What keeps you from leaving the Cloak behind?

As we move closer to the end of this liturgical year, our journey intensifies. This means that the Word of God makes us face part of our lives that we tend to keep it hidden in the closet. But in every challenge, the Word reminds us that there is always Good News. We have proclaimed it as a reponsorial-ly as the Psalm was proclaimed to us: “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.” When we meditate on these great things, we rejoice because we know that while they happened in the past for other people, they are sacramentally made it available for us and to us today. The Collect also helps us this week; we want to merit, we said to the Lord, what He has promised. It means that these great things are available to us, but we must respond. We must say “yes” to what God wants to accomplish in us through the Holy Spirit. The prayer helps us by “praying for us” the way to make this happen: we want to love what God commands us, so that our Faith, Hope, and Love may increase in us.” And the more they increase in us, the more we love what God commands; and the more we love what God commands – and do it, the more these Great Things become a Reality in us. The Liturgy of the Word breaks down this Good News for us, today; the first reading, from Jeremiah, tells us clearly that “the Lord has delivered His people.” We can hear happiness in Jeremiah’s voice: he can now proclaim the joy that comes from the Good News: a remnant, thought small, is returning to the homeland, the Land that belongs to God. They had been taken away from it by invaders who, taking advantage of Israel’s infidelity towards God – which always creates weakness in us, both individually and as His people, brought them all away, to the North. Now, they are able to return so that Salvation History may continue, and God’s salvific actions become available to all the peoples of the earth. Jeremiah’s words should fill our hearts: “I, - it is God who is speaking through the prophet – will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on level road, so that none shall stumble.” God appears as a loving Father who is willing to do whatever it takes to make our journey home to Him easier. And then we hear the explosive News: “For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.” Yes, we too today hear these words being spoken to us; God wants to return to Him. Our way back must be shaped by this reality: God wants to be our father, and He wants us to consider ourselves as His first-born, who had a very special place in the father’s heart and household. We have become His first-born because of the actions of Jesus Christ, our High-Priest. Because Jesus was fully human and divine, He was the only one able and capable of achieving this “plan” that God wanted to realize for us since the days of Creation. Because of the Cross, the gap that separated us from God has been filled; thanks to the Resurrection, now Jesus lives in us, transforming us, and, allowing us to be united with Him, shares His nature with us, making us all sons and daughters in Him. This is the “GREATEST” thing that God our Father has done for us: adopting us as His children, making us members of His household. Now, when the Father sees us, He sees Christ. But our journey towards God, although made possible, requires always a “yes.” That’s why we speak of Discipleship, of conversion. That’s why the Word must always be part of our life. Only when we live the Gospel we can let Jesus-the-eternal-Word-of-God live His life in us and through us. Our Yes allows us to get up, or better, echoing the Gospel, spring up in order to follow Jesus. Our Christian life must be dynamic, must allow us to move constantly from one place to another. The Gospel says that we go from “glory to glory.” Let’s keep in mind one thing, that I, for many years, did not take into consideration. The laws of physics about bodies in motion are to be applied to our spiritual lives as well. Bodies at rest, remain at rest unless a force is applied to them. But, bodies in motion tend to stop because external forces that go against it. What does it mean? It means that unless we fuel our spiritual life, forces against us will push us back. Now, in order to counteract the negative force, you have to apply a force against it that is either equal to the negative one, or even stronger. If this does not happen, the body will not move. Let’s look at the Gospel. We have Jesus and His disciples moving, a sizable crowd also moving, and a blind man seated (at rest). The blind man is a beggar: it means that he is a mendicant, and it is “stuck” at his place in order to survive. There is something in him that is “at rest,” something that doesn’t let him move on in life. We, too, may experience this. Unfortunately, many remain in this situation – “stuck” – for decades. It’s easy to get used to this, and sometimes we think that being stuck is part of life. For this reason, we, like Bartimaeus, become mendicants, beggars. We expect others to change, to make it possible for us to survive. It’s an attitude that is nowadays everywhere; it makes us believe that others must change, others must convert; there is nothing wrong with us, “I am on the right side: ‘oh, if only those people will become more like me, like my group.’ I don’t need to hear the Gospel, I don’t need to take it seriously. God owes me for all the prayers I have offered, for all the novenas. I am a good person. The pope has to change, those bishops. And don’t even let me start telling you about those priests.” Let’s be clear: whenever you think only others have to change, we are going in the wrong direction; it’s an attitude that does NOT come from God. We all must change. We all must live the Gospel. Now, something happens. He hears that Jesus is passing by. He must have heard about Him already, others must have told him about Jesus and about the great things He was doing for the people of God. But he had a “second hand” type of formation: he learned from other people things about Jesus. Now, he has the chance to move from “second hand” to “first hand” information. “He heard that it was Jesus” – It’s plenty for him to make the decision. And look at his reaction: he cries out. It’s the beginning of a real relationship with Jesus: lifting us our voices to Him, acknowledging that we need His mercy. These words, actually, should become our prayers. As matter of fact, these words are a prayer that many Christians of the Eastern Churches use regularly. It’s called, among many names, “the prayer of the heart: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.” But his desire of moving towards Jesus is challenged by the negative force of the crowd: “Many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.” How awful! But how true! Between us and Jesus there are obstacles. The Crowd is made of different people; the forces that wants us to keep us “stuck” have many voices, too. Who rebukes us? Who is telling us to keep our desire to move closer to God silent? We know there are at the least three sources that act constantly against this desire: 1. The devil, 2. The world, 3. Our self. The devil tells us: why do you want to get closer to God? God doesn’t exist, God doesn’t listen to you. It’s of no use: you can do it on your own. Forget about God and what He says. The world tells us: why do you want to get closer to God? Why are you wasting your time? God doesn’t exist. Science has the answers. And then, all the priests are awful; the Church is full of hypocrites; you’re better than they. You are a good person, you don’t need God and them. The Self tells us: Why do you want to get closer to God? I am fine; I don’t need them, except for when I want something: but the Church today has to change: I know what will make people go back to Church – do what they want, preach what makes us feel good. Do what we want you to do, in the way we want you to do it. If the Church will be more like me, doing what I like, we will be in better shape. But Bartimaeus didn’t fall into that trap. He knew there is a difference between the crowd and Jesus: we may hate bishops and priests all we want, we may think this Pope is ruining the Church. We may think that only what people want should be central to the mission of the Church. But, in reality, Bartimaeus knew that what matters is to get closer and closer to Jesus. And the more he was opposed to this, the more he cried out. He applied greater force to the greater opposition he received. But Jesus hears us, He knows that we are made to be in communion with Him. He knows the desire of our heart, which matches the desire of His heart. Now, Jesus stops His journey! Jesus encounters him, as He always encounter us, right where we are, in our situations. “Call Him! So they called the blind man, saying to him, “take courage; get up, Jesus is calling.” Jesus sends a word. Sometimes that’s how He reaches us: through a word spoken by someone, a gesture of love and grace that someone imparts on us. It’s enough to make that man react. How important are the words we speak to each other, how powerful they can me: they can let someone choose God. It’s ironic that these people are the crowd that first got in the way. We can see the role we play in each other’s life: we can keep people away from God, or we can invite them to move closer to Him. Let’s become aware of this power we have. And let’s use it properly. We will be accountable for what, and especially how we say to each other! The Gospel gives us some important details: the man “threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.” Details are important! The cloak was a man’s inalienable right: nobody could take away the cloak from him. He was a beggar: the cloak was his blanket, his shield. But the cloak also gave his identity as beggar. He does something amazing: he leaves behind the role he had, he leaves behind his identity. He no longer wants to be stuck to that role. He knows that in order to enjoy the new life that Jesus offers we must be willing to let go of the image that we have of ourselves. We, too, have a cloak to leave behind. Too often we identify ourselves with the role we play, with the job we have, with the ideas we hold. We wonder: if I really follow Jesus, then what will happen to my image? To the sense of self that I have for so long? Will my family and friends still be able to recognize me, respect me, treat me according to that identity. We identify too much with being a democrat or a republican, conservative or liberal, this or that. What happens if we follow Jesus? Will I still be able to maintain that identity? These are real questions, and the Gospel give us real answer. But we cannot encounter Jesus with the old cloak on, that’s for sure. We must be ready to acknowledge what “cloaks” us, what we use to hide behind so that we may appear stronger, more independent, or.. whatever it is we created in our mind. The cloak we wear is very difficult to recognize because we don’t realize we have it: self-deception is one of our greatest enemies, and yet, very difficult to fight. But we pray, we become aware of this possibility. “What do you want me to do for you?” What a surprise! I bet Bartimaeus didn’t expect that! And yet is true: our prayers, our desire must always be concrete. We must always make sure we express our desire to God concretely. It does not really help God because He already knows, but it helps us to utter the right words, so that we can bring to Him the right situation. Only in the truth we can move from being “stuck” into the light. And it is the light that he desires. He desires to be able to see. He, like all of us, wants to be able to see God doing those great things, He wants to be able to see that God is still working in this world, that Good is still stronger than Evil. That Love is stronger than Death. He desires to see where to go in order to live his life fully. He wants to be himself. This man’s determination and perseverance allowed him to get closer to Jesus by recognizing that the voices of the crowd were laying, only wanted to him there, stuck in his condition. The crowd’s voice was telling him, we want to control you, we want to give you what you need so that you can continue to find your identity in what we tell you. But he knew things have to change; he knew that only Jesus can give us our true self. And, courageously and stubbornly, he got it: leaving behind his old identity, counting not the loss but the gain he would win by crying out to Jesus, Bartimaeus moved from darkness into the light. He gain “first knowledge” of God’s salvific actions. By regaining the true site, he is able now to see where Jesus is doing and he is able to follow Him. We too are invited to make a similar journey, a movement that is truly “mystagogical,” that allows us to go from darkness into light. A journey that Baptism started, that the Eucharist nurtured, that Reconciliation healed. A journey that still wants to become a reality in us and for us. A journey that invites us to offer an answer and a prayer: “Yes, Lord. Make me love what you command, so that by saying Yes to the life you offer me, your life will increase in me.” This week, we are challenged to focus on “loving doing what God commends us.” When we are asked to leave behind our cloak, our self-image, our righteousness, in order to speak to another in a godly way, we can say “Lord, I love doing this.” When we are asked to keep quiet rather than pushing someone away from God, we can say: “Lord, I Love being quiet so that you may speak through my loving this person.” Our Faith, hope and love will increase in us as we grow in our love for what God commands. The great things He has done, He wants to continue to do, and He wants to generate in us the life of His Son, so that in Christ, we will all be filled with the joy that comes from knowing : we are God’s children now. Let’s make this reality true for us, too.