Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s gospel recounts Jesus’ encounter with the blind Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus is sitting by the side of the road, and he hears that the man Jesus is passing by. Knowing Jesus’ reputation for healing, Bartimaeus cries out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me!” And he keeps calling out like this, even when others tell him to be quiet, until Jesus hears him and calls for him.
What is interesting is that even though Bartimaeus is obviously blind, Jesus still asks him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And Bartimaeus asks to be able to see. This interaction shows that Jesus doesn’t just want to heal people; he also wants to have a personal encounter with them.
We see this is desire for a personal encounter in other healings Jesus performs. When he heals a deaf and mute person (Mk 7:31-7), he makes all sorts of gestures, spitting and touching the man’s tongue, putting his fingers in the man’s ears, looking to heaven and groaning, and saying ephphatha, “be opened.” He does this so that the man knows that Jesus is healing him, when normally he just heals with a word. Similarly, when the woman with a hemorrhage sneaks up and touches his cloak and is healed (Mt 9, Mk 5, Lk 8), he stops and looks for her to tell her that her faith has made her well.
This personal encounter is important because in this, the people who are healed bodily by Jesus are also healed spiritually. And all of us need this spiritual healing even if our bodies are healthy. One of the names given to Jesus in the first chapter of Matthew is Immanuel, “God with us,” and it is by being God with us that Jesus heals us, both body and soul.
Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections