Readings for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
It can take us a while to understand what Jesus is saying! The Gospel of Mark presents this experience using two stories: Jesus healing a native of Bethsaida and healing the blind Bartimaeus in Jericho. Biblical scholar Bonnie Thurston explains, “This travel narrative in which Jesus and the disciples…make their way toward Jerusalem is an inclusion framed by stories of the healing of two blind men.” These two stories illustrate the process of going from misunderstanding to understanding Jesus. These stories about healing sight, ironically, highlight the need to listen deeply and allow one’s world to be changed by what was heard.
The disciples have heard Jesus predict his passion three times when he heals Bartimaeus. They have experienced Jesus applying the cross to all aspects of life. But it has not sunk in by the time they enter Jerusalem. Thurston writes, “Throughout Mark’s gospel the disciples misunderstand the teachings of Jesus. Indeed…they cannot understand them prior to the experience of cross and resurrection. With wonderful subtlety, Mark frames the discipleship section of his gospel with stories of blind men.”
The first story, Jesus’ healing of an unnamed blind man in two stages, seems like it is a miracle that did not work at first. Jesus put spit on his eyes and lays hands on him. Then, Jesus “asked, ‘Do you see anything?’” The blind man said, “I see people looking like trees and walking.” Jesus laid hands on the man again, and then he could see clearly. Why did it take Jesus a second try to get it right? Thurston states, “The blind man at Bethsaida is representative of the disciples both in their process (gradual coming to understanding) and in the hoped-for outcome of Jesus’ teaching (full understanding).”
This unnamed blind man from Bethsaida represents Jesus’ disciples then and now. We do not fully get Jesus and the cross. Hence, the material in Mark 8:22-10:52 is all about living the cross. Only in living the cross does one understand Jesus. Thus, the wise disciple has to listen to Jesus in these stories and sayings. And then Jesus heals Bartimaeus. Thurston writes, “In Mark’s gospel blindness has to be cured so that discipleship can be understood. This is the “meaning” of the Bartimaeus story.” Bartimaeus is the disciple who gets Jesus and the cross.
Jesus brings clarity to the disciples’ understanding by refocusing them again and again on the cross, that is, on letting go. And this practice of letting go coincides with loving others. The Synod on Synodality intends to shine lights on the people in our world who need help: migrants, refugees, those caught in war, the suffering, and the poor.
Taking in the various stories and sayings found in Mark 8:22-10:52, we can affirm that the cross, what the mystics call detachment and letting go, constitutes the mother practice of the Christian tradition. Thus, the cross is the source of all practices in a synodal spirituality. Jesus applies the cross to several experiences across Mark 8:22-10:52.
Letting go looks different when applied to various relationships and experiences. Letting go of self-focus to focus on God is prayer. Letting go of one’s concerns to attend to another’s concerns is listening. Letting go of fear and shame to open up to another is encounter and sharing. Letting go of one’s own way of doing things to follow Jesus in the Spirit is discernment.
The Synod on Synodality is ending but a new life for the Church is emerging. Practices for transformation emerge from the first, ancient synod of Jesus and the disciples on the way to Jerusalem. They stem from the cross. Prayer is letting go into God. Listening is letting go of self-closed-mindedness. Sharing is letting go of reticence, shame, and indifference. Discerning is letting go of control. The Church incarnates these practices in the method of the Synod on Synodality: Conversation in the Spirit or listening to one another in prayer. This is how we share in the life and mission God gives the Church.