can sympathise with those who are ignorant or uncertain because he too lives in the limitations of weakness. That is why he has to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. No one takes this honour on himself, but each one is called by God, as Aaron was. Nor did Christ give himself the glory of becoming high priest, but he had it from the one who said to him: You are my son, today I have become your father, and in another text: You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and forever.
Comment
The central theme of this second reading is Christ as high priest, the only priest who can free us from our sins. He is the only perfect priest because the other priests only stand in for him. Since the writer is addressing people of Jewish background, he stresses that Christ’s priesthood is on a higher plane than that of the priests of the Old Covenant, the successors of Aaron, to whose family all Israelite priests belonged. After the Israelites left Egypt, God himself instituted the priesthood of Aaron to minister and carry out divine worship at the Tabernacle and later at the Temple of Jerusalem (Ex 28: 1-5).
However, Christ came to take over and transform this ancient institution into a new eternal priesthood. That is why every Christian priest is Christ’s instrument or an extension of his sacred humanity. Christian priests do not act on their own name, nor are they mere representatives of the people: they act in the name of Christ (in persona Christi). It is really Christ who is acting through his priests by means of their words, gestures, etc. This means that the Christian priesthood cannot be separated from the eternal priesthood of Christ. That is why we must love and honour our priests, irrespective of their defects and shortcomings as human beings.
Everyone, including the priest, is a sinner. In the Old Testament rites for the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the high priest, before entering the Holy of Holies, offered a sin-offering for his own sins (Lev 16:3). Similarly, the priest of the New Testament also has a duty to be holy, to reject sin, to ask for forgiveness of his own sins, and to intercede for sinners. The model the priest should always have before him is Jesus Christ himself, the eternal High Priest.
Saint John Paul II always advised priests to receive the sacrament of penance at regular intervals and in a spirit of genuine faith and devotion because, if for some reason the priest fails to go to confession, or properly confess his sins, his priestly being and priestly action would feel the effect of this neglect and his community would soon notice it as well.
So let us pray for our priests, that they too should have frequent recourse to the source of grace and holiness in the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation. The more frequently they receive this sacrament, continues the Holy Father, the better they fulfill their own ministry as confessors. Lord, bless our priests whom you have called from our midst to stand in your presence and minister to you. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Our Saviour Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel. Alleluia.”
Gospel: Mark 10: 46-52.
As Jesus left Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and to say, “Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me.” And many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, “Son of David, have pity on me.” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they called the blind man. “Courage,” they said, “get up; he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and went to Jesus. Then Jesus spoke, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Rabbuni,” the blind man said to him, “Master, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has saved you.” And immediately his sight returned and he followed him along the road.
Comment
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd for the holy city of Jerusalem. When the blind man, Bartimaeus, hears that it is Jesus who is nearby, he shouts his prayer of lamentation: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” This is a man who has lived in complete darkness but with a tremendous desire for light, for clarity and for a cure to his ailment. He senses that this is the moment he cannot miss. The Master is within reach and he must call on him for help. He has no doubt heard of the marvels the Lord has been doing all over the district.
He must have heard of those who, like him, have been touched by the Master’s tenderness and have been cured. Why not him? That is why he shouts loud to be heard above the voices of intimidation around him, the voices of those who resent the blind man’s intrusion into the space around Christ. They represent the school of thought which is content to leave the afflicted to suffer in silence. Those were probably even Christ’s own disciples who were always quick to stop children from coming to Christ and others from using Christ’s name to exorcise the devil. On each occasion, Christ had to step in strongly to open the way for others to come to him.
That is what happens to the blind man, Bartimaeus. He is a stubborn man, who is not intimidated by the crowd. The more they ask him to shut up, the louder he shouts for our Lord’s attention. What a wonderful example for us to follow! Christ is always within range of our voices, of our prayer. We should always call out to him with all our strength, especially when the worries of this world threaten to overwhelm us. As Saint Augustine tells us, whenever the storms of this world threaten to drown us, let us knock on the cabin of our hearts to awaken Christ who is sleeping in our hearts. He always listens to our prayer and sanctifies our good works, that is, works of charity, professional work well done, and purity of soul after a good confession.
The blind man overcomes the obstacles of his environment and obtains his heart’s desire. Without the capacity to communicate his suffering, the blind man would have remained buried in the world of darkness. He knows that if there is going to be any change at all in his condition, he must communicate that condition to our Lord. He screams out his lamentation that stops Jesus on his tracks and the Lord tells the hostile crowd to bring the blind man to him.
The very crowd, which a minute earlier had tried to block him from coming to his Redeemer, immediately changes its tone and is now encouraging the man to come to Jesus: “Courage,” they now tell him, “Get up! He is calling you.” Here you have the Christian vocation! Christ is calling us everyday to get up, put aside our indolence, our easy life, our petty selfishness, and come to him like the blind man does. He reacts immediately by throwing aside the cloak that has been keeping him warm during the night. That cloak is now an obstacle to his following Christ and he tosses it away from him. Sometimes when what is useful to us becomes an obstacle to our following the Lord, we have to toss it aside. Nothing should stand between us and the call of the Lord.
Then follows that wonderful dialogue between our Lord and the blind man that is enough to set our hearts on fire. “What do you want me to do for you?” our Lord asks him. The blind man answers, “Lord, that I may see.” And that wonderful response from our Lord: “Go your way, your faith has made you well.” And immediately he receives his sight and becomes a disciple of our Lord, following him and praising God.
The healing of the blind man comes as a result of his prayer of lamentation; a prayer that expresses his pain and his faith in a God of compassion, a God who pays attention to everyone, including the weak, the marginalized, the orphan and the widow. Bartimaues focuses his attention on Christ and Christ alone, ignoring all threats from those around him who would want him to remain silent. He gives his undivided attention to Jesus and receives his reward.
Our blindness and our suffering can lead to a dramatic encounter with the Lord. He is always passing by, and all we need to do is shout out our pain, and he will stop and ask that we come to him. Christ is passing by our Christian life. If we call to him, he will listen to us and engage us too in a dialogue that will heal us and turn us into missionaries so that we, in turn, will lead others to the Lord. Lord, Jesus, help me to call to you for your assistance whenever the blindness of rage, greed, and selfishness threatens to overtake and overcome me. Amen.
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