DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SEE?
He shouted even louder, “I want to
see!”
Mark 10:51
I love this man named
Bartimeus! He is a man who knows what he wants and is willing to jump any
hurdles in his way to get at it! No wimpishly sitting back and wishing and
waiting and whining for what he needs, he is willing to do whatever it takes to
get what he needs! No hoping to be noticed! He makes sure he is noticed!
Nobody’s “sit down and shut up” is going to stop him! For him it’s “jump up,
shout and be sure you’re heard.” His motto might just be Carpe Diem! Seize the day! Grab the moment! He is tired of being blind. He desperately
wants to see! He has a burning faith in Jesus and he will not be held back
either by his own reluctance or the obstacles others throw in front of him!
It is important to
notice the words of Jesus here! These same words are often used in the miracle
stories of the gospels. Jesus does not say, “Go, I have healed you!” Rather he
says to Bartimeus, “Go, your faith has
healed you!” In fact, there are failed healing stories in the gospel where
Jesus could not work any miracles because of a person’s lack of faith. It takes two for a miracle healing to take place – the
power of God and the faith of the one who asks for it.
One of the important ingredients, then, in all healing miracles is the strong belief that healing is
possible. This strong faith triggers an abnormal acceleration of natural
healing processes. This is true of all the healing shrines in all religions –
it is the firm faith of the believer that unleashes God’s healing power.
Bartimeus can teach us
something. Psalm 119 says, “God hates half-heartedness!” Very often we are
ambivalent about what we say we want. Often we hang onto our infirmities, losses and blind spots because they give us convenient excuses for not getting on with life and
doing hard the things that are involved. We say we want things to be different, but in
reality, we are not so sure! We actually do not want things to change all that
much.
I am sure Bartimeus
thought twice about whether he really wanted to see because he knew that when
he was able to see he had to quit feeling sorry for himself, give up depending
on alms as a beggar and get a job for the first time in his life!
Some people wallow in
grief for years over the loss of a loved one and find that they cannot go on. They
say they would like to get over it, but in reality, they are scared of having
to do the changing they would have to do to build a new life, another life, a
scary new life of their own! It’s often safer to stay stuck than to change! Many
people I run into as a priest will say they want their lives to be different,
but in reality they don’t want it all that much, really! It’s easier to stay
stuck! Bartimeus could teach them a lot today about getting up from their
self-pity and get on with living! Yes, it is damned hard to move past grief,
but the alternatives to not moving on are even harder!
Miracles are possible
in our lives, but miracles are different from magic! Magic is about sitting
around wishing somebody else would make things happen to make us all better.
Magic is waiting for a fairy godmother to come and wave her magic wand over us
and then we don’t have to do anything. For a miracle to happen, like Bartimeus we
have to get up, throw away the security blankets that we have wrapped ourselves
in and be clear about what we want and be willing to go get it! We have to
override the naysayer in our own heads and the naysayers who line the roads of our
life tell us we can't! Wishing and magic wait for others to fix us. Really wanting something
makes us take action. God is willing to help those who are willing to help
themselves. Yes, we must help the
helpless, but we also need to encourage those who can help themselves to believe in their own power to help
themselves!
Students! We can begin
to work miracles in own lives by really wanting what we want and really believing that what
we want is possible - like Bartimeus. As Dale Carnegie once wrote, “Believe that
you will succeed…believe it firmly and you will do what is necessary to bring
it to success.” Jesus it put it this way
to Bartimeus, “Your faith has healed you!”
