Your Faith Has Saved You
Br. John Peter Anderson, O.P., reflects on the Gospel for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Mark 10:46–52) in our weekly video series.
Jesus continues His journey from Judea beyond the Jordan to Jerusalem where He will be crucified. He leads a crowd through Jericho on the way to Jerusalem when He passes the blind beggar, Bartimaeus, sitting by the wayside.
Hearing Jesus pass, Bartimaeus shouts, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”
Jesus stops and instructs others to call Bartimaeus forward. Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, leaps to his feet, and, without stumbling, approaches.
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks.
“Rabbouni, Teacher,” he replies, “That I may see”
“Go your way,” is our Lord’s answer, “Your faith has saved you.”
Instantly, hearing gives way to sight, and Bartimaeus beholds the face of Christ and then follows Jesus on his way to Jerusalem.
This physical healing manifests an interior transformation. By faith, Bartimaeus knows Jesus’ divinity in the face of his humanity – he knows that Jesus is the Messianic Son of David who delivers captives and heals the blind while gathering the lost sheep of Israel. By a heart transformed by divine love, Bartimaeus loves Christ and walks in His way. Sin no longer holds Bartimaeus captive nor ignorance blind him. By the loving faith of Bartimaeus the divine Messiah establishes a new kingdom.
To give such loving faith to us, Jesus passes by in our daily lives. When He does so at Mass, do we sincerely say ‘Lord, have mercy’? And when Jesus, disguised in the needs of our neighbors, invites us to approach Him do we, like Bartimaeus, throw off the cloak of our comfort, our self-concern; do we leap away from our sluggishness and fear to approach our Lord in love? Do we ask that we might see our neighbor’s need as He sees it? And, seeing it, do we generously respond according to Jesus’ way? If so, then indeed our faith has saved us.
