Homily 30th Sunday OT 27th October 2024

To watch someone see for the first time must be very dramatic. While the bandages from micro surgery are being taken off, the suspenseful patient trembles with wonderment whether the treatment has been a success. Then that incredible  moment of sensitivity to light and the realisation that they can see.

Most people’s blindness isn’t physical but spiritual. And it happens all the time. The old saying is true that “There are none so blind as those who will not see and none so deaf as those who will not hear.”

Although not too many people are spiritually completely blind, most of us have some blind spots: social, cultural, political, religious, psychological. We can be blinded by passion, ambition, wealth, and unforgiveness.

Some have a blindness about the Church, seeing what’s wrong but not all the things that are right: the sheer wonder at the sacrament of reconciliation, and the beauty of the Mass. Some have a blind spot about other people, seeing faults but not all that is courageous, holy, beautiful and noble.

Unless we have learned to be self-critical, we are likely to have many blind spots. On the other had, we must not be blind to our own goodness: Bartimaeus, after all, was not only sightless, and his blindness wasn’t the whole truth of who he was.

Spiritual blindness can happen with entire peoples as Jesus found in Jerusalem and the prophet Jeremiah the with ancient Hebrews.

For us, Bartimaeus is a symbol of all who want to come to Christ. Jesus expects us to come to see and to grow in faith. Some people walk through life with their eyes wide open, yet comprehend little of its meaning because they are inwardly blind and have tunnel vision. The physically blind are well aware of their disability, the spiritual blind are usually not.

After we have come to say the right words about Jesus, our faith must become more personal. Then we need to see ourselves in a more truthful way. For some, this means recognising their sins in a clearer light. The needs of others is for the exact opposite: to see themselves more as being loved and beautiful in God’s sight. Next we realise that Jesus is the one who can bring us new life. Finally we really set out on the road of true discipleship. For some people this process may occurs in their youth, for others full faith develops only over the years perhaps after much weakness. However, until we are involved in that process, we too are blind.

Fr Andrew