A new way of seeing...

I've been reflecting the whole day on the Gospel from today's liturgy...


Gospel
Mk 10:46-52

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
"Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
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.

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As with every Gospel passage, there are so many ways to interpret a given passage, and when we pray over a certain text, there is often a way that our current lived reality affects what we see and how we see it. This morning, I was meditating on the theme of sight... What is it that I need to see more clearly? Where are my blind-spots? Do I feel the same irrepressible desire to be healed and to follow Jesus? Do I have to faith that the blind man had?

In truth, my prayer foundered a bit in abstraction. Focused on myself, these questions didn't get much traction or yield much insight. But later in the day, I was driving back from an art exhibit downtown and saw a man by the side of the road, holding a sign saying that he was homeless and needed help. Hmmm... I could not help but make the association with Bartimaeus sitting on the curb calling for help.

Now, you might be thinking that because I made that connection, or simply because I have an empathetic concern as a Christian, or as a fellow human being, that I pulled over and went to this man's aid. But instead, I passed him, rationalizing that if I did stop to give the man money, that he would use it for drugs or alcohol. And indeed, for all the years I lived in New York City, I always made a point to offer people food, not cash, even if it meant that I spent much more than I would have if I had given a handout. It was a sort of principle I held on to, and as a result, many people declined the offer because they seemed uninterested in food. Others took me up on it and at times, this led to ongoing relationship with homeless men and women, such that we knew each others' names and basic story lines, and occasionally we shared a meal together.

But today, I realized that principle was based on an assumption about people and their motivations. It was based on a sort of cynical blanket judgment, that while it might have applied in certain situations, was by no means universally accurate. Assumptions have a way of affecting what and how we see... and today, I had my blinders taken off (at least that particular set!). Maybe principles work in a general way by definition, but if I am not mistaken, Jesus decided on a case by case basis how he would respond to each person... because he truly saw each person. I hope I might do the same.