30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102724.cfm
Good evening / morning, St. Agnes. I want to begin with a bit of Catholic trivia. Ancient Greek was the most common language of the Mediterranean region. It’s the language that the New Testament was written in and our earliest liturgies were prayed in.
To this this day, there is one part of our Catholic mass that is still (occasionally) said in Greek. Do you know what it is?
I actually gave you a tip off earlier in the liturgy. It’s in the penitential rite where we pray, “Lord have mercy,” or in the Greek ‘Kyrie Eleison.’ We hear the Biblical origins of this prayer in today’s Gospel reading.
On it’s surface, the reading today appears to be about another healing of a blind person—the restoration of sight to blind Bartimaeus. I’d like to suggest that the Gospel actually about prayer.
Bartimaeus repeatedly shouts to Jesus the words, ‘eleison me,’ or “Have mercy on me!” This is one of the oldest and most frequently offered prayers in the Gospel. It is often called the Jesus Prayer. In its extended form the it is, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Though, I pray the Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary, and the Glory Be regularly, the Jesus Prayer is my go-to. It is a good one to put in your prayer repertoire as it has the benefit of being short, simple, and easy to remember.
I’ve been reading this book, An Introduction to Prayer by Bishop Robert Barron. It’s a short and simple book but it is jam packed with insights. I highly recommend it. In it, he suggests four rules for authentic prayer. The Jesus Prayer and the story of Bartimaeus fits each of these four.
The first rule is to pray in the name of Jesus. Bartimaeus does just that, calling out his name and demanding to be seen. We pray in Jesus’ name because he is our advocate with the Father. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I will do whatever you [when you pray] in my name.”
Another reason to pray in Jesus’ name is that it shapes how we pray and what we ask for. We know that Jesus himself prayed for forgiveness, for justice, for healing, and for the will of His Father to be done. He did not pray for riches, for vengeance, or for power. If we pray for these things in Jesus’ name, we feel the discordance. The wrongness.
Second, pray with persistence. Do we pray regularly? And if we do, how often when we pray an intention do we stop when we don’t see an immediate result? As Bishop Barron writes, “one reason we don’t receive what we want through prayer is that we give up far too easily Precisely when we are refused, our ardor should grow and our desire should increase so as to receive the fullness of what God desires for us. This process is short-circuited when, in our frustration at not being answered promptly, we cease to ask.”
When Bartimaeus calls out for Jesus, the others in the story repeatedly tell him to shut up. To be quiet. But Bartimaeus persists. He is undeterred. He models for us how we should continue to ask for what we need even when we meet resistance or opposition.
Third, pray with faith. Bartimaeus truly believes that Jesus can forgive him and heal him. He recognizes who Jesus is, calling him the Messianic title, “Son of David.” This man who is physically blind has a spiritual sight that pierces through the ambiguity that Jesus has maintained throughout the Gospel of Mark. Bartimaeus truly sees him and he believes. Like him, we should pray with the trust that God really can transform our lives and our world: “My teacher, let me see again.”
Bishop Barron writes, “let your faith be so pure and strong that you easily believe that you already have what you have asked God to give you—and you may find that you do indeed receive it.”
The last rule is to pray with mercy—mercy for yourself and for others. In the next chapter of Mark, we will hear Jesus say, “When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly father may in turn forgive you your transgressions” (11:25). Bartimaeus repeatedly prays for Jesus’ mercy – eleison me; eleison me.
To review, the rules are to pray in Jesus’ name, to pray with persistence, pray with faith, and pray with mercy.
We see that Bartimaeus is transformed by his encounter with Christ. His sight is restored, but more importantly, he becomes Jesus’ final disciple before his passion. He throws off his cloak, leaving his old life behind. Bartimaeus’ name means, “Son of the valued one,” and we can see, in this moment, his own personal transfiguration, as he becomes what his name means.
Jesus’ ministry is changed by Bartimaeus, too. His spiritual sight has pierced the “messianic secret.” From this point on, the path to the cross and the empty tomb is clear and there’s no turning back.
May we have the faith and the spiritual sight of Bartimaeus and may we all learn to pray as he did. Pope Francis has declared this the Year of Prayer. Let us all seek to deepen our personal prayer, our family prayer, and community prayer together. Jesus Christ, son of the living God, pray for us sinners.
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