The reward of Faith

Mark 10:46-52

This is one of my favorite Gospel passages because there is so much to unpack and understand. On the surface, it is a great story about the healing power of God, and of the mercy that Jesus Christ had for those who had faith in God. It is a sign for the people of the time that revealed the works of salvation.

Throughout all of Sacred Scripture we hear 63 stories of miracles where someone is healed; in 48 instances Jesus was the person God was using to perform the healing. There are two common themes that occur in every healing miracle that Jesus performed.

The common themes that resonate in every healing miracle performed by Jesus Christ are faith and the ask. Jesus did not just walk around healing everyone who had an ailment. Jesus would have spent all his time healing the sick, and doing nothing else if that were the case. Jesus was most compassionate on those that asked for him to change their lives.

The other aspect that is present in each of these stories is the presence of faith. Jesus does not say that he healed the people, but rather that their faith has healed them.

How do we let these stories of faith and healing speak to us today? While we may be physically fit, our soul may need healing, and Jesus is not going to do that until we ask him to. There are plenty of opportunities for us to seek Jesus and to ask him for forgiveness and healing. The first is in this setting, we are coming face to face with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. This gives us plenty of time to dwell on our faith is silence, and engage Christ in the conversation of prayer.

We can also approach Christ in the Sacrament of Confession. In his address to a general audience in 2014, Pope Francis said that we go to confession to be healed, to heal our soul, to heal our heart, and to heal our mind. I will ask you now, the same question that Pope Francis asked those in attendance in 2014. Don’t say your answer out loud, bur respond to your heart. Think, when was the last time you went to confession? Two days, two weeks, two years, twenty years? If too much time has passed, do not delay another day. Be courageous and go to Confession!

Sometimes it is hard to have faith. It seems it would be easier for people in biblical times, for they could see Jesus. But just like God rewarded those that Jesus healed because of their faith, God continues to reward the faithful. Take for example St. Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes. St. Bernadette was a sickly child, and by the time she had begun to see her marian visions her family had lost all of their wealth and status, living in a one room basement that once was a dungeon. Out gathering firewood with her sister near Massabielle; she had the first of many visions. She was ridiculed by many, thought to be simple minded, her family embarrassed by her actions, tried to forbid her to go to continue to go visit the grotto at the request of the apparition. Some thought her to have a mental illness and tried to have her committed to an asylum. During questioning about her visions, Bernadette remained steadfast in her story, with the intimate details consistent with each line of questioning.

The site of the apparition is now a place where many pilgrimage to, and the visions are approved by the church as Our Lady of Lourdes. As a result of her faith, Bernadette was declared a saint by the Catholic church, her body remains as though she was just asleep, incorrupt. Those that pilgrimage to the grotto now known as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, do so to pray and be healed by the waters at Lourdes.. Before her death St. Bernadette maintained that the power of the grotto was not the water, but that the people coming that were wishing to be healed and to be faithful and pray, that the water will have no virtue without faith.

St. Bernadette was a woman filled with virtue, especially that of humility. Later in her life when asked about the apparition, she replied, the Virgin used me as a broom to remove the dust, when the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again.

One final thought...

The gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels. But it is interesting in his brevity, Mark includes details that are not included in the other three Gospels. Mark is the only Gospel that speaks of Timaeus and his blind son, and is one of two miracles stories in Mark where he retains the name of the person being healed. Given the large number of people that Jesus interacted with when he travelled from synagogue to synagogue teaching, it was likely impossible for the disciples to keep track of every person that Jesus spoke with or even healed. So why do we get to know Bartimaeus? Probably the same reason that we learn of the name of the man pulled from the crowd to assist Christ in carrying his cross on the way to Calvary, Simon of Cyrene. Interestingly enough, the Gospel of Mark names Simon, but also his sons Alexander and Rufus. Why? We can only theorize that it was because these men, Bartimaeus, Simon, and his sons sought out Mark or a disciple of Mark to become Christian and learn more about Jesus Christ based on the impact he had in their lives. Allow Christ to have an impact on your life as you draw closer to him in Adoration. Amen. Thank you for praying with us.