“FIRST IMPRESSIONS”

30TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B)

OCTOBER 27, 2024

Jeremiah 31: 7-9; Hebrews 5: 1-6; Mark 10: 46-52

by Jude Siciliano, OP

Dear Preachers:

Jeremiah has a reputation for strong preaching and outlandish prophetic actions. Well, at least the early part of Jeremiah is like that. When the people of Judah were unfaithful, he lashed out at them. Since they were impenitent, he promised that the Babylonians would humble them. King Zedekiah, contrary to Jeremiah’s counsel, conspired with the pro-Egyptian party in Jerusalem against the Babylonians. The Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar took punishing action by destroying Jerusalem, taking the leaders of the people into Exile. (“But this people’s heart is stubborn and rebellious, and they turn and go away. And say not in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the Lord, our God....’” Jer. 5: 23-24)

Today’s section from Jeremiah comes at a time when the people are in exile. This section is meant to be consoling to those who can not help themselves. God is promising to bring those who are faithful back from exile. PEOPLE magazine recently had an edition dedicated to “the world’s 50 most beautiful people”. Of course, the “most beautiful” were movie stars, political leaders and young successful business people. (The ones who weren’t young were certainly well preserved.) What is striking in this Jeremiah passage is that the community returning from exile consists, not just the able bodied and “stars” of the community. Rather, the prophet says, “in their midst” are “the blind and the lame..., the mothers and those with child.” This is already a different kind of community that embraces all its members and does not cast out to its fringes those with needs, those whom other societies might consider a burden or less than full citizens. The ones who return are those who had no one but God to hear them in their exile. They could not get themselves free; they recognized their need for God. The “beautiful people” in this society, are those who are faithful to God. No one will publish a magazine featuring these people; but they are featured in the bible, where they are called, “the remnant” of Israel.

The notion of “the remnant” has survived right up to the present. These are the faithful people, of no account in the eyes of the world, who have placed their trust in God. They are the ones who are assured of a final victory when they will be gathered in the presence of God, their Savior. What they cannot see with their eyes now, they see with the eyes of faith. All who continue to trust in God, despite dire circumstances, are numbered among this remnant. Those in hospitable beds dying of wasting cancer, but who continue to finger their beads in prayer; those whose children are in prison, but who continue to pray for them and give them hope by their constant visits; those who, at risk to their own lives, struggle to bring justice and peace to the world (cf. the quote by Cesar Chavez below); those who struggle to raise children to be honest and God-fearing in the most dire poverty or violent surroundings----these and so many like them, are the faithful remnant in our midst today.

I used to live in West Virginia. The state is rugged and beautiful; there is also desperate poverty among the people who live in the hills. Often the only jobs to be found are in the coal mines, dangerous work that provides income as long as the coal lasts. Or, as long as one can avoid being injured by accident or crippled by black lung disease. When the coal runs out, the companies move on; the people stay behind. They are like the “leftovers”, the “remnants”. Among these poor, nothing was wasted or thrown out. The women saved scrapes of clothing in a “remnant bag.” When I would look into these bags all I would see, on first glance, were worthless bits of cloth, good for nothing but dusting the furniture or mopping up spills . But in the hands of the gifted women, they would be worked into beautiful quilts. What appeared useless to this casual observer, was made into a treasure in the hands of the quilter. Is that what God does? Does God take the “leftover” pieces of society and “save” them, making them into something beautiful, into works of art? The ones who remained faithful to God in exile were the poor who looked to God for their salvation. On first glance they didn’t look like much. They would not make the list of anybody’s “50 most beautiful people.” They would pass unnoticed, and do---- right up to our present world. However, no matter how bad things looked, they trusted God when others in their community gave into their slavery, adapted themselves to their new surroundings and worshiped the gods of the conquerors. After all, didn’t the rulers’ gods look more powerful to those who were conquered than their own God? Where was their God when they were in need ? Jeremiah is encouraging them not to give into despair, not to sell out to appearances, that God had not forgotten them.

The promise Jeremiah makes to the people is that the return to their homeland will not just be something they will have to achieve or struggle with on their own. What they cannot pull off; God will accomplish. These faithful, but most vulnerable of people, will have a powerful God acting decisively on their behalf. They are like the first Israelites fleeing their Egyptian rulers making a journey to freedom across a hostile desert. What God did once before, God will do again: once again God will see to their needs and deliver them. God will not be a mere spectator cheering them on, but will “console them and guide them.” God will be making the way easier for them, leading them to brooks of water, placing them on a level road so that the fragile and exhausted will not stumble. In the final verse of the reading, God is depicted as a parent who had once given life to this family and now wants to restore them to their home where they will find peace and again be able to worship God together in Jerusalem.

We are not strangers to exile. By our actions and attitudes we have put ourselves apart, outside the midst of God’s faithful people. Some of our attitudes were pressed on to us by the families and environments in which we were raised. They were further forged into our being by our consent, whenever we acted out of prejudices, fears, indifference, short-sightedness, exclusivity, violent instincts, unbridled anger and a host of other acts of blindness. As a result, step by step, we have fashioned our own exile, setting ourselves apart from other believers and from the image God had in mind for us when God created us. We may even have lots of companionship in our exile, accompanied by people who think and act the way we do and who, blind like us, confirm our ways with approval and participation. Exile is a place where we can survive--- but it is not full life. We are away from our true home, worshiping many false gods. (It does not take much imagination for the preacher to name these gods we worship—gods of security, comfort, abundance, career, acceptance, isolation, nationalism, glamor, speed, thrills, control, etc.)

In today’s gospel, Bartimaeus in like the remnant Jeremiah promised God would rescue. He is sitting along the road, a blind beggar. He seems forgotten by all, rebuked and told to be silent even by those following Jesus. He has nothing to earn him favor except his voice, which he uses to cry out to the passing Jesus. He also has a sight the disciples do not yet have – he recognizes Jesus. He has been in exile, and like the remnant in exile, he can only turn to God for help. He is physically blind, but spiritually sighed. He does not have physical sight, but he has his voice and he uses it to appeal to Jesus. When he does receive his physical sight, his spiritual sight encourages him to become part of the new remnant, the followers of Jesus on “the way”.

Click here for a link to this Sunday’s readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102724.cfm