“LORD, THAT WE MAY SEE!!!”

HOMILY FOR THE 30^TH SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

A particular boy in a remote village was always so afraid to venture alone in the dark hours of the night or even to stay alone in a dark place. He would always demand that someone else accompanied him with at least a torchlight to any location that made this fear vivid in him. One day, the mum called the boy to address his fears. It turned out that the reason the boy gave to the mum was that he feared the fact of groping alone in the dark so as not to stumble and get harmed by objects due to invisibility. This is the reason he gave even when a torchlight was readily available for him. The mother imagined, as so many of us can ridiculously imagine that he was under the influence of the folk-tales he has heard about harmful witches and wizards operating in the dark; this made him afraid. As he gave a reason based on the physical, the mother knew that the reason was beyond the physical; it was more psychological and spiritual. Well, without probing any further, the mother used the occasion to teach the young boy sympathy and empathy for the blind whose experience of the dark is almost enduring. If you feel this way in the dark, the mum told him, think then about what that our blind neighbour passes through everyday. That day, the boy developed more care for others, especially, the blind in the society. Yes, like the reason we get from the boy and the one we imagine as the mother imagined, physical darkness/blindness goes out to affect every little aspect of our being: spiritual, psychological, emotional, social, etc.

Whenever I come across the story in the Gospel of today (Mark 10:46-52) about the blind Bartimaeus, there is this passionate feeling that rises in me. This man was a blind beggar, who sat by the roadside to ask for money from people. It was so amazing that on this day, this man changed his prayer request. He asked for mercy, for healing, for restoration and reinstatement into the social life of his environment. He must have heard people talk about Jesus as a powerful man who emits healing to people, and knowing what exactly to ask from Jesus, he prayed well. This should ring a bell into our consciousness about how to make the proper request to Jesus. And when he insisted on shouting: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on him as people tried shutting him up, Jesus called him to himself. The same people that tried shutting him up alerted and encouraged him to go and answer to Jesus’ call. Would it not be necessary to ask whether we have shouted enough to the extent of making people try to shut us up? Have we pushed enough, even when others see us as social nuisance, in our struggle to get liberated out of darkness? Have we become stubborn enough to call on the light, rather than being comfortable living in darkness and groping in it?

This blind man was reported to have thrown off his cloak to run up to Jesus. He was fade up with his blind condition, and had even left anything that reminded him of it. And at the question of Jesus about what he needed, he, knowing exactly what he wanted was direct: Lord, that I may see. His sight was restored. This act is so similar to the prophesy of Jeremiah in the First Reading (Jer. 31:7-9). The Lord promises to deliver, bring back and gather his people, the blind and the lame as to make them strong again. There is a promise of consolation and guidance to those that weep. This is what Jesus did in the Gospel. That day, Bartimaeus was cured by his faith; that even when Jesus told him to go, after he regained his sight, he did not leave Jesus but instead followed him. He did not want to go back to that cloak or that condition that placed him in darkness. Having seen the light, why go back to darkness? And this is a question for us today. Why should we choose to remain in darkness even after we have seen the light, or even desire to go back to darkness when we see signs of the light?

Remember, as hinted above, Physical blindness goes beyond the physical. There are many societies in the world that can be likened as being blind, or better still, whose inhabitants grope in the dark. What can we call the scenario that a child is born into a family and the parents are unsure or not assured of the training of this child if not a grope in the dark? What can we call the scenario that a child grows up in a society, and the basic necessities of life: food, water, shelter, clothing, and education are not available for this child if not a grope in the dark? What can we call the scenario that a student tries his/her hardest to become the best academically in the school only to stay at home in an endless search for job if not a grope in the dark? What can we call the scenario when there is a mad rush to become an undergraduate and a graduate, and yet not being sure of jobs after the graduation if not a grope in the dark? What can we call the scenario when one works daily and at the end of the month, his/her wage is not enough to take care of the basic needs of life if not a grope in the dark? What can we call the scenario when during elections, the masses are induced to campaign for the exact set of people who through their bad governance have kept them in poverty for years if not a grope in the dark? All we can pray, dear Lord is to give every person the courage and temerity to shout out persistently unto you: Lord, that we may see!!!. It is the lord who gives sight to the blind (psalm 146:8). May our sight like that of Bartimaeus be restored. We are tired of this cloak of blindness.

The world at large today can also be viewed to have fallen into the description of the oracle of Isaiah 59:10: we grope like the blind along a wall, groping like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among the vigorous as though we were dead. The leaders of this human society on earth tend now to be groping through the streets like those who are blind (Lam. 4:14). There are various philosophies and ideologies which tend to guide the human society today. Many though are still rising. It appears that some persons desire to make their ideas to be followed by many, thereby neglecting the supreme idea of God. This inadvertently may lead us back to the state of nature of every one deciphering the way to lead his/her life. They may claim that no God exists; that the society should be how people living in it defines it, but now and again we come to discover that we are not really the landlords. We come and we go, and the world keeps moving. Yet, we claim to be owners; you see? Why don’t we call on God who asks us daily what we want from Him to help us clear this web of darkness from our eyes to embrace the basic principles upon which humanity was created? 

It is in fact pitiable that the world has so grown used to this darkness/blindness that we can better liken it to the Plato’s allegory of the cave. In this cave, prisoners unable to turn their heads see merely the shadows of creatures cast behind them by a fire that reflects real objects that pass behind them. These prisoners live to the extent of seeing those shadows as real. Even though they see virtual images, they think them to be real. Unless they turned their heads, or someone made them to, they kept seeing shadows as real. We are blind, but we now think its normal to be blind. We grope in the dark, but we now think darkness is the normal situation. And so, like the Bartimaeus or like the description of Plato, for there to be a leap out of the blindness/darkness that the society has cast upon herself, she needs to shout out, turn her head and look backwards. Only then can we see the real images; only then can we see the light (fire) that reflects the real objects; only then can we regain our sights; and lastly only then can we recognize how exalted we can be when we embrace God and follow Jesus for vision continuity. Finally, as a Christian, we have been chosen from among others to become the high priests (as the Second Reading says Hebrews 5:1-6) to make people turn their heads for the real vision, to encourage people to embrace the light and to leave darkness, offering sacrifices for the errors of the dark so that the illumination from the sacrificial fire can open up more vision for our world today. And Jesus will continue to ask us: what do you want me to do for you? Our answers should be like Bartimaeus: O Lord, that we may see!!! Amen. Happy Sunday. God bless you.