30th Sunday - homily

I am going to do something now that is risky. It is risky because it could lead you to fall asleep during my homily (heaven forbid!) I’m going to ask you all to close your eyes. Please shut your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you. What I want you to do – other than staying awake – is just to observe the darkness you are in. Now, I know we do this each night when we try to fall asleep. But, imagine that you spent each day like this. Imagine that this is all you saw all the time. Imagine that you walked through this world in darkness. Imagine that your world was in darkness. There would be only one thing that you would want: to see. You would want the “on” switch to be turned on. I will turn your switch on now by asking you to open your eyes. Those who still have their eyes shut, well, we’ll see them back with us in a few minutes!

That is a good exercise for us to do. It is good for us to be in union with those who are blind….those who are poor…those who are suffering… even for just a few moments. It helps us to be union with someone like Bartimaeus, a man who suffered from physical blindness. Like you all a moment ago, he just wanted to see. That is the one thing that he asked Jesus to do for him: to help him to see. His world was in darkness all the time; Christ brought him into the light. One thing to point out about his disease and all the diseases that Jesus cured in the Gospels: disease in Scripture represents sin. We all suffer from the disease of sin and Jesus can cure our disease. He had the power to drive out Bartimaeus’ blindness; He has the power to drive out our sin.

A couple of things about Bartimaeus that we can all emulate. First, he had faith in Christ. He believed in Jesus. And, he wasn’t afraid to show that faith in public. He was in the midst of a huge crowd – maybe some of his close friends were there – and he is calling out to Jesus for help. They “rebuked” him. Basically, they told him to shut up. They probably even made fun of him. He didn’t care. He didn’t care if people told him to shut up or if they mocked him. He didn’t care about his image. He just wanted to see! He believed that Jesus would help him and wasn’t afraid to put his faith in him. He was rewarded for his courageous faith as Jesus said, “your faith has saved you”.

Second, Bartimaeus was a man of prayer. One way to define prayer is that it is simply a conversation with God. Bartimaeus seeks out Christ and starts a conversation with Him. He cries out to Him more than once. Jesus responds to Him by saying, “what do you want me to do for you?” Wow, what a line to hear! Imagine if God said that to us: ”what do you want me to do for you?” Some might say, “I’ll take an A in political science, a date with that girl from economics class…” Actually, that sounds like my former prayer life. In all seriousness, Jesus is saying this to each one of us: “what do you want me to do for you?” He is saying, ‘come talk to me. I will give you whatever you ask for. Just let me know what it is you want’. Obviously, he knew what Bartimaeus wanted. He knows what we want. He wants us to bring it to Him. He wants to hear it from us. He wants a conversation with each of us. Like Bartimaeus, we shouldn’t be afraid to pray to Christ even if people are going to rebuke us for it.

Finally, we have the same opportunity as Bartimaeus. First, we can take our blindness (our sin) to Christ and ask Him to drive it out. This happens in Confession. Confession takes us from darkness to light. Second, we have the chance to speak with Christ every day. It’s the same Christ with whom Bartimaeus spoke. Ok, He looks a little different, but it’s same Christ in the Eucharist. It’s really Him that we see and receive at Mass. It’s really Him who dwells in the tabernacle at every Catholic Church and chapel. It’s really Him who dwells on the campus at GW…at the Newman Center chapel. It’s really Him who you can visit and talk to there any day. It’s really Him.

I challenge you all to come to the Newman Center chapel this week for at least 5 minutes of prayer with Christ. The best day is Wednesday between 12:30 pm and 10 pm when the Eucharist is exposed and there are many students coming in and out. It is awesome! It is so peaceful. Come on by for a few minutes. Christ wants to have conversation with you. He wants to be a part of your life and He wants you to be a part of His life. He wants to tell how pleased He is with you and how much he loves you. He wants you to go to Him in the Eucharist.