Holy Theophany Mission

             
Luke 18:35-43 (Gospel)

Then it happened, as He was coming near Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the road begging.
And hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant.
So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.
And he cried out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him,
saying, “What do you want Me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.”
And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
 
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Homily for 32^nd Sunday after Pentecost (14 January 2024)
Fr. Peter Choi
 
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Christ is baptized!  In the Jordan!
 
Today is the Leavetaking of Theophany, when we mark the transition from the festal period of Nativity and Theophany to the interlude before entry into Great Lent.  There will be one more great feast, the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple, at the beginning of next month (February 2^nd) before we start our pre-Lenten period with Zacchaeus Sunday (February 18^th this year) two weeks later.
 
With this in mind, let’s reflect on the reading from the Gospel of St. Luke (18.35-43) today.  Jesus is on his way to Jericho, where he will encounter Zacchaeus the tax collector and whose story (Luke 19.1-10) we will hear on Zacchaeus Sunday.  On his way to Jericho, a blind man cries out, “Jesus of Nazareth, son of David, have mercy on me!”  Luke doesn’t identify the blind man but he is named Bartimaeus according the evangelist Mark (10.46).  The crowd tries to shut him up, but he proceeds to shout even more loudly.  Jesus takes notice and Bartimaeus is brought to Jesus.  When asked what he wants, Bartimaeus replies, “Lord, let me see again” (Luke 18.41).  He was once able to see but has lost his vision.  He misses his sense of sight and desperately wants to see again.  He believes that Jesus can restore his sight for Jesus replies, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.”  And immediately, he sees, follows Jesus, and glorifies God – a response to the Holy Trinity.  Bartimaeus’s story reminds us of repentance.
 
It is timely that we hear this reading today.  We have just celebrated Theophany last week.  The Holy Trinity has been revealed to us and we are reminded of our own baptism into Christ.  But over time, the day-to-day burdens of our life have a tendency to cloud our view of our ultimate purpose.  Over time, we forget the revelation of Theophany, we see less and less of the kingdom of heaven, and we stumble and fall.  And we don’t notice it until we’ve lost a great deal of that revelation.  Most of us can only imagine what it’s like to be visually impaired.  Those who suffer from cataracts can appreciate the impact of blindness.  There is a gradually clouding of one’s vision.  You can see the forms but no longer the details.  Parts of your sight is blocked altogether and eventually you see nothing.  This is the same when blindness overcomes the eyes of our heart.
 
Today’s reading shows us how we are to respond when we lose sight of God, how we are to repent.  First, we must recognize that we are losing sight, desire to regain our sight, and cry out to the Lord for mercy.  In crying out to the Lord, we need to acknowledge that He is the King of heaven and earth, that He has dominion over everything including our lives.  Bartimaeus called Jesus “son of David” because he recognized Jesus to be from the Davidic line of the kings of the Jews.  It’s a veiled acknowledgement that Jesus is the Messiah.  At the time, Bartimaeus only knew by faith but we know from the eyewitness accounts, the proclamations, of the apostles.  So, when we lose sight, we need to cry out with the Jesus prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”
 
Second, we must believe, have faith, that we can be forgiven and healed.  Faith is the starting point.  One of my favourite patristic writers, St. Maximus the Confessor, tells us that faith leads to the fear of God, which leads to self-mastery.  Without self-mastery, we allow our passions to lead us, to take us to see things that blind us.  So when we repent, we need to have faith that we can be restored.  We must ignore the voices that may tell us not to cry out for mercy because we are “too sinful.”  We need to have faith that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will respond to our cries.
 
And when God responds, we must respond in the same way as Bartimaeus.  We regain our spiritual sight by the grace of the Holy Spirit so that we can follow Jesus Christ and imitate Him again.  By imitating Jesus through our thoughts, words, and deeds, we will glorify God the Father in the manner of Jesus.  And this brings us back to Theophany.  Because this response is the response to the revelation of the Holy Trinity.  The story of Bartimaeus is the story of our spiritual struggle and what we need to do to regain the revelation of God.
So let us cry out to the Lord, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”  Let us confess our sins and, with faith, believe that God – “who pardoned David through Nathan the prophet when he confessed his sins, Peter who wept bitterly for his denial, the harlot weeping at his feet, the publican and the prodigal”[1] – has forgiven us and will set us uncondemned before his dread judgement seat.  Let us go forth in peace into this world and imitate Jesus Christ so that we may glorify God and enter into the kingdom of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 


[1] From the Greek version of the prayer of absolution after confession.
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