Cry out!

Bartimaeus cries out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” Here’s a man who has no job, he’s begging on the side of the street. He has no family, no friends, he doesn’t even have a proper name. He’s called Bartimaeus, which simply means “son of Timaeus.” All he has is his voice. And with his voice he cries out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” (or in Greek, eleēson me)

And this cry, to the people who are walking and following Jesus, is annoying. And so they rebuke him: “Shut up, can’t you see that we’re trying to follow Jesus, we’re trying to listen to the Master, we don’t have time for you.”

This can happen to us in life when we encounter people who are crying out in the world and we get annoyed and don’t have time for them. Because we don’t hear their cry as a cry for help, or a cry for Jesus. All we hear is it’s their addiction, they just want drugs… or they are just looking for a handout… or it’s their insecurities, they want attention… or their greed, they just want more money. And we don’t hear their cry. We don’t hear their cry as a cry for Jesus. Because often they’re not saying “Jesus, help me”… instead they’re saying, “with everything going so great with my life, (with my job, with my wife, with my life), I’m still not happy. I’m still not fulfilled. And they’re so spiritually poor that they don’t even know that they are in poverty. They can’t even put it into words what they are begging for. They don’t know they are begging for Jesus.

We encounter these people every day. In fact, sometimes it’s us, ourselves, that is calling out but we just don’t know it. Perhaps we are Bartimaeus right now.

I remember, in college, before seminary begging for something more. I had a wonderful job, I had great friends, I had more than enough money, I had a wonderful girl I was dating. And yet I still was not happy. You could see on my face that there was a sadness that was missing. In fact, later on, when I told a friend of mine that I was going to join the seminary, he said to me, “I noticed that you were always looking for something. You were never satisfied with just what you had.”

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was Bartimaeus. I was poor because I didn’t have the one thing that mattered, I didn’t have Jesus. And because of that I remained blinded. 

Who is this blind man, crying out for Jesus today? I would dare to say that it is all of us. That deep in our hearts, we are crying out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” That we have all been blinded by the world and culture today. And we need to cry out to Jesus, “Help me!”

But far too often, the world rebukes us., “Stop that! You’re sounding like a crazy person. You’re so religious. Can you keep that down, I’m trying to watch the game! Shush, I’m in the middle of playing Fortnite… I don’t have time for your Jesus talk…”

At this point, the temptation is to shy away. To not be offensive. We don’t want to impose our faith in Jesus on those simply walking by. And so we stop crying out.

The challenge today is to cut through all of that. We need to have the boldness of Bartimaeus, who after others have told him to be quiet, to not speak up, to not cry out for Jesus, he still cried out even more, even louder! He knew his weakness. He knew what he didn’t have. He knew that without Jesus, he would remain blind. And so he cried out even more.

My brothers and sisters, do you know what you don’t have? Have you recognized that only Jesus can give you sight, and without Jesus you are blind? Do we all look with our eyes but do not truly see?

Here is a glimpse of what Jesus wants you to see: 

He wants you to see that all of us, all people, are created by a God who is love. And that our God wants to marry you. That Jesus came to be the bridegroom and you are the bride. That he wants to give his entire self, his heart, his soul, and even his body for you. That in your heart, there is an ache, a cry for something infinite, for this love from Jesus that takes you beyond this life, beyond this world. He wants you to see that here on this altar, what appears to be bread and wine truly becomes the body and blood of our bridegroom. And we become one with Christ in communion. Can we see that all around us there are angels and demons trying to either help us or tempt us to fall. And that every time we enter into the Mass, that all those saints that have gone before us, all our loved ones are in Heaven are present with us, praying and interceding for us right now, right here. 

But this is only a glimpse of what you will be able to see.

If you feel like you still can’t see this… cry out to him! Today at this altar, Jesus is asking you, “What do you want me to do for you.” As you approach the Lord today, boldly ask him, “Master, I want to see…” 

“Master, I want to see…”