Do you feel like in depression right now? I do. The Gospel today takes us to the ancient city of Jericho which is located 258 meters below sea level. That’s a significant depression. The history of the city, which is believed to be the oldest in the world, adds even more gloomy feelings. When the people of Israel conquered Jericho on the way from Egypt they were told by God to leave it inhabited. God placed a curse on the city as its king killed his son and placed his dead body in the foundations of the city. Later however the city was rebuilt against the instructions of God. As it grew rich and influential people didn’t think about God’s instructions; the city founded on a horrible crime of a parent proudly challenged God’s reign in the world.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The history of Jericho is the story of a human enterprise being built on death which always comes from sin. Although Jericho was flourishing in economic terms at the time of Jesus it was still a symbol of choice against God’s will. If some people were expecting God to send brimstone and fire like he did in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah they were to get disappointed too. God didn’t send brimstone and fire this time but he sent his Son Jesus Christ to Jericho. Our Blessed Lord brought into the city the Word of God which crushed the hardened heart of Zacchaeus and opened the blind eyes of Bartimaeus. However when Jesus entered the city, which was a symbol of doing things against God’s will, he brought with him his obedience to the will of his heavenly Father. Jesus even said that “his food was to do the will of his father.”
As we read the story of the healing of the blind man we discover that after “his sight returned he followed Jesus along the road.” Where did the walk take him to? From Jericho Jesus was walking straight to Jerusalem. It was a laborious excursion. Even if the distance between the two places is only 27 kilometres, there is a thousand meters difference in altitude and the way leads through some rocky desert which makes it even more difficult. Bartimaeus set out on a difficult expedition as he followed Jesus. In his person we can see, like in a mirror, ourselves. The blind man is introduced by his name; we even learn the name of his father. He is not an anonymous person. He is not a number. He is not a part of the crowd. God doesn’t work with crowds but our God who is the community of Divine Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, calls us, by name, out of anonymity of the crowd to the communion of the Church which is established at our baptism. Can you remember what Bartimaeus did after he learnt that Jesus was calling him? “He threw off his cloak; he jumped up and went to Jesus.” The early Christians who listened to these words could easily recognise in them their own baptism. Adults would take off their clothes and they would go to the pool to be immersed, after the immersion they would be clothed in new white clothes symbolising new quality of life they had just received as it can be read in the Letter to the Galatians: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Bartimaeus left his cloak behind as he left behind his old life. The wealth of Jericho didn’t attract him as he discovered what St Paul expressed in his Letter to the Philippians some time later: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”
I believe that if Bartimaeus is mentioned by name it means that he not only reached Jerusalem with Jesus but he became part of those transforming events which happened at the end of the 27-kilometer-walk. The events which were to begin with the Palm Sunday, found their culmination in Jesus’ death and Resurrection and were sealed by the mystery of Pentecost. Bartimaeus lived in a double depression: geographical and personal. After meeting Christ he was brought out of both. He has been remembered not simply because he was healed by Jesus but he must have been remembered by early Christians as a fellow brother in their Church community. His story is an encouragement for us all to let Jesus open our eyes to the realities which only faith enables us to see, to see God coming into various depressions we experience in order to take us out of them into “his own wonderful light.”
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The history of Jericho is the story of a human enterprise being built on death which always comes from sin. Although Jericho was flourishing in economic terms at the time of Jesus it was still a symbol of choice against God’s will. If some people were expecting God to send brimstone and fire like he did in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah they were to get disappointed too. God didn’t send brimstone and fire this time but he sent his Son Jesus Christ to Jericho. Our Blessed Lord brought into the city the Word of God which crushed the hardened heart of Zacchaeus and opened the blind eyes of Bartimaeus. However when Jesus entered the city, which was a symbol of doing things against God’s will, he brought with him his obedience to the will of his heavenly Father. Jesus even said that “his food was to do the will of his father.”
As we read the story of the healing of the blind man we discover that after “his sight returned he followed Jesus along the road.” Where did the walk take him to? From Jericho Jesus was walking straight to Jerusalem. It was a laborious excursion. Even if the distance between the two places is only 27 kilometres, there is a thousand meters difference in altitude and the way leads through some rocky desert which makes it even more difficult. Bartimaeus set out on a difficult expedition as he followed Jesus. In his person we can see, like in a mirror, ourselves. The blind man is introduced by his name; we even learn the name of his father. He is not an anonymous person. He is not a number. He is not a part of the crowd. God doesn’t work with crowds but our God who is the community of Divine Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, calls us, by name, out of anonymity of the crowd to the communion of the Church which is established at our baptism. Can you remember what Bartimaeus did after he learnt that Jesus was calling him? “He threw off his cloak; he jumped up and went to Jesus.” The early Christians who listened to these words could easily recognise in them their own baptism. Adults would take off their clothes and they would go to the pool to be immersed, after the immersion they would be clothed in new white clothes symbolising new quality of life they had just received as it can be read in the Letter to the Galatians: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Bartimaeus left his cloak behind as he left behind his old life. The wealth of Jericho didn’t attract him as he discovered what St Paul expressed in his Letter to the Philippians some time later: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”
I believe that if Bartimaeus is mentioned by name it means that he not only reached Jerusalem with Jesus but he became part of those transforming events which happened at the end of the 27-kilometer-walk. The events which were to begin with the Palm Sunday, found their culmination in Jesus’ death and Resurrection and were sealed by the mystery of Pentecost. Bartimaeus lived in a double depression: geographical and personal. After meeting Christ he was brought out of both. He has been remembered not simply because he was healed by Jesus but he must have been remembered by early Christians as a fellow brother in their Church community. His story is an encouragement for us all to let Jesus open our eyes to the realities which only faith enables us to see, to see God coming into various depressions we experience in order to take us out of them into “his own wonderful light.”
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