In 2012 the movie ‘The Vow’ was released. It was inspired by the life of a married couple Krickitt and Kim Carpenter. Two months after their wedding they had a car crash. When Krickitt woke up from her coma she couldn’t recognise her husband. The last two years were erased from her memory. She has never regained the memories of her falling in love, dating and marrying her husband. The movie, which was quite emotional, presented their life after the car crash, their struggles to rebuild their married life.
However the movie left out the most crucial part of the story. Krickitt’s husband Kim gave an insight to that when he said: ‘Both of us know we would not have made it through this ordeal without the Lord being in the centre of it all.’
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Isn’t the insight into the life and healing of the blind man Bartimaeus? He wouldn’t have made it through without Jesus coming into his own misery. When Bartimaeus said to Jesus: ‘Rabbuni, let me see again’ he had revealed that there was time when his eyesight was fine. Unfortunately he had lost it. We don’t know whether it was because of an illness or an accident but he had become blind. However the blindness taught Bartimaeus how to beg, but not only people for money but also God for healing. Despite the limitations the blindness imposed upon him Bartimaeus had developed his hearing. Some people say that when one of the senses is lost the other senses become stronger. In Bartimaeus we see this and more. From today’s Gospel we learn that Bartimaeus did not miss people saying that Jesus was passing by. The blind beggar’s determination to approach Jesus must have been inspired by what he had heard about Jesus Christ before. He not only heard what people were saying about Jesus but he also reflected on it, treasured those testimonies he heard. So when he was crying: ‘Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me’ his cry was not only loud but it was predominantly faith filled. ‘Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me’ was Bartimaeus’ profession of faith in Jesus. That’s what Jesus heard in the beggar’s crying. The beggar’s faith filled cry was able to overcome the noise of the people who surrounded Jesus.
Pay attention how he asks Jesus: ‘Rabbuni, let me see again.’ Rabbuni is not just another title given Jesus. In order to appreciate today’s Gospel I would like to fast-forward the events and to arrive at a certain tomb on Easter Sunday. It was Jesus’ tomb. It was empty tomb. St John tells us that Mary Magdala was there crying. When the Risen Lord Jesus appeared to her, when she recognised him, she said: ‘Rabbuni, my beloved teacher.’ Over the previous three days when Jesus was taken away Mary was in agony. Her life was miserable because there was no Jesus in her life. She was longing for the Lord Jesus with her whole being.
My Dear fellow believers! We can understand Mary Magdalen as she spent some time with Jesus. She had come to know and love him. Bartimaeus hadn’t met Jesus before. He only heard of Jesus but as St Paul reminds us in the Letter to the Romans: ‘Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.’ It was enough and plenty for Bartimaeus. What he heard of Jesus he treasured and pondered in his heart. It permeated his heart. It was the seed of faith which grew within him.
Can we be surprised that when Bartimaeus was healed and when he heard from Jesus: ‘Go, your faith has saved you’ he went after Jesus, he followed Jesus. Could he find anything more worthy of seeing that the Son of God taking the final walk to Jerusalem to accomplish the Redemption by his Death and Resurrection? ‘Blessed are your eyes, for they see what the prophets and the righteous wanted to see.’
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Let me recall the words of the Saint John Paull II from his inaugural Mass on October 22, 1978: ‘Do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power. Do not be afraid. To his saving power open wide the doors for Christ.’
The woman who lost a portion of her memory said: ‘a Scripture I really hold unto is: ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’ I believed I was called according to God’s purpose, and I followed with my whole heart.’
Her husband added: ‘It is amazing we live in a world that there is such a big deal made about a man and woman who simply did what we said we were going to do. It is strange to think of our marriage being portrayed as a remarkable love story, when, for us, we just did what we said we would do – we kept our vows.’
            They kept them because they kept their faith in Jesus. Jesus was their Rabbuni. Is Jesus your Rabbuni?

Some centuries before Jesus Christ was walking the Promised Land the Prophet Isaiah was expressing his own hope, which was also that of his people, that the mysterious figure of the Lord’s servant would ‘offer his life in atonement,’ that ‘by his sufferings the Lord’s servant would justify many, taking their faults on himself.’ We believe that the hope of Isaiah and the hope of the People of God from the Old Testament came true when the Son of God became man for us and for our salvation.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The fulfilment of the Isaiah’s hope also gives us confidence to hope that we have someone to go to with the burden of our sin. Jesus Christ tells us right now: ‘The Son of Man himself did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ We are faced with his servant attitude every Holy Thursday when the Lord of heaven and earth kneels at the dirty feet of his followers to wash them. The duty which was reserved to the person whose status was the lowest. We can be scandalized at that, like Peter was. How can God take the lowest position among the humans? To our mind which often tells us that prestige, good reputation and significance in the community are things to be perused the image of God at the feet of people is beyond comprehension. Maybe we could cope with Jesus kneeling at the feet of his beloved Apostle, or even Peter, but that day when he had his Last Supper with his disciples Jesus knelt at the feet of Judas, the betrayer. He didn’t have to but still he did. Why did he do that?
