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 30^th Sunday, Year B: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima

Theme: God doesn’t disappoint those who call upon Him with faith.

Readings: Jer. 31:7-9; Heb. 5:1-6; Mk 10:46-52

Dear friends in Christ, we have a merciful and loving God who continues to come to our aid to deliver us from the consequences of our sins and from the challenges and deficiencies we inherited from a nature fractured by original sin.

Today’s first reading from the prophet Jeremiah was one of the prophecies in which God announced His plan of liberation and restoration to His people Israel, who were enslaved and suffering in Babylon on account of their infidelity to Him. Even though they offended God by turning to other gods and, thus, lost His protection and were taken into slavery, God did not abandon them. Rather, He heard their cry and announced to them through the prophet Jeremiah, as we read today, that He would liberate them and restore them to their land. He said: “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who is in travail, together; a great company, they shall return here.”

This passage simply tells us that God does not abandon us, even if the cause of our suffering is our disobedience to Him; He does not abandon us even if we are responsible for our problems. He is a merciful Father and always hears us when we cry to Him, especially with faith and a repentant heart.

The story of the healing of the blind man in today’s gospel reading shows that God comes to our aid to deliver us not only from the troubles we brought upon ourselves but also from the ones we inherited from our imperfect nature, as well as from all other difficulties and challenges our world often subjects us to. Difficulties like sickness, natural disasters, economic obstacles, etc. The story of the healing of blind Bartimaeus is also a vivid illustration that our God comes to the aid of those who call upon Him in their time of need, as He promised in Psalm 50:15. There are some good lessons we must learn from this healing story.

First, do you know that Bartimaeus would have missed the opportunity of being healed if he had remained silent? So, we must not allow the voice of prayer to be silent in our lives, especially when we are in need. Let us always raise our voices in prayer to Christ in our problems. Prayer is essential in our lives, and Jesus said we should pray without ceasing, for He who asks will receive, he who seeks will find, and he who knocks will have the door opened for him.

Second, we must never be discouraged whenever we approach Christ in prayer. When Bartimaeus began to pray to Christ for healing, shouting with every strength in him, the people around him rebuked him to keep quiet. Most of the time, when we decide to take our problems to Christ in prayer, to devote more time to prayer and other spiritual exercises in the church or at home, we may hear many voices from friends, colleagues, and even family members telling us that we are wasting our time. Some may claim that God does not perform miracles again. However, if we stand firm and overcome this kind of challenge by moving on with our decision to approach God, as Bartimaeus did, we will discover that even those who told us to stop praying to God will be among those who will rejoice with us when God has heard our voice, exactly as it happened in the case of Bartimaeus. The crowd told Bartimaeus to keep quiet, but he persisted. Then, when Jesus commanded him to come, the same people that told him to keep quiet started telling him to be courageous.

Third, anytime we turn towards God for help in our difficulties, we must do it with absolute faith, believing that we will not return empty-handed. One of the ways to show that we have absolute faith in God is to leave our past life behind us; we have to let go of everything that gave us security in our past life and then adhere strictly to the voice of God. When Bartimaeus stood up to walk towards Jesus, He threw away his cloak, which gave him security and identity in his life as a blind beggar, and then focused on his journey towards Jesus, believing that his encounter with Jesus would transform him and he would have no need for his cloak again. This is absolute faith. Holding strong to our past life while marching towards Jesus is a sign that we have doubts about receiving what we are asking for. Such doubts are obstacles to the reception of blessings from God.

Lastly, when God answers our prayers, we should not turn away from Him; rather, like Bartimaeus, we should follow Him and worship Him all the days of our lives.

Peace be with you.

Fr. Isaac Chima.