Can you see as Jesus sees?

WORD OF FAITH: A breakdown of each week's upcoming Sunday readings to better understand the Word of God at Mass.

“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. — Mark 10:52

In the First Reading this Sunday, Jeremiah joyfully announces the anticipated return of the people of Israel from their captivity in Babylon. Actually, Jeremiah did not live to see this come to reality. But he had faith in the God of Israel and he was encouraging the people in the face of the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem. Jeremiah, the seer, the prophet is “seeing” events in the future that he believes will come to pass. The Holy One will gather the people with “the blind and the lame in their midst.” God will guide them back on a level road and none shall stumble. God does indeed restore Israel to its homeland, but it takes centuries.

This reading sets the stage for Jesus’ action in the Gospel. He is bringing the people of Israel and Judah back to the Covenant; he is carefully, mercifully guiding people who have lost their way.

In the Gospel, Jesus is leaving Jericho and a large crowd is with him, so there must have been excitement and noise! But above the din of the crowd, Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was passing. The blind beggar cried out and persisted in his shouting, “Son of David, have pity on me!” Censures and rebukes could not quiet him. Bartimaeus wanted to see and he was convinced that Jesus, the Son of David, could heal him. He refused to be silenced — he was well aware that many of the townspeople believed that his blindness was caused by his sins, but their harsh judgments would not deter him.

Above all the noise, Jesus calls him over. Bartimaeus throws aside his cloak, a sign that his former life of begging would be over, “sprang up and came to Jesus.” Respectfully, Jesus never assumes before healing someone. Instead, he asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus was confident in his request, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus credits Bartimaeus’ faith with the renewal of his sight. He immediately receives his sight and follows Jesus.

What is important for us to see here? First of all, sight has many layers, many meanings. Bartimaeus needed his physical sight restored. We are blessed to live at a time and a place where our sight can be improved with glasses, contacts and surgery. In the “developed” world, blindness is not the horrible scourge that it was in Jesus’ time. As we look more deeply into the Gospel we see that Jesus is asking us to see life on another level.

Jesus asked that his followers see him as the Son of Man who is bringing his Father’s will to fulfillment. In Jesus, the Kingdom of love and mercy would come for all people, not just the ones seen as “righteous.” Is this the way we see Jesus? Is this the way we follow him? Do we see Jesus by living the Beatitudes — the very heart of his teaching? Can we see how we are blessed in being poor in spirit, in being merciful, in being peacemakers, in comforting the oppressed, in working for justice? Is the Gospel perspective ours? Or do we look only with the eyes of our culture?

Perhaps we can take time this week to sit by the roadside with Bartimaeus. There, we will know the darkness of being invisible in society. There, we will realize the feeling of being dependent on others. There, we can also experience the inner sight, the seeing that the Holy Spirit gives us. From there, we can call out to Jesus, we can ask for his loving mercy and the strength to throw off our cloak of old ways of seeing and follow him more closely on the road of discipleship.