The Gospel reading for this Thirtieth Sunday of ordinary time is the episode of Bartimaeus, the blind man. In the Gospel, Bartimaeus cries out for Jesus and Jesus responds: “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus asks to see. Jesus tells him: “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Faith is a beautiful word. Faith is our response to God’s revelation; that act in which God communicates the inner secrets of his divinity. In the Gospel, Bartimaeus responds to Jesus with his faith. The blind man is able to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. In return, Jesus saw the faith and dignity of someone that society had dismissed as inconsequential.
Bartimaeus is a sign for all of us. How often does Christ pass by us? Maybe in the form of a person on the margin, a person struggling with poverty or with another burden? Do we respond with our faith? How often are we found listening to the crowd instead of listening to the words of Christ?
To be an authentic disciple we need to embrace and accompany the vulnerable. We need to serve the community as a whole and be humble witnesses to the joy of being in a relationship with Christ. Today, Jesus asks: “What do you want me to do?” Let us ask the same thing; what can I do to serve and spread the Gospel as a joyful missionary disciple?
