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Our Sunday Reflection - October 27, 2024
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Master, I want to see.
Mark 10:46-52
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Introduction to the Liturgy of the Day
This week will feature two parades of sorts. On Halloween, we’ll see a parade of children dressed in costumes going from door to door. On All Saints Day, we sing of a parade of saints who “go marching in.” In today’s first reading, another parade: “the remnant of Israel” whom the LORD gathers from all over the world. As we celebrate Mass today, let us praise a God who gathers us together, ready to march to our promised land, to the eternal kingdom.Introduction to the Liturgy of the Word
Jeremiah delivers an oracle of salvation, giving his people hope that there would be an end to their exile. Hebrews points out that God called every high priest for generations, but since he was God’s Son, Christ became high priest forever. Glory and wonder culminate in the Gospel, where the blind man Bartimaeus is healed by Jesus and immediately follows him on his way to Jerusalem and the cross. Wherever we are on our personal journey, may we heed the Lord’s call and follow him, like the faithful in the final verse of the psalm, who “come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves.”Reflections
- It is not difficult to imagine the nation of Israel being threatened from every side. So it was during Jeremiah’s time as well. His prophetic messages were alternatively decried or ignored. Eventually the nation was defeated and most of the Jewish people were sent into exile. This is the background behind Jeremiah’s incredibly hopeful and consoling oracle we hear today. The LORD will bring back the exiles—the strong and the weak, the young and the old, the blind and the lame—gathering them from near and far, consoling them and guiding them as a parent would a child. As Christians, this reminds us of our journey to the cross, Jesus gathering us all, consoling us and guiding us—as he did Bartimaeus—with the promise of eternal life.
- Bartimaeus did not know it at the time, but when he decided to follow Jesus, our Lord was approaching the most difficult part of his journey. Jericho was only about twenty miles from Jerusalem. The verse that immediately follows today’s Gospel says that Jesus sent two disciples into Jerusalem to get the beast of burden that would bear Jesus into the holy city. Bartimaeus may have been one of those two! Scripture scholars point out that the fact that his name is given by Mark in this Gospel suggests he became a prominent disciple. His faith is clearly ap parent, as he calls Jesus by a messianic title—“Son of David”—and is the only person in Mark to address him as “Master.” Though blind, he was able to see Jesus as the Messiah and was willing to throw aside his old life (symbolized by his cloak, where he held the coins he collected) and follow him without knowing where he was leading him
- Bartimaeus’s request, “Master, I want to see,” can be ours today (Mark 10:51). We may not be physically blind, but we may fail to see the answers to the big questions of life. Jesus offers us the chance to see what may elude us. This can be what we ask for now. We want to see what is truly important in life. We want to see what we are called to do and to be. We want to see the path that Jesus calls us to follow. Note that Bartimaeus immediately followed Jesus on the way; he just wanted to see the way. Like him, we want to see the way.
Question of the Week
What will I do this week to discern the way for me? What else do I want to see?
-from Pastoral Patterns
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readings of the mass
LISTEN HERE to the Audio Recordings of the Readings of Sunday, October 27, 2024
SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, October 27, 2024
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Offerings
The Sunday offerings are a portion of our blessings that we give to God (Church) in gratitude to what God has done for us...ONLINE GIVING OPTIONS -
Reflections on the readings
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