“Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Today’s readings for can be summed up in three words: light, joy, and faith.
Where do we see these themes in the readings?
Activity – light, joy, and faith
This can be done in many different ways. Look at the first reading (Jer. 31:7-9), the Responsorial Psalm (Ps. 126:1-6), and the Gospel Reading (Mk. 10:46-52). Have the group count how many times the themes light, joy, and faith (and their counterparts, blindness/darkness, sorrow, salvation). Depending on the size of the group, you can break into three groups, with each group focused on finding the three themes in one of the readings. Another option is to have each group focus on one of the themes in all of the three readings.
“Shout with joy for Jacob” (Jer. 31:7) (joy)
“proclaim your praise and say:” (Jer. 31:7) (joy)
“The Lord has saved his people” (Jer. 31:7) (salvation)
“the blind and the lame in their midst” (Jer. 31:8) (blind/sorrow)
“With weeping they shall come” (Jer. 31:9) (sorrow)
“but with compassion I will guide them” (Jer. 31:9) (joy)
“our tongues sang for joy” (Psalm 126:2) (joy)
“Oh, how happy we were!” (Psalm 126:2) (joy)
“Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy” (Psalm 126:5) (joy/sorrow)
“Those who go forth weeping…Will return with cries of joy” (Psalm 126:6) (joy/sorrow)
“a blind man…sat by the roadside begging” (Mk. 10:46) (blind)
“Son of David, have pity on me” (Mk. 10:47,48) (faith)
“He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus” (Mk. 10:50) (joy)
“Master, I want to see.” (Mk. 10:51) (faith, light)
“your faith has saved you.” (Mk. 10:52) (faith)
“Immediately he received his sight” (Mk. 10:52) (light)
“followed him on the way” (Mk. 10:52) (faith)
How is light portrayed in the Gospel reading? The light is portrayed in two levels: First, to be able to see. He wanted to be set free from the darkness of being blind. The second level is the light of faith that has saved him. While the blind man cannot see it is his faith that lights up his soul to cry out to the Lord because “…even though physically blind, he is clearsighted in spirit, and recognizes in Jesus, the Messiah, the ‘Son of David’.” [1] Once he is able to see, the blind man begins to follow Christ in discipleship. “O God, you offer bodily light to the eyes of the body; can you not offer to the pure of heart the inextinguishable light that remains entire and never grows less?...With you is the fountain of life, and in your light we shall see light…O Word, you are the fountain and at the same time the light: you are the fountain for one athirst, and light for the blind. Open my eyes to see the light, and open wide my heart’s mouth that I may drink at the fountain; I drink what I see and hear. My God you are everything to me, you are everything I love…You are my all: if I am hungry, you are my Bread, if I am thirsty, you are my water, if I am in darkness, you are my light because you are ever unconsumed, if I am naked, you are for me the vesture of immortality, when the corruptible will be clothed in incorruptibility, and what is mortal will put on immortality.” [2] How many of us have been set free of our sins, have seen the error of our ways, but have failed to follow Jesus on the way?
What do we do if we are trying to find something? If we are seeking something, we usually do so in the light. We will search for what is lost in the daylight or turn on the lights. In the introit of today’s Liturgy taken from Psalm 105:3-4. In the introit we chant, “seek the Lord…seek the Lord…seek his face”. Not only is Jesus what we seek, but He is the very light which allows us to find what we seek. The human heart longs for God and thus seeks God. We believe that God can be found and that He gives us not only the desire to seek Him, but the grace necessary to find that whom we seek.
