October 24: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In our first reading today, we hear the Lord say to Jeremiah, “I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, the mothers and those with child...I will console them and guide them; I will lead them.” We may not feel gathered by God the way the displaced people were brought back to Israel. They were in tears as they were walking with God after Israels’ defeat by Babylon. And God is gathering us, all of us, and we are being consoled and guided every nanosecond if we will but pay attention. And God is gathering displaced people even when we ban them and build walls to prevent them from safety and hospitality. We might ask God how our nation can make displaced person’s path full of laughter, joy, and hope as they set their hearts for safety. What bliss when our immigration policies are reformed so well that migrants can sing prayer with today’s psalmist, “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”  The Lord does great things through the People of God. As St. Theresa of Avila said,  

Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands; yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours. 

Our second reading today refers to Moses’ brother Aaron who, when called by God, came to Moses’ and their sister, Miriam’s and their people’s aid. We have been baptized to respond to God’s call ourselves to share in Jesus' prophetic, priestly, and ruling ministries, each in our unique ways --  not unlike Moses’ and Aaron’s and Miriam’s calls. In today’s reading to the Hebrews we are told that those who respond to God’s call are “able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring.”  We may not think we have the gift of patience because we are so aware when we do not feel patient, but we do. The gift is in the recognition that we need to pray for patience. We, like those described in the letter to the Hebrews, are “beset by weakness.”  When we are aware of our impatient feelings we bring that weakness to God for guidance and healing and voila, we do not act on our impatience! God’s grace kicks in and transforms our impatient feelings into patience.  

In our Gospel today we hear of the blind man calling out to, “Jesus, son of David!” That catches my heart; apparently, blind Bartimaeus knows of Jesus’ divinity, knows his lineage is from David. People seemed bothered by Bartimaeus’ pleading with Jesus and tried to silence him. Jesus said, “Call him.”  There is God’s call again. And the people who’d been trying to silence him said, “Take courage; get up; Jesus is calling you.”  Jesus said to him, as he says to us, all the time (if we’re listening), “What do you want me to do for you?”  Bartimaeus said, “Master, I want to see.”   

We can see in that call and response a pattern for our lives. We ask God, “What do you want me to do?” And God helps us see, really, see our options. God helps us discern. And God gives us the chutzpah to give it a try, to take all kinds of jobs to pay for schooling and develop the skills, write the resume, go on the interviews, do our best in the internship and the entry level job and do what we are called to do and know when we need to ask again and again of Jesus, “What do you want me to do?” And again, we listen and learn and try and evaluate again and again. We will not see what is right in front of us without asking Jesus for help to see what God wants us to do. And when we do listen to him and see with God’s eyes what God wants us to see, God will say, “your faith has saved you.”  We may not do what the world says is successful, but we will do what is most compassionate, loving, kind and appropriately helpful for the most people.  

We will sometime this October through the end of March be called by God to express our hopes for the Church in the worldwide Synod. Let’s pray that we see and express God’s vision for a Church Jesus would recognize. Pope Francis begins by seeing Jesus and calling us to encounter Jesus’s will by listening and discernment. Stay tuned as to how to participate. In the meantime, and throughout the Synod, let’s pray to see God’s vision for the church.                                                                                            

By Dr. Deni Mack, Pastoral Associate Emerita