In today's Gospel, Jesus heals the sight of yet another blind man. As was pointed out in today's homily, Mark places the healings of the blind men at the beginning and end of his rendition of Jesus' time preaching. He does this as a way to emphasize the spiritual blindness of the Apostles, and thus of ourselves. Even here, at the end of His preaching (although they did not know that), His disciples are ready to turn Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, away, hushing him and telling him to be silent.
They have completely missed the point of Jesus' ministry. Jesus, our God, wants us to look after one another (pun intended). Rather than turn a blind eye to the troubles of others, He tasks us to look around, notice the less fortunate, and come to their aid. Time and again, He demonstrates what we need to do, yet He also acknowledges how difficult this is for us as well.
It's all well and good for us to say that we need to help one another, but it is quite another thing to actually do it. It is not easy to follow Jesus as Bartimaeus does at the end of this reading from the Gospel. First, we need to ask God to lift our blindness. For that, we need to be willing to see.
They have completely missed the point of Jesus' ministry. Jesus, our God, wants us to look after one another (pun intended). Rather than turn a blind eye to the troubles of others, He tasks us to look around, notice the less fortunate, and come to their aid. Time and again, He demonstrates what we need to do, yet He also acknowledges how difficult this is for us as well.
It's all well and good for us to say that we need to help one another, but it is quite another thing to actually do it. It is not easy to follow Jesus as Bartimaeus does at the end of this reading from the Gospel. First, we need to ask God to lift our blindness. For that, we need to be willing to see.
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