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Master, I want to see

Master, I want to see

Last updated on: March 25, 2016 at 5:18 pm by Father Pablo Migone

Master, I want to see 2016-03-25T17:18:42-05:00 Father Pablo Migone

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I have never had to beg for food. Life has never placed me in the shoes of Bartimaeus, having to beg for my livelihood.

Some here today at this Mass perhaps have had to beg for food or drink, I do not know. Maybe some of you have experienced first-hand the plight of Bartimaeus.

In my home country of Peru there are beggars everywhere: at church doors, at red lights, at markets, and parking lots. The beggars are old men who can hardly walk, young children forced by beg out of hunger, the maimed, the mentally ill, mothers, fathers, and yes, sometimes they are thieves and drug addicts.

I have never seen a child’s face light up so intensely as when I gave the sandwich I did not eat on my flight from Lima to Cuzco to a begging child outside the airport. I had kept it for later, but decided to pass it on. Without even looking up at me or thanking me, the child grabbed that sandwich and ran a bit farther away to devour it.

All beggars, Bartimaeus included, grow used to one thing: rejection.

It is the experience of constantly being told “no.” Easily ninety-nine out of one hundred times a beggar asks for something, he or she is either ignored or told “no.” No, no, no. Their begging seems to be in vain.

Consider Bartimaeus. He calls out to Jesus and is rejected: he was told to be silent. You can almost hear those around him: “Hush him up, ignore him, it’s him again, don’t let him disturb us, he should be working to make a living, don’t give him anything, get him away.”

Those around Bartimaeus pretend he does not exist, yet his need is great and he continues to beg. He continues to beg despite of what society thinks of him, despite the fear of rejection, despite his feelings of inadequacy and inferiority gained after years of being ignored and cast aside.

Imagine how discouraged Bartimaeus must have been, blind and poor. When he heard Jesus was near, he was not going to let the opportunity pass.

Finally Jesus calls out to him. Bartimaeus is told: “Take courage.” He is immediately encouraged by the mere fact someone paid attention to him. Someone has recognized his existence. Someone has taken the time to speak to him. Jesus has not rejected him, but rather, in his poverty, Christ now calls to him.

Bartimaeus stands up. He takes off his cloak. He gains confidence by rising; he drops his cloak which was probably filthy and full of crawling bugs.

Imagine what he experienced after so much rejection when now Jesus asks him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

“Master, I want to see.”

Bartimaeus is wise to ask for the impossible. He could have asked for money as he had so many other times, but he knows he can ask the impossible from Jesus. In his poverty, in his misery that allows him to place his faith entirely in Jesus, Bartimaeus he is healed.

We may not be beggars like Bartimaeus, dirty and poor, at the mercy of others for a plate of food, yet the truth is, that we are all beggars in the presence of God.

We are beggars at the feet of the throne of grace. When we go to confession, we become like Bartimaeus, a person who has felt the rejection and discouragement that comes from sin and we also ask for the impossible: the forgiveness of our sins. We cannot achieve this on our own, we must beg, and God graciously grants it to us in the same way Jesus grants Bartimaeus sight.

When we trust in our own abilities, we are like a beggar trying to get food from another beggar. When we turn to the Lord in our need and ask for the impossible: for divine wisdom and assistance, God graciously grants it to us.

Bartimaeus lacked sight, so he asked for the impossible, he asked for sight.

What is it that you lack in your life that you have not asked the Lord to give to you? Perhaps all you need to do is ask so the Lord can then say: “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”

In our poverty of grace, Christ pays attention to us and calls us to encourage us, forgive us and heal us.

In our poverty of love, Christ surrenders himself entirely out of love for us and calls us to love selflessly and without measure.

In our poverty of material things, Christ calls us to trust in Him for our every need, material and spiritual.

We approach the altar as beggars who receive something unimaginable and unattainable on our own: the body and blood of Christ. May the Lord open up our hearts to help us recognize our poverty, and so trust Jesus as Bartimaeus did, and receive the healing we need.

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