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Rev. Ferdinand Okorie, CMF Vice
President and Academic Dean
Readings:
Jer 31:7-9
Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
Heb 5:1-6
Mk 10:46-52
In the First Reading, an entire nation is crushed by
displacement from their homeland and carried into captivity. The
indifference and inhumanity of the perpetrator of their suffering left
them feeling less human, insecure and hopeless. This experience of life
of the remnant of Israel under the weight of the power of Babylon is
not particularly different from that of Bartimaeus in the Gospel
Reading who is confined on a street corner, begging for survival
because of his physical condition.
Both the remnant of Israel and Bartimaeus have lost
agency and any kind of freedom to self-determination. Their experiences
remind me of the important place a decent and stable
habitation has in the wellbeing of every human person. Recently, we
have seen the devastation of a whole community by war and internal
strife, and the displacement of peoples from their homes by natural
disasters. The story of a couple who recently bought a retirement home
in western North Carolina and filled with a sense of fulfillment
together with the prospect of a happy life in retirement have been
wiped away by Helene. They lost everything to hurricane Helene, and
they are hanging onto a slender hope of ever rebuilding again all that
they have worked for all their lives. Similarly, the growing population
of men, women and children living on our streets and at shelters across
major cities around the world challenges our sense of human dignity.
Just like the remnant of Israel in the First Reading, and Bartimaeus in
the Gospel, there are people today around the world who are
experiencing displacement and living in subhuman conditions. In Laudato
Si’, Pope Francis linked human dignity and nobility with proper and
decent shelter.
Both the First Reading and the Gospel reveal that there
are some human conditions that need God’s intervention to overcome. God
will supply whatever is lacking in our efforts to make us whole again
in nobility and dignity that we share with God. This is the experience
of the remnant of Israel whom God delivered from oppression and
inhumanity (Jer 31:7). God gathered them from displacement and brought
them back to their homeland (v. 8). The divine message of restoration
and consolation specifically named the group that experienced severe
and the hasher realties of human suffering, oppression and
displacement. The blind and the lame could be carrying the scars of
forced and violent displacement (v. 8). Women and children bear the
painful scars of social disorder and violence (v. 8). More women and
children crossing the southern border of the US are the population
easily displaced by war and civil unrest. To the remnant of Israel, God
speaks words of consolation and pledged to be their leader. In the
Responsorial Psalm they testified about God’s leadership in their lives
as they vociferously sang in cultic praise: “the Lord has done great
things for us” (Pss 126:3).
In the Gospel, after receiving his cure Jesus ordered
Bartimaeus to go on his way (Mark 10:52). Literarily, Jesus asked him
to go home, no more life on the streets. Jesus sent him home, to a
place of belongness, nobility and flourishing. For someone who sits
daily by the roadside begging for survival because of his physical
condition, the restoration of his sight has brought about the feeling
of freedom and personal agency together with the prospect of
self-actualization.
The behavior of the crowd reveals the extent that
microaggression dehumanizes each of us. The crowd rebuked and shouted
down at Bartimaeus to be silent on account of their perceived bias that
he is undeserving of Jesus’ attention because his social status places
him outside the group alongside Jesus on their way from Jericho (v.
48).
Just like in the First Reading God consoled the remnant
of Israel and acted to end their experience of inhumanity in the hands
of the Babylonians (v. 9), likewise Jesus showed compassion toward
Bartimaeus, and brought to an end his outcast status as a blind beggar
(v. 49).
The same crowd who seemingly wanted Bartimaeus to remain
in the fringes of society when they tried to denied him access to Jesus
became messengers of consolation. They said to Bartimaeus “take
courage; get up, Jesus is calling you” (v. 49). Their initial hostility
towards him changed to solidarity. The crowd was transformed from their
understanding of social class system, and they embraced the value that
no one should be displaced, isolated and excluded in any dehumanizing
manner. Bartimaeus experienced a change of status, and he followed
Jesus on the way, joining in the company of the crowd and Jesus’
disciples leaving Jericho thereby taking his place among the people of
God in shared humanity, equality and communion (v. 52).
The readings for this Sunday invite us to show
compassion towards anyone today displaced and living in a less noble
conditions either because of war or natural disaster or as a result of
social system of infrastructural neglect just as God and Jesus Christ
did for the remnant of Israel and Bartimaeus, respectively. Ultimately,
we are invited to lead today in any way possible to bring about
nobility and dignified life for everyone and work towards ending the
cycle of dehumanizing conditions in our society.
Rev. Ferdinand Okorie, CMF
Vice President and Academic Dean CTU - Chicago, IL https://learn.ctu.edu/
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