"GET UP, JESUS IS CALLING YOU."

Oct. 28, 2018: 30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. Mark 10:46-52

AIM: To challenge the hearers to deeper conversion.

Tourists in poor Third World countries, such as India, are constantly beset by beggars. Our country is rich. But there are beggars here too. A priest walking in certain inner city areas is sure to be asked for money for a cup of coffee from at least one pathetic figure clearly suffering from the effect of a stronger brew. Near the Greyhound bus terminal the request is more likely to be for money to buy a ticket to a distant city, where a job is waiting to relieve the petitioner from his temporary financial embarrassment. In European cites, such as Paris or Rome, the beggars are often gypsies who use all kinds of tricks and harassment to separate unwary tourists from their money.

Harassment was the stock-in-trade of the blind beggar Bartimaeus in our gospel reading today. He would sit by the roadside in a pathetic heap crying out his mournful litany to passersby whom he could hear but not see. Bartimaeus is at his accustomed station early today. He has heard that the famous rabbi Jesus from Nazareth is coming to town. There is sure to be a big turnout. With any luck, Bartimaeus thinks, I=ll have a good day.

From a distance Bartimaeus hears the sound of an approaching crowd. They are chanting one of the Psalms sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. Surely this must be the rabbi himself, on the way to the holy city for Passover. 

At once Bartimaeus starts to cry out repeatedly the flattering salutation which he has rehearsed in advance: AJesus, son of David, have pity on me!@ Indignant that this squalid town beggar should disturb the famous rabbi=s pilgrimage, the bystanders tell Bartimaeus to be quiet. He pays no attention. This is his big chance. He continues to cry out at the top of his voice.

Though Bartimaeus cannot see it, Jesus has stopped. He is telling his friends to summon the man whose voice Jesus can still hear through the hubbub of the crowd. ATake courage,@ those near Bartimaeus tell him. AGet up, Jesus is calling you.@ Overjoyed at this unexpected good fortune, Bartimaeus leaps to his feet, throwing aside the tattered cloak which he uses to enhance the impression of pathetic misery.

AWhat do you want me to do for you?@ Jesus asks. Bartimaeus never expected anything like this. AMaster,@ he hears himself saying, AI want to see.@

AImmediately he received his sight,@ Mark tells us. The words which follow are the most important in the whole story: Bartimaeus Afollowed [Jesus] on the way.@

To follow Jesus on the way has a special, spiritual significance in Mark=s gospel. It was no ordinary way. The way Jesus was walking would take him to Jerusalem, the site of his passion, death, and resurrection. When Mark tells us that Bartimaeus started to follow Jesus on that way, therefore, he means that Bartimaeus has become Jesus= disciple. The fact that this man, alone of all those Jesus healed in this gospel, is named, indicates that he was known to the Christian community for which Mark wrote. He was one of them.

That encounter outside Jericho changed Bartimaeus=s life. He was looking for money. He found something far more valuable than anything even the most generous benefactor could give: not only the restoration of his physical sight, but spiritual vision as well: the ability to recognize Jesus C and to see that following him was the best thing he could do with his life.

Into this simple story of the healing of a blind beggar Mark has compressed the whole process of Christian conversion. It began, seemingly, with Bartimaeus= search for money. In reality, God was already searching for him. He has already sent his Son, Jesus of Nazareth, to call Bartimaeus. Jesus= call reaches him not directly, but through others. These messengers challenge Bartimaeus to act. AGet up! Jesus is calling you!@ Even after Bartimaeus responds to this call, however, he still needs others to lead him to Jesus. Through the encounter with Jesus Bartimaeus discovers something infinitely better than the money he has been looking for. He finds the one whose companionship means everything to him. He decides to follow Jesus on the way C to become his disciple. 

The story continues to exercise its spiritual power today. Let me tell you about a man whose life was changed through reading it. Some of you know him.  He is Thomas Frerking, the now retired Abbot of our local Benedictine Abbey on Mason Road. He told me his story, with permission for publication, when the monks chose him as their abbot twenty years ago. First a little background.

Thomas Frerking was born in St. Louis 71 years ago to Presbyterian parents.  Stricken with polio at age two and not expected to live, he spent six months in an iron lung. Upper body strength returned, but with his legs totally paralyzed he can get around today only on crutches or in a wheelchair. Like many young people today, Thomas abandoned religious faith while in high school, confident that science had disproved spiritual things, such as the existence of the soul. He graduated from Harvard in 1966 and won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. There, as previously at Harvard, he had many Catholic friends. AI loved to discuss religion with them,@ he told me. ABut it never occurred to me to investigate their church.@   

In a talk on prayer at Oxford, the speaker recommended reading one of the gospels straight through. AYou will find one passage that speaks to you directly.  When you do, be faithful to the message, regardless of the cost.@ Thomas chose Mark=s gospel. Let me tell you the rest, in Abbot Thomas=s own words.

AWhen I came to the blind beggar, Bartimaeus, I thought: >That=s me!= I felt   convicted of intellectual pride and kept repeating: >Lord Jesus, Son of David, be merciful to me, a sinner.= Jesus came to me. I heard him saying: >Call him over.= So I went to Jesus C and he gave me a hard time. He asked me: >What do you want me to do for you?= I had to tell him: >Lord, I want to see.’ This happened= several times over the next few days. I realized that the people around Jesus were Catholic Christians. I knew I must ask for instruction in the Catholic faith. But then I thought: >Oh no, I could never do that!=@       

That was in July 1969. In August Thomas came home for a visit to the Rocky Mountains with his parents. ALooking up at a cloud one day, [he told me] the decision was just given to me. I knew that when I got back to Oxford I would phone the Catholic student chaplaincy and ask for instruction. When I did so the chaplain asked: >Where are you?= I replied: >In my room at Trinity College.= He didn=t know me from Adam. But he said at once: >I=ll be there in 15 minutes.= That was in September 1969. I was received into the Church at Easter 1970.@

AGet up, Jesus is calling you!@ Was that just long ago and far away? Don=t you believe it! That is the Lord=s message to each one of us. It is his message to you, right now. Have you responded to the message? Are you passing on the message to others? If not, what are you passing on? Whether you know it or not, your life is making a statement. Is it a statement for Jesus Christ? or against him?

Perhaps you are uncertain what statement your life is making. Then you need to listen again to the call. Jesus is calling you. The farther you are from him, the more urgently he is calling. You need to do what Bartimaeus did: get up, cast aside the things that hinder you, and come to Jesus. He wants to heal you of your inner, spiritual blindness.

He wants you to follow him, on the way.