Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 27, 2024

You may know that I and the various liturgical ministers get ready for Sunday Mass in a little room back in this corner.  It's called the prep room.  And it is a relatively small space for the number of people who gather there.  So I find myself getting vested for Mass and I try to catch a glimpse of myself in a full-length mirror, to make sure that the chasuble is on straight.  And yesterday before four o'clock Mass I was having a bit of trouble because there were so many people and someone remarked to me, "Ah, you can do it blind." 

Well, perhaps I can, but I just find this to be an instance in which I am very well aware of how much I depend on my sense of sight for this and for so many things.  And we can all reflect on how we rejoice in our gift of vision.  We can think at this time of year -- even if we've seen it year after year -- we still marvel as we watch the colors of the leaves changing at this time of year. 

Now Bartimaeus had a clear understanding of what he wanted to do with the gift of sight, which came to him as Jesus said, "Because of his faith."  He wanted to follow Jesus and the gift of sight permitted him to do this easily.  And he did it. 

We know that our eyes can be fixed on a variety of things, some of which are a good deal more important than other things.  We know we want our very soul to be filled up with what our God presents to us to be seen.  And of course that includes all of God's people, the dignity of every human being and our call to help one another to know that God is in our midst.  At the same time, we understand that there is something that goes beyond mere seeing.  We can find a hint of it in the Hebrews reading today, where we come to understand that our Savior, who is truly God and truly human, has tremendous mercy and compassion for all of us.  And that really is something which goes beyond seeing.  Actually, seeing can sometimes get in the way of understanding.  We tend to equate knowing with seeing an image of something.  But in fact, we're just seeing an image.  Understanding goes deeper.  And at times, we just have to look away from things in order to understand. 

Now you remember on Easter Sunday, we have that gospel of Peter and John inspecting Jesus' empty tomb.  They did not see him there. They looked around the tomb and saw various burial wrappings.  They were strewn about, and there was the one that had covered Jesus' head, rolled up in a place by itself.

They didn't see the risen Jesus right away, but they looked around the tomb. And finally, they understood so many things that they were afraid to ask him about -- things that they tried to ignore, in fact, because they didn't want to think about his death.  And they didn't know what to do with rising on the third day.  Finally, they understood. And this really went beyond seeing.

Likewise, in the psalm today, the people are exclaiming that the Lord has done great things for us.  We are filled with joy because they were set free from their captivity in Babylon.  You don't have to see something in order to understand.  We are going home.  So we recognize how much we depend upon the gift of sight.  And likewise, we see that we are led to something that goes even deeper, to understanding who our God is.  And really, we can equate understanding with faith.  Jesus says to Bartimaeus, "Your faith allows you to see."  We must understand our own understanding and see that understanding is a function of faith.  And it feeds faith as well.  We give thanks, as Peter and John did, for all the things that have been told to us that maybe we can't quite put into place.

The witness of the People of God, the Church throughout the centuries and today: we take it all in.  We understand.  We grow in faith.