In biblical times, healing was a sign of the coming of the Messiah. In The Book of Isaiah, we read: "Say to the fearful of heart: Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; With divine recompense he comes to save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf be opened; Then the lame shall leap like a stag, and the mute tongue sing for joy" (Isaiah 35:4-6). All four Gospels relate many miraculous healings performed by Jesus in fulfillment of this prophecy. One of those instances is the curing of the blind man in this Sunday's Gospel passage.
As the passage begins, Jesus is on his way from Jericho to Jerusalem. Today, a modern highway connects the two cities. In biblical times, the road was much less developed, but it was already a major thoroughfare, and one which had a bad reputation. The parable of the Good Samaritan also takes place along this road, highlighting the dangers of being alone in this area. But the blind man sits at the side of this dangerous road, begging. On the one hand, the busyness of the road can help him get more money from generous travelers. On the other hand, the roughness of the area puts him at risk of being robbed of whatever he is able to collect from benefactors. When Jesus passes by, he takes a leap of faith.
Clearly, he has heard about Jesus before. The stories of Jesus curing so many people had spread like wildfire among the people of the region. So the blind man calls out to Jesus for help and Jesus calls the man to himself. At once, the man springs up to go to Jesus, leaving his cloak behind, which is a deeply significant detail. We can surmise that the blind beggar was homeless, relying on the generosity of travelers, without a family to look out for him, because otherwise his family would have cared for him in their home and would not have let him beg on the side of a dangerous road. His cloak was not just his coat. In the time of Jesus, men tended to wear three main garments, their loin cloth, their tunic, and their cloak. The cloak was protection from the elements in colder weather and also served as a blanked at night when sleeping outdoors. For someone who had to sleep outside routinely, the cloak was his shelter at night.
By leaving his cloak behind, the blind man sets aside everything he has in order to go to Jesus. He doesn't have much, but he leaves it all behind to encounter the Lord. In return, he receives healing from Christ, which also helps to restore him to the life of the community. The challenge for us is how ready we are to follow the example of the beggar? Are we willing to leave everything behind to go to Christ? Are we willing to uproot everything in our lives that is contrary to the Gospel message of our Lord? If not, we need to examine what is holding us back and why, and we need to pray for the grace to be freed from attachments that weight us down and pull us away from the love of Christ.
As we reflect on giving things up, we should also remember what Christ gave up for us. The Letter to the Hebrews continues the theological reflection on Christ, who is the High Priest. As Catholics we believe that Christ is God; he is God Incarnate, who took on our humanity and came among us in order to share his love with us. He offered himself up in sacrifice for all of us so that we may be cleansed of our sins and become spiritually free. He is the High Priest, whose sacrifice is his own self upon the Cross.
As Bishop Barron pointed it out in the Catholicism video series, in allowing himself to be crucified for us, Jesus let himself be stripped of all those things that our culture values the most - wealth, popularity, beauty, power, and health. He had no wealth - the soldiers striped him even of his clothes. He had no popularity - he was condemned publicly as a criminal and was rejected by the crowds of Jerusalem. He had no beauty - the torture of the scourging, the carrying of the Cross, and the crucifixion disfigured his features. He had no power - being nailed to the Cross, he could not even move his body the way he would have wanted to. He had no health - he was being tortured to death and soon would die. All this Jesus accepted for us. What is more, it was in this moment of complete self-emptying that Jesus performed the greatest act of love, the salvation of humanity.
The blind man leaving everything behind to go to Christ foreshadows how Christ will leave everything behind to pour out his love upon us. But there is another instance of someone leaving everything behind in the Gospel of Mark. When Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of his followers flees: "Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked" (Mark 14:51-52). The flight of the young man is the inversion of the beggar springing up to go to Jesus. The beggar leaves his main garment behind to encounter Christ. The young man leaves all his clothes behind to run away as Christ is being arrested.
To follow Christ, we will often have to make sacrifices. As our culture gets increasingly more anti-Christian, we can expect more and more attacks on our faith. Even if we are not physically martyred, we will encounter many instances of being punished and ostracized by the society around us for our faith. Unlike the young man who ran away in terror, we must accept all suffering for the sake of following Christ. In return, we will receive much more than physical healing. We will receive enteral joy, eternal peace, unending fulfillment, living eternally in the infinite love of Christ.
Another aspect of this Sunday's Gospel passage is that the beggar asks Jesus for help. God has many blessings in store for us and some of them he will give us only if we ask. God wants us to ask for things so that when we receive blessings, we may recognize that he is the source. He also wants us to ask for blessings for others in order to establish deeper bonds of love among us. Therefore, we should ask boldly, while always submitting to the answer God wants to give to us. God always knows what is best and he will always answer our prayers in the way that is for our greatest benefit, even if we do not understand how that might be in the moment. But first, we need to ask.
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The readings for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B are:
Jer 31:7-9
Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
Heb 5:1-6
Mk 10:46-52
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: The road from Jericho to Jerusalem in modern times (c) 2016 by Zoltan Abraham.