Can everyone find God? Yes. Saint Paul, in speaking to pagans at the Areopagus, said, “He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us for ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring’.” [3] Not only did God create us with a desire for Him, but it is actually the will of God that we find Him and know, love, and serve Him. Our prayers for light and truth are “good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.” [4] God has given us reason and so we should use this reason to come to know the truth. “The noblest power of man is reason. The highest goal of reason is the knowledge of God.” [5]
What happens when we find God? First, we are at peace, as Saint Paul says, we will “lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity”. Second we will rejoice, be strengthened, and have life eternal, seeing His face forevermore. This resulting peace, strength, and union with God is different from the consequence of those who seek false gods. “Worthless are all the false gods of the land. Accursed are all who delight in them. They multiply their sorrows who court other gods. Blood libations to them I will not pour out, nor will I take their names upon my lips. Lord, my allotted portion and my cup, you have made my destiny secure. Pleasant places were measured out for me, fair to me indeed is my inheritance.” [6]
If we are built to find God and God wants us to find Him, why are there so many who can’t find Him? Saint Albert the Great once said, “The highest goal of reason is the knowledge of God”, but unfortunately not all use their reason toward the highest goal. When we misuse something, including our reason, it is rendered useless. Saint Paul says, “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse; for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened.” [7] Saint Paul is speaking of people that “knew God” but yet they became vain in their reasoning and the minds were darkened. God desires us to know Him, and He gives us the ability and reason to know Him, but He also gives us free will. We must use our reason to freely choose Him whom has chosen us, but when or if we don’t “…see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite.” [8] There are many who can’t find God because they do not use their reason to choose God. With reason, comes faith, the two working together like two lungs or the two wings of a bird. Saint Thomas Aquinas sums up faith and reasoning by saying that there are “some points of intelligibility in God, accessible to human reason, and other points that altogether transcend the power of human reason.” [9] For the points that transcend the power of human reason, we are given the theological virtue of faith.
If we can know God through reason, why is faith necessary? We must remember that faith is from God alone. It is not something that was thought up by man. Faith is something that is given to us. It is something that once it is spoken to us strikes us right between the eyes and touches are soul. Once faith is received and we have an some understanding, the next step is to give adherence and assent to that which we understand. Adherence is our fidelity to what we understand and assent is our commitment to act upon or follow that which we understand. Faith is, “a gift of God and a human act by which the believer gives personal adherence to God who invites his response, and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed.” [10] “Faith seeks understanding.” [11]
MOVIE – Al Pacino - Scent of a Woman
Faith helps us to acknowledge, through our adherence and assent, that which we have heard and understood. What would hearing and understanding mean without action. There is a military slang word “HUA” or “Hooah” that is short for Heard, Understood, and Acknowledge. It is not enough to hear and understand we must acknowledge, through our adherence and assent. Al Pacino says in this movie that he clearly knew what was right in life, but did not choose what was right; he did not give adherence and assent because it was too hard. It is only through faith that we can stand firm. No one knew this better than Saint Peter, who wrote, “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith…” [12]
How is faith shown in today’s readings? In Jeremiah, the people of Israel had faith in God that they would return back to Israel, even if it were just a small remnant of people. In the Gospel, we see the blind man’s faith as he shouts out to get Jesus’ attention. “Faith prevents him from keeping quiet; he is certain that he will find salvation in Jesus.” [13] Look at the Gospel reading and think of one’s personal life. Are we living as the blind man, knowing that because of our sin, have a darken perception of the world, and therefore shout to the Lord for forgiveness and to bring us back into perfect union with Him? Or are we going to be like the crowd, mocking others who are seeking God or even worse, tell them to be quiet and sit back down?
How is joy shown in the readings? God gives all His people joy when he brings them back from exile. They shed tears of joy. In the Gospel, the man springs up and runs to Jesus in joy for he was heard, and in faith knows Jesus can do all things.
Why do some not jump up in joy to run to Christ when they hear him coming? “The darkened eyes of the blind man are illuminated and see Jesus: seeing him and following him are all one. The interior light corresponds to the exterior, and Bartimaeus sets out to follow the Lord. Like him, a Christian is one who has been ‘enlightened’ by Christ; faith has opened his eyes: it has made him know God and the Son of God made man.” [14]
[1] Fr. Gabriel, Divine Intimacy, Vol. IV, pg. 158
[2] St. Augustine, In Io 13:5
[3] Acts 17:26-28
[4] 1 Timothy 2:1-4
[5] Saint Albert the Great
[6] Psalm 16:3-6
[7] Romans 1:20-21
[8] Romans 1:28-29
[9] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
[10] Catechism of the Catholic Church; Glossary
[11] Catechism of the Catholic Church; 158
[12] 1 Peter 5:8-9
[13] Fr. Gabriel, Divine Intimacy, Vol. IV, pg. 158
[14] Fr. Gabriel, Divine Intimacy, Vol. IV, pg. 158