Let’s attempt to establish a timeframe for our readings this weekend. Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed calamitously twice, once in 587 BC by the Chaldeans and the second time in AD 70 by the Romans. So, the first time was a little less than 600 years before our Lord, and the second time about 40 years after the Resurrection and the Ascension of our Lord.
“Rejoice, the Lord says, at Jacob’s triumph, the proudest of nations greet with a glad cry; loud echo your songs of praise, Deliverance, Lord, for Thy people, for the remnant of Israel! From the north country, from the very ends of earth, I mean to gather them and bring them home; blind men and lame, pregnant women and women brought to bed, so great the muster at their home-coming. Weeping they shall come, and I, moved to pity, will bring them to their journey’s end; from mountain stream to mountain stream I will lead them, by a straight road where there is no stumbling; I, Israel, thy Father again, and thou, Ephraim, My first-born son.”
Prophecy of Jeremiah, 31: 7-9 [link]
Jeremiah, the prophet of our first reading this weekend, witnessed the first destruction, but as everything was falling into ruin, the dynasty of David was effectively destroyed and the people of Juda dispersed, the prophet saw a bright light in the future. This is the substance of the reading above, and the people of the city would have thought Jeremiah mad. But hear him cry out here, Shout for joy (in the midst of ruin), hail the Chief of heaven (although He seems to have abandoned His city and His Temple), proclaim that God has saved the people (although they are being dispersed throughout the known world).
But, the prophet is talking of a remnant of the people. The Hebrew nation had been chosen by God out of all humanity, but had failed to fulfil their destiny as a people of God, and from within that Elect nation, a smaller subset of people would be chosen and elect, drawn together from every part of the known world that they had once been dispersed to. For God did not wish to abandon the children of Abraham, among whom within a few short centuries His Son would appear in the flesh. Ephraim, the prophet proclaims, is God’s first-born. The Hebrew nation – called her Ephraim, after the patriarch Joseph’s son – was birthed by God at Mount Sinai, under the regency of Moses.
The restoration of the nation, as foretold by Jeremiah and other prophets, centred around the successor of King David. And although successors of David appeared soon after to lead the Jews out of the desolation caused by the Chaldeans, there was the great expectation of a particular Son of David, the Messiah, who would restore the relationship of the people with God, the relationship that had been destroyed by national sins, such as idolatry. And that introduces our gospel reading.
“And now they reached Jericho. As He was leaving Jericho, with His disciples and with a great multitude, Bartimaeus, the blind man, Timaeus’ son, was sitting there by the way-side, begging. And, hearing that this was Jesus of Nazareth, he fell to crying out, ‘Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.’ Many of them rebuked him and told him to be silent, but he cried out all the more, ‘Son of David, have pity on me.’ Jesus stopped, and bade them summon him; so they summoned the blind man; ‘Take heart,’ they said, ‘and rise up; He is summoning thee.’ Whereupon he threw away his cloak and leapt to his feet, and so came to Jesus. Then Jesus answered him, ‘What wouldst thou have Me do for thee?’ And the blind man said to Him, ‘Lord, give me back my sight.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away home with thee; thy faith has brought thee recovery.’ And all at once he recovered his sight, and followed Jesus on His way.”
Gospel of S. Mark, 10: 46-52 [link]
The Messiah was expected to come with the power of God in his right hand, as Moses had done. And when people like this blind beggar of our story heard of the profusion of miracles that surrounded our Lord and His apostles, Bar-Timaeus was convinced that here was the expected Son of David, and so that the restoration of the people was at hand. So he calls out what every one of us should call out regularly, especially in great need, ‘Son of David, have mercy, have pity.’ See this, for example. The world that we live in frowns at us and scolds us and may tell us to be quiet, but we must shout out even louder, ‘Son of David, most Holy One, have mercy, have pity.’ And He stops, having heard our voices, and He calls for us and asks us what He can do for us.
He’s really asking us, Do you believe that I can do this thing that you wish, that I can do it for you? Do you understand Who and What I am? And, if we make the correct reply, we may hear Him say, ‘Your faith has saved you.’ Bar-Timaeus recovered his physical sight, but when we hear of sight healings in the gospels, the evangelists are always trying to tell us that unfaith and irreligion is itself a blindness – a spiritual blindness to the being of God, and if there is an understanding of God a despair of His ability to help us. Faith is the antidote, and faith is a gift from God. Faith we should constantly pray for, always more faith. Even if we cannot have our physical or mental ailments relieved, our faith and our vision of God our loving Father will have saved us out of this world by making us believers, and by drawing us into a relationship with God that survives suffering and death. The relationship God had called the Hebrews to centuries before Christ, is the one He calls us to today. Trust Me, He says to us, beyond the evils of this current world, beyond the death that all men and women are heir to. For I am the Resurrection and the Life; I live, and you shall live because of me.
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 