Homily for Proper XXV B_RCL _ Pentecost XXI_Oct 25, 2009
St. Benedict’s, Los Osos (The Rev) Brian McHugh +
[Jer 31:7-9;
Psalm 126; Heb 7:23-28;
Mark 10:46-52]
Today, in the reading from the version of the Gospel called Mark, we are reacquainted with an old friend, a nameless blind beggar, known only as the son of Timaeus, who has the courage to defy his so-called friends and insist on asking Jesus to “let him see again”.
In one of those lovely “coincidences”, the great Greek philosopher Plato wrote an essay called “The Timaeus”, a figure who has a conversation with Socrates. Timaeus is the Latinized form of the Greek “Timaios” – and it means “Honour”. Keep this in mind as we think of our blind beggar friend. Timaeus says to Socrates that he thinks sight to be the source of the greatest benefit to us because it has allowed us to see the Universe, and ponder its nature. He then goes on to say that God “gave us sight to the end that we might behold the courses of the intelligences in the heaven, and apply them to the courses of our own intelligence, which are akin to them, the unperturbed to the perturbed, and that we, learning them and partaking of the natural truth of reason, might imitate the absolutely unerring courses of God and regulate our own vagaries.
I understand the story of Bar-timaeus – as I understand all such stories in the Gospel – to be about Becoming. About how, in knowing God in the person of Jesus and His interactions and relationships with others, we can learn to “Honour” our humanity, to become fully ourselves. What then does the Blind Beggar – who presumably had not met Jesus but calls Him “My Teacher” – teach us about our path into the fullness of Life? Here are a few things to ponder, after which Caro will respond to and enlarge upon.
All of us have things about us, being human, that hamper us, hold back our growth, symbolized by Bar-timaeus’ blindness. But we are all like Bar-timaeus. As a friend of mine says , Bat-timaeus may have been blind and a beggar, but he was part of his community; he had “spirit and initiative”. We all want to see our way, to know and understand and participate in Life. We all want to see a vision and a meaning for our Life. The important point is: Jesus relates to Bar-timaeus as a whole person, not just to his “handicap”. After healing him, He invites him into “the way” - the fellowship of the Good News. The God we know relates to us in the same way.
Bar-timaeus’ “friends” try to shush him up. Their culture says that a lowly blind beggar isn’t worthy to approach a prophet or ask for healing. Much of our culture does the same to people. We do it especially to the poor, the powerless, the outcasts of various sorts, among which are often included women, Gayfolk, and men who don’t fit the societal norm of “fighters”. I think we are called in Christ to claim for ourselves and for all others our full humanity as God’s People. As my friend says, “our fellowship with one another is as whole people, not as walking maladies”. No one should be “shushed”, prevented from entering fully into life in God.
What happens in the Gospel of Mark after Bar-timaeus? It moves into what we call the “passion” of Christ. Bar-timaeus throws off his cloak; this we can see as a symbol of letting go of paths, of ways of living and thinking and believing which only mislead and fail us. In essence, with Bar-timaeus we are invited to come to the Great Teacher, to enter the Mystery of Christ’s Death and Resurrection, to wrap ourselves in the new cloak of resurrection Life, and to “see again”: the inner sight of the Way of God’s amazing Love, God’s Compassion, God’s Justice, God’s Gentleness.
Touched by God, we like Bar-timaeus can “spring up”, despite our handicaps, and claim full Life.
