John always got
embarrassed and constantly yelled at his Mom in the public. His Mom had one eye
and worked in John’s school as a cook, and took care of her only child. John’s
classmates and other schoolmates had always teased him because of his mother’s
condition. He was so embarrassed that he wanted so much to leave the house and
go to somewhere far away because he does not want to have anything to do with
his one-eyed Mom. Eventually he studied hard, got into the university, and
graduated with a nice result. He got a good job and was well paid. Now he has a
house of his own, married and got beautiful kids, but he never cared about the
mother. After several years the Mom visited him, but because she looked older
and still had one eye, John’s kids got scared. He shouted at his mother and
sent her away. One day, John had invitation to attend an occasion in his former
school, and he went. After the meeting, he wanted to visit the old shack they
lived, but he was told that the mom died two days before he got there. He was
given a letter that the mom wanted him to have. In the letter, the Mom wrote
“My dear son, John, I wanted to see you but I was so sick, that I couldn’t get
out of my bed. I am sorry for been an embarrassment to you all the time, even
scaring your kids. However, when you were a child, you had an accident and lost
one of your eyes. I could not bear to see my sweetest son live with one eye, so
I offered you mine so that you can see a whole new life and new world which I
cannot. Am glad you made it in life. Take care of that borrowed eye too and I
promise, I will no longer be an embarrassment to you. Your mother.”
How would you
feel after reading this letter, if you are John? The first reading and the
Gospel of last Sunday presented Jesus, the Christ, as The Suffering Servant of
God, who paid a worthy ransom for all human beings. He paid with his life save
from the embarrassment due to our sinful nature; to save us from captivity and
slavery of various kinds; and to open the eyes of our minds to understand what an awesome plan God
has for us. The Letter to the Hebrews urges us to approach the throne of grace
with confidence bearing in mind that God is for us because he loves us
infinitely. The prophet Jeremiah in today’s first reading looks at the
situation of millions of God’s children dying of hunger and disease; he sees
the plight of many jobless youths; millions of homeless children of God; he
listens to the concerns of single parents and handicapped people; and he
observes with sorrow millions who perish because of ignorance, and he
prophesizes in the name of God and says “Shout with joy for Jacob (immigrants)…
The Lord has saved his people. See I will comfort the blind and the lame as I
lead them back.” This point to the scene in the Gospel: while Jesus, the
redeemer of the world was leading people away from Jericho (the land of
infidelity, idol worship and spiritual blindness) to Jerusalem (the city of
peace, faith clinic and spiritual lime-light), he encountered a blind man,
Bartimaeus.
The Gospel of
today has four characters, and each has a message for us. We have Jesus, the
Christ, the disciples of Jesus, a large crowd and Bartimaeus, the victim of
darkness. Bartimaeus is sitting at a spot in between two great cities, Jericho and Jerusalem.
This means that he sits in between life and death, between hope and despair,
between peace and war, between joy and sorrow, between the mercy of God and
self-condemnation, between progress and retrogress, and between courage to move
on and frustration that could lead to suicide. He is also blind. This is a
condition of uncertainty, confusion, depression, failure and all kinds of negative
feelings and thoughts. But he has one decision to make, and he needs to make
the right one. He has to choose either to allow the voice of the crowd that
never show concern, the voice of bad economy, mistakes of the past and fear of
the future to rule his present moment. But he makes the right decision, and
that is never to give up in life no matter what. This blind man teaches us that
God will stop at our spot; he can suspend every other thing lined up in his
daily schedule just to listen to us and show us how powerful his love for us
is.
The crowd is the
second character. These are people who have nothing in common apart from
following Jesus, each for his/her personal reasons. These kinds of people have
no direction in life; they live for whatever the day brings; they are
unreliable and blind spiritually, psychologically and socially. We cannot allow
such people to intimidate us. But even in their confusion, God is leading them
back to progress, joy, happiness and eternal life; God never abandons anyone,
because life is important to him, and this is what Jesus is demonstrating in
the Gospel. So Jesus, the Christ, is the third character.
They were the
disciples who helped the blind man to stand on his feet, and brought him to the
master. All of us Christians are called to be disciples of Jesus. We have the
responsibility of carrying out the will of Jesus Christ for every human being.
In order to do this well, we need to be good listeners to Jesus Christ, our
master and not allow the noise of the crowd to influence us. We need to stay
close to the master so that we can hear him and know what he demands of us in
every situation. The second reading emphasizes this important aspect of the
life of every baptized person. This is because our baptism makes us priests (to
offer our lives daily as sacrifices in union with Jesus Christ), prophets (to
discern the will of God and communicate it well to the people), and kings (so
that we bring the true reign of God in our families and communities). Let us
then not feel embarrassed like John but concerned like the Mom, and say “Lord
that we may see.”
No comments:
Post a Comment