A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Mark. As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, there was a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, sitting by the roadside. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he called out, Jesus, son of David, have pity on me. Many people were scolding the man to keep him quiet. They didn't want him to be shouting out.
But he hollered all the louder. Son of David, have pity on me. Then Jesus stopped and said to him or said, call the man over. So they called the blind man over, telling him as they brought him over, you have nothing whatever to fear from him, that is from Jesus. Get up.
He is calling you. So the man threw off his cloak, jumped up, and came to Jesus. Jesus asked him, what do you want me to do for you? Raboni, the blind man said, I want to see. Jesus said in reply, be on your way.
Your faith has healed you. Immediately, Bartimaeus got back his sight and started to follow Jesus up the road. And this is the gospel of the lord. Praise to you, lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
Every time I read this, I am absolutely astonished. First of all, remember Jericho is this oasis. As the Jordan comes flowing nook from the north, it has now flow flowed through Galilee, Samurai, and now is in Judea. Jericho is a and still is a beautiful oasis close to the Dead Sea. That's where the biggest this was the great route from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Here is the blind man crying out, making a nuisance of himself because he wants to get Jesus' attention. And then when he comes over, Jesus asked the blind man, what do you want of me? Why did our lord ask such a question? Did he wanna embarrass the man or what? It was obvious what the man wanted.
But he asked all I can say is Jesus said, what do you want me to do? It's the same mystery as any prayer petition when we tell God what we need. We know God knows what we need, but he says, give us this day our daily bread. He wants to hear us say it apparently. And now here's the point of Bartimaeus is blind.
He sees Jesus, and I know this is insignificant, but it struck me as I read this text in preparation for this mass. Immediately upon receiving his sight, Bartimaeus started to follow Jesus up the road. That's what the English says. I don't know what the Greek is. That struck me very forcibly because today many people are confused.
They may not be totally blind, but the most a lot of our people are legally blind. In other words, they're not seeing too well. They need a cane for their own protection. Because there's so much confusion today, in I mean within the Catholic church, among good Catholics. We need to see.
What do we want to see? That's a very important point. This this blind man knew whom he wanted to see. He or at least to get into contact, he was hollering out to Jesus. He had no doubt in his mind what he wanted.
He wanted Jesus because Jesus could bring his sight. And he knew he was there, someplace, but he didn't know where he was. He he knew he was in the environment. Now when the blind man sees, the text says in English, he followed Jesus up the road. Up the road.
That's terribly significant to me. Very when you take that in connection with the reading, the first reading this morning, we want to see Jesus. Well, where are you gonna see him? Where do you find him? How do you hear him?
How do you tell Jesus what you want? Where is he in this world today? Now if you can't answer that question, we're we're as far as that's concerned, it's hopeless. Absolutely hopeless. You're much better off giving your time to playing bridge or something something very useful.
So where is Jesus? Where do we find him? My point is this, I I I don't think people have a great deal of confusion about this. I'm talking about people within the Catholic church now, Catholics. You you've been reading about our holy father's troubles up in The Netherlands, Holland.
You know what's going on down in South America and Central America. America. You know what's going on in The United States Of America. The struggle for the American church or the battle, Kelly calls it. We know these things.
But the point is, I firmly believe many people are creating what they call Catholicism every man for himself. Self made Catholicism. We people select and they choose what they want because that's what they're comfortable with. That's what fits their lifestyle. That's what fits their situation.
This has been happening all around us. And I'm talking about within the church. Any Saturday night if people want to shop around for a confessor, they can get any number of views out of that box if they go to a box. Let's face it, these are the facts of life. Where is Jesus?
And when you find him, we're told that the blind man in this case followed Jesus up the road, up the road. That's a hard road. It's up hill. It's awfully up hill at times. Awfully up hill at times.
Now we're heading into Trinity Sunday where there's some very significant texts. The important text is Saint Matthew where our lord just before his rec ascension, he says, going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son, holy spirit, and teach them everything that I have taught you, and I am with you until the end of time. Now if we're Christians, that's what Jesus said and that's what we should believe. He said that. There's no question about the text in this matter.
You can read it in Greek or Latin or German or French or Dutch. I don't care. It'll come out the same. The Greek is perfectly clear. Now either Christ either meant that or he didn't.
And he didn't give us a book that he didn't write anything. He didn't give us tablets of stone or bronze. This is what he said. This was the legacy. And he had already said, thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.
And the Greek is ekklesia, and that means a little community, organized community. Can't get out of question of this. Now, this being so, where do we find Jesus? In the New Church, as they call it, as the National Catholic Reporter calls it, the New Church. Church.
Who wants to belong to the new church? I wanna belong to the church of Jesus Christ. I wanna be I wanna have his truth because it's his truth that will make me free. He said that. My truth will make you free.
My truth. But remember, don't stop there because the text says, you've gotta keep my commandments. You have to follow me if you want freedom. Your freedom is in following me, in going uphill with me, in being with me, even when my truth makes you very uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.
So, this story of Bartimaeus, it's it's a honey. I love it. It's dramatic. It's spectacular. It's human and very mysterious.
Very mysterious. I haven't even mentioned the fact Jesus tells the man, Barton, this guy was blind. Everybody knew he was blind. He was a beggar. And our Lord says, your faith.
Your faith. Where did he get it? Well, keep that in the back of your head. It's very mysterious business. It's awfully mysterious.
It's so mysterious that we'd feel that it was impossible to be involved in it if we didn't have the very simple fact that Jesus Christ, son of Mary, came into this world to be our savior and all I need is to be with him. In the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Amen.