The Blind Man Who Sees

The Catholic Thing

By Fr. Paul D. Scalia
We hear very little about the people our Lord heals. That's not surprising. The miracles are to reveal and teach us about the Lord, not those He healed. So, when we hear about blind Bartimaeus in today's Gospel (Mark 10:46-52), we could easily pass over him as just another blessed recipient of Jesus' mercy. But he plays a bigger role in this scene than most recipients of Jesus' healing. In fact, in this little scene Bartimaeus teaches us, in a way, more than Jesus does.
He teaches us, first, about faith. Now, the blind constantly live by faith. They trust that what they cannot see and verify with their own eyes is real, true, and present. Blind Bartimaeus goes even further. By faith he saw more clearly than the people with sight around him. He cries out, Jesus, son of David, have pity on me. Many if not most in the crowd looked upon Jesus with their eyes and saw only a man, a celebrity, or a miracle worker.
Bartimaeus, without seeing, saw the Son of David - that is, the Messiah.
To see without seeing is precisely what we do when we believe. By faith we "see" what we cannot perceive with our eyes. We see the truth about God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We see our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We see His providential guidance of our lives. Without faith, we are blind to these blessings. Many who see physically are actually blind because they lack faith. Bartimaeus was the physically blind man who saw because of faith.
To believe - to see without seeing - is the first thing Bartimaeus teaches.
At the same time, Bartimaeus teaches us about prayer, which is the fruit of faith. His cry is a basic prayer: Jesus, son of David, have pity on me. This aspiration contains the essentials. First, the personal appeal: Jesus. Then a confession of faith: Son of David - the Messiah. And finally, a petition: have pity on me. Prayer can and should be as basic as that.
Bartimaeus also shows the perseverance necessary for prayer. [M]any rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more. The greatest obstacle in prayer is our own failure to persevere. The distractions of the world act like the crowd surrounding Bartimaeus. They in effect rebuke us, tell us to be silent, to get on with more practical things, more important things. They tempt us to turn aside and give up our efforts.
Bartimaeus shrugged these off and persevered in his appeal to our Lord. So should we.
Interestingly, his perseverance is not immediately rewarded. The Lord draws him out further in this exercise of faith and makes him persevere more. What do you want me to do for you? Now this is a strange question. Bartimaeus is a beggar; he probably wants money. Bartimaeus is blind; he probably wants to see. Most importantly, Jesus is divine; He already knows what Bartimaeus wants.
So, why does He ask? To provoke deeper prayer. St. Bede says, "He puts the question, to stir up the blind man's heart to pray." Jesus knows what Bartimaeus needs. He asks the question not to gain new information but to open Bartimaeus' heart to receive what He desires to give. Jesus doesn't need to know, but Bartimaeus needs to think about it, about what he really desires.
What do you want me to do for you? Our prayer of faith is deepened when we consider that question, when we imagine our Lord asking us that bluntly. We want some superficial things that benefit us for this world. There are higher, nobler things that we want…but still for this world. Jesus' question directs us to what we most profoundly desire but don't yet realize that we do.
Which brings us to a final teaching from Bartimaeus: Heaven. Bartimaeus's answer summarizes the longing of the human heart: Master, I want to see. God created us to see. And not just to see the things of this world with our bodily eyes but to see Him face to face. He wants us to use our sight for and in eternity.
Sure, Bartimaeus desired to see so that he could have a regular life. But there's a hint that i...