With the Blind and the Lame in Their Midst
Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north; 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; they shall return as an immense throng. They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble. For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born. Jeremiah 31:8-9
But he kept calling out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me." Jesus
stopped and said, "Call him." So, they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you." He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see." Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you." Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. Mark 10:48B-52
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| From BCM website |
Piety
For God is love
Amidst the doldrums of fear,
And God is a comfort
Drying the aching flow of tears,
And God is who I saw that night
Shining brightly in your eyes so clear.
Study
In the story of the poor man Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52), the gospel gives us an archetypal portrait of the healing journey from denial to discipleship.
According to the notes in the New American Bible (Revised Edition), “the cure of the blind men is probably symbolic of what will happen to the disciples, now blind to the meaning of Jesus’ passion and to the necessity of their sharing his suffering. As the men are given sight, so, after the resurrection, will the disciples come to see that to which they are now blind.”[i]
As promised by the prophet Jeremiah, God will gather us with the blind and the lame and bring us back just as He brought back Bartimaeus’ sight.
Action
Do you believe that followers of Jesus should stand for compassion and equity, and against all forms of oppression and violence?
To do this we must face our personal and political blindness to the realities of suffering, as well as to God’s horizons of justice. Jesus gives us eyes to see and courage to follow in the Way of faith, service, and solidarity.
That statement is from the mission of the Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries (BCM) as it looks at how the Word and the world intersect. BCM was founded in 1998 as an ecumenical experiment in capacity-building for communities of faith, incubating collaborative work around liberation, nonviolence, and mutual aid. The organization is a “circle where persons called to radical discipleship can find support and mentoring. We are a non-profit organizational vehicle for promoting practices of church renewal, Restorative Justice, Sabbath Economics, bioregional sustainability, and social transformation.”
Take a look at the website: https://www.bcm-net.org/home.
Where is the Lord guiding you today?
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