Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Homily)

October 25, 2015 9:00 am · Deacon Keith Boswell

If right now, this very instant you could have anything you wished for what would it be? For most of you something popped into your head. For many of us it had something to do with what we were thinking about anyway. Some of you changed your wish almost immediately since we are in Church and you thought it had to be something "churchy". In today's Gospel, Bartimaeus was given the same dilemma. Bartimaeus was a blind street side beggar. He was an outcast. Everyday he would sit there in the dust hoping that someone would give him a few cents to help him live another day. There was no music or activity to entertain him. He just sat and waited day after day after day. He had a lot of time to think and listen.

All of the sudden, one day it was different. He had heard about Jesus. Jesus was a celebrity doing incredible things. And now Jesus was coming down the road with his whole entourage. This was the biggest thing he could ever remember happening. So he cried out to be noticed. He couldn't see Jesus, but he knew He was there because of all of the excitement. Everyone was excited. What did they tell Bartimaeus to do? Be quite, you're nobody. Jesus is too important for you to bother. It didn't matter, he was going to get Jesus' attention. This was his one big chance. this was Jesus. What did we hear in the Gospel that Bartimaeus asked for?