Readings:
Jer 31:7-9
Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
Heb 5:1-6
Mk 10:46-52
In the First Reading, an entire nation is crushed by displacement from their homeland and carried into captivity. The indifference and inhumanity of the perpetrator of their suffering left them feeling less human, insecure and hopeless. This experience of life of the remnant of Israel under the weight of the power of Babylon is not particularly different from that of Bartimaeus in the Gospel Reading who is confined on a street corner, begging for survival because of his physical condition.
Both the remnant of Israel and Bartimaeus have lost agency and any kind of freedom to self-determination. Their experiences remind me of the important place a decent and stable
habitation has in the wellbeing of every human person. Recently, we have seen the devastation of a whole community by war and internal strife, and the displacement of peoples from their homes by natural disasters. The story of a couple who recently bought a retirement home in western North Carolina and filled with a sense of fulfillment together with the prospect of a happy life in retirement have been wiped away by Helene. They lost everything to hurricane Helene, and they are hanging onto a slender hope of ever rebuilding again all that they have worked for all their lives. Similarly, the growing population of men, women and children living on our streets and at shelters across major cities around the world challenges our sense of human dignity. Just like the remnant of Israel in the First Reading, and Bartimaeus in the Gospel, there are people today around the world who are experiencing displacement and living in subhuman conditions. In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis linked human dignity and nobility with proper and decent shelter.
Both the First Reading and the Gospel reveal that there are some human conditions that need God’s intervention to overcome. God will supply whatever is lacking in our efforts to make us whole again in nobility and dignity that we share with God. This is the experience of the remnant of Israel whom God delivered from oppression and inhumanity (Jer 31:7). God gathered them from displacement and brought them back to their homeland (v. 8). The divine message of restoration and consolation specifically named the group that experienced severe and the hasher realties of human suffering, oppression and displacement. The blind and the lame could be carrying the scars of forced and violent displacement (v. 8). Women and children bear the painful scars of social disorder and violence (v. 8). More women and children crossing the southern border of the US are the population easily displaced by war and civil unrest. To the remnant of Israel, God speaks words of consolation and pledged to be their leader. In the Responsorial Psalm they testified about God’s leadership in their lives as they vociferously sang in cultic praise: “the Lord has done great things for us” (Pss 126:3).
In the Gospel, after receiving his cure Jesus ordered Bartimaeus to go on his way (Mark 10:52). Literarily, Jesus asked him to go home, no more life on the streets. Jesus sent him home, to a place of belongness, nobility and flourishing. For someone who sits daily by the roadside begging for survival because of his physical condition, the restoration of his sight has brought about the feeling of freedom and personal agency together with the prospect of self-actualization.
The behavior of the crowd reveals the extent that microaggression dehumanizes each of us. The crowd rebuked and shouted down at Bartimaeus to be silent on account of their perceived bias that he is undeserving of Jesus’ attention because his social status places him outside the group alongside Jesus on their way from Jericho (v. 48).
Just like in the First Reading God consoled the remnant of Israel and acted to end their experience of inhumanity in the hands of the Babylonians (v. 9), likewise Jesus showed compassion toward Bartimaeus, and brought to an end his outcast status as a blind beggar (v. 49).
The same crowd who seemingly wanted Bartimaeus to remain in the fringes of society when they tried to denied him access to Jesus became messengers of consolation. They said to Bartimaeus “take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you” (v. 49). Their initial hostility towards him changed to solidarity. The crowd was transformed from their understanding of social class system, and they embraced the value that no one should be displaced, isolated and excluded in any dehumanizing manner. Bartimaeus experienced a change of status, and he followed Jesus on the way, joining in the company of the crowd and Jesus’ disciples leaving Jericho thereby taking his place among the people of God in shared humanity, equality and communion (v. 52).
The readings for this Sunday invite us to show compassion towards anyone today displaced and living in a less noble conditions either because of war or natural disaster or as a result of social system of infrastructural neglect just as God and Jesus Christ did for the remnant of Israel and Bartimaeus, respectively. Ultimately, we are invited to lead today in any way possible to bring about nobility and dignified life for everyone and work towards ending the cycle of dehumanizing conditions in our society.
Rev. Ferdinand Okorie, CMF
Vice President and Academic Dean