24 OCTOBER 2021 MARK 10:46-52
Sunday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time
RADIANCE OF CHRIST-MISSION
A missionary is the one who is sent on a mission. The readings of this year’s Mission Sunday presents the picture of the greatest missionary of the Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and how He fulfilled it on this earth during the three year mission by being the ‘Light of the World’.
To Jesus’ question “What do you want me to do for you”? The blind man Bartimaeus answers, “Master, I want to see”. If the same question is asked to us, we who are good in our eyesight, should answer “‘Lord, please spread your light into the areas and spheres of my spiritual blindness”!
His disciples and the sizable crowd had good eyes, but they were spiritually blind because they could not see Jesus as the Messiah of God; for them he was only Jesus of Nazareth (Mk. 10:47). Although Bartimaeus had bad eyes he is a person of spiritual insight and so he recognizes Jesus as the promised messiah with his spiritual sight (Mk. 10:47).
Blindness can be defined as the disability to have access to light. If so, spiritual blindness is the disability to have proper access to the source of light, God. ‘Spiritual blindness’ can be of two kinds. (1) Spiritual Blindness as the result of Sins: When a bulb’s connectivity to the power plug is cut off darkness spreads in our room. The same way through sin we cutoff our connectivity to the source of life, God. For example, a prodigal son cutoff his relationship with father and so he had to live in darkness. (2) Telescopic View of God: The more we distance ourselves from a source of light, the more darkness spreads in life. Circumstances that make me feel that God is far away from me. Moments of suffering, pain, trials, failures and tribulations. Judas is a character in the gospel who experienced it. After sinning instead of coming closer to the source of light (Jesus) for mercy he distanced himself.
Mission Sunday reminds us that just as Bartimaeus, it is the mission of every Christian to receive spiritual light from the ‘Light of the World’ – Jesus and illumine around. Amen.