Because he wanted to. Jesus was not put there by any one. He himself chose to take the lowest possible place. I would like to invite you my fellow believers to keep before your eyes that image of Jesus at the feet of Judas. Don’t dismiss it easily. Let it be firmly and deeply engraved in your heart and mind. And keep reminding yourself that no one dragged Jesus there. He got there out of his free will. He wanted to be there.
Why did he want to be there? Because in this way he could reach the person who had fallen the lowest. Judas who was loved and chosen by Jesus, like the other Eleven, Judas who was among the people who were blessed to live with God made man more than anyone else, Judas who was sent to preach the Good News chose thirty silver coins over his Lord and Master. How could you do that Judas? How could you betray Jesus? How could stain the good name of the community to which you were called? However these are our questions. These questions were not Jesus’. Jesus made himself lower than Judas so that Judas like the lost sheep could find himself on Jesus’ shoulders. Jesus ‘who came to seek and save what was lost’ went to the lost one, he went to Judas. Judas however was not moved. Judas despised his lowly Lord and Master even further. Despite that rejection Jesus hasn’t changed. He wants us to treasure the image of him kneeling and washing Judas’ feet so that we who fall low too can find ourselves on Jesus’ shoulders.
When you are going back home today ask yourself who among the people you know needs to hear this message. If there are people who you judge the worst sinners remember that Jesus is even lower than they are. Tell them that, that there is still hope for them to have their sins atoned for. Theirs and ours hope is JESUS.

            The Book of Genesis, particularly its beginning, has inspired many artists to convey the beauty of that mysterious garden of Paradise. Although those pieces of art capture something of that original beauty they usually overlook the essence of Paradise which is the profound communion of the first people with God and the subsequent communion with each other.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! These days ecology is a popular topic. It is also an urgent topic, as because of unteachable hearts of people they have failed seeing goodness and beauty of creation which, as the Book of Genesis tells us, God saw when he created it all. The failure to see goodness and beauty of creation led to exploitation of our common home instead of caring for the Earth as the inheritance we were entrusted by our Heavenly Father.
That one side of the coin called ecology and as with any coin there is another side. The Holy Father reminds us about it when in a prophetic way he speaks about human ecology. It includes the truth of being crated as man or woman, dignity of every person from the moment of conception until natural death, the complementarity of sexes based on their difference and uniqueness, the sacredness of marriage between man and woman, necessity of father and mother for the upbringing of children. Pope Francis said that we have failed to appreciate these fragile human and social conditions. His message is drawn from what our Blessed Lord said in the Gospel when he was questioned about divorce which was allowed by Moses. Jesus’ reply was: ‘It was because you were so unteachable that he wrote this commandment for you.’ Before ecology became a hot topic Jesus stood his ground as an ecologist defending human ecology. Before people began reacting to the pollution of the planet Jesus reacted to the pollution which occurred to human relationships and resulted in introducing divorce. Our Savior responding to the question on divorce brought up the image of Paradise. However Jesus didn’t focus on the untarnished flora and fauna. He focused on the untarnished relationship of the first people: ‘From the beginning of creation God made them male and female. This is why a man must leave father and mother and the two become one body. They are no longer two, therefore but one body.’ This is a great mystery of the power not only of human love but also human word. The words of the wedding vows exchanged by bride and groom transform two people into one. When the Bible speaks about becoming one body it uses the word which means joining so closely, profoundly and deeply that there is no way anyone could separate it without harming or even destroying the two who were joined together. That’s why to appreciate marriage mathematics will not help, as in the marriage situation one plus one doesn’t make two but one. In order to appreciate marriage one needs trusting faith of a little child. The Gospel message of the inseparability of wife and husband is followed by the situation describing Jesus’ interaction with children. It is not an episode softening the previous message but the continuation of it. Being a little child is embracing the childlike attitude of the first people towards God, the attitude which characterized them before the tragedy of the fall.
My Dear fellow believers! In a short while, when I speak the words of the consecration and bread and wine are transformed into Jesus’ Body and Blood I will also think of those of you who by the words of your wedding vows have transformed the two individuals into one. This is the mystery of faith like the Eucharist is. I thank you dear wives and husbands for living this mystery. By your commitment and perseverance you tell us more about the Paradise than the most impressive painting.