THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, Cycle B, October 25, 2009

= ; Our first reading today is a selection from the chapter of the book of Jeremiah (31:7-9) that ends with the famous oracle of the new covenant. This was written about 540 B.C.E. = after the defeat of the Babylonian Empire (located in present-day Iraq) by Cyrus = the Great, the first king of Persia (now Iran), who allowed exiled people to re= turn to their homelands. For this = he is called in the book of Isaiah (believe it or not!) “the Messiah of Israel.” In today’s passage, the prop= het Jeremiah (with a poetic eye) sees a new Exodus in the return of the Judean repatriates across the desert to the Promised L= and after the exile in Babylon.

= ; The poem opens with a solemn call to joy for the salvation God has bestowed upon the people. The sign o= f this salvation will be the condition of the returning exiles. They will come back weak. They will include the blind, the l= ame, and the pregnant. But upon th= eir return, there will be universal r= estoration—restoration to their land, restoration to health, restoration to faith—all looked upon as signs of the messianic age.=

&n= bsp; Now passages like this and the later passage in chapter 35 of the book of Isaiah that spells out these signs in more detail ("Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame le= ap like a stag, and the tongue of the speechless will sing") served the e= arly Christians as models for stories about Jesus. New Testament writers, wishing to illustrate their faith in Jesus as Messiah of Israel, pictured him as accomplishing such signs.

= ; The second reading, which continues the anonymous letter to the Hebrews (5:1-6)= we have been hearing, pictures Jesus as our compassionate high priest, able to offer sacrifice for us and to deal gently with ignorant and erring sinners = like us, since he himself was subject to human weakness. Let us therefore, as the writer ex= horts his readers, draw near with confidence to the throne of God, where Jesus re= igns exalted. For we believe that through his redemptive work we have been assured of access to God.

= ; Finally, the story in today's gospel selection serves as the pivotal point in the go= spel according to Mark (10:46-52). The author adopted this story as a transitional piece to conclude the first par= t of his gospel and to introduce the next.

= ; The central section of this gospel is concerned with the attempt of Jesus to op= en the eyes of his disciples to the meaning of discipleship. So it is framed by two stories of = Jesus curing blindness. These stori= es symbolize a new way of seeing. The spiritual blindness of the disciples is contrasted with the gift of sight (a metaphor= for insight and wisdom) that the physically blind receive through Jesus. The disciples, represented by Peter—who up till now has been portrayed as completely blind to the t= rue mission of Jesus—have their inner sight partially healed. And in this story, the blind man Bartimaeus is described not only as seeing immediately and fully because of= his faith in Jesus, but more symbolically as following Jesus on the way of Christian discipleship.

&n= bsp; This story of the cure of a blind man is meant to illustrate for the Christian reader that Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament signs of the messianic age and has been given power not only over sin but also over all its effects. But the fact that so= much attention is paid to the behavior of the blind man indicates that the story= was also told in early Christian circles to hold the blind man up as a model fo= r other believers.

= ; Indeed, Jesus is pictured as telling the man that it was his own faith that healed him. The picture of the blind= man realizing that Jesus is his only hope and calling upon Jesus for help—= ;and persisting despite discouragement even from some followers of Jesus—i= s a clear invitation for us readers to model ourselves on him. Like the blind man, we are invited= by the author to follow Jesus along his way.&= nbsp; Like him, we are all blind until Jesus opens our eyes. Like him, we should hear the call = of Jesus and follow him with alacrity, throwing off whatever encumbers us, springing up, and going to Jesus. And, like him, we are invited to address Jesus with a title meaningf= ul to us, and ask him to do something for us, something we need for our growth= in our relationship with God. Wh= en we do this, we not only open our eyes to Jesus—we open our hearts as wel= l, and we learn to trust in the one who loves us.