Italian School, 17th c.
Translation of the Epistle for Quinquagesima Sunday
Brethren: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy, and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge; and if I should have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity is patient, is kind: Charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth: beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never falleth away; whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Continuation of the Holy Gospel According to St. Luke
At that time Jesus took unto Him the twelve and said to them: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the Prophets concerning the Son of Man. For He shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and scourged and spit upon: and after they have scourged Him, they will put Him to death, and the third day He shall rise again. And they understood none of these things, and the word was hid from them, and they understood not the things that were said. Now it came to pass, when He drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And they that went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried out much more: Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus standing, commanded him to brought unto him. And when he was come near, He asked him, saying: What wilt thou that I do to thee? But he said: Lord, that I may see. And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
The Saving Words of the Gospel.
In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Transcription of Homily
The Synoptic Gospels all discuss this healing of the blind man Bartimaeus; each one with differing details. Mark, which is the shortest Gospel, is also the Gospel of details. He’s the one who tells us about when Christ was sleep in the boat, also had a pillow. The other Gospel readers don’t tell us that. In Mark’s Gospel, we also see that Bartimaeus not only has a name, but he also has a cloak. We don’t hear about that in Luke, though. So, he was a well-known figure, if we know his name; the name of his dad anyway. Bartimaeus, he’s the son of Timaeus. So, he was somebody. He was an important person in society until whatever befell him. And he lost his sight. He lost his status. He lost his circle of friends. He lost his family. He lost everything except his cloak, basically. He was really destitute. And all of a sudden, hope is on the horizon.
No doubt he had heard of Christ, and this was his only hope. Christ approaches, learns what’s going on, and beckons that he come, and Bartimaeus receives what’s called a prevenient grace.
Prevenient grace is the grace that comes to us before we’re in a state of grace. It’s the grace of conversion. All actual graces are dependent on habitual grace; to be in a state of grace. If we’re not in a state of grace, we can receive no actual graces, but Our Lord in His mercy will send what are called prevenient graces. Those are the invitations to come back to Him.
Well, Bartimaeus hears the crowds, and he must have been shouting loudly because the crowd got angry at him for shouting louder than they did.
And in fact, Augustine addresses this point in his commentary on this Gospel. He says that those crowds were believers. And nonetheless, it was the believers who were trying to hinder Bartimaeus. He says this is what happens with lukewarm Catholics who see another person who is advancing in virtue, and they feel accused. And so, they’re like the crabs in the bucket seeing the other crab trying to climb out, and they drag them down. He said so often our progress in the spiritual life is hindered by if we let the others around us hinder our spiritual progress. Jerome, when he comments on this… You know, he was a Dalmatian from Croatia, and they have a reputation for being rather cantankerous. And if you read his letters to St. Augustine, you can see he was actually rather cantankerous. And that was his way of showing affection, I guess. But St. Jerome says that the first virtue of a new Christian is to despise and be despised. Which I kind of like.
So, in other words, if we have found Christ, if we found the Church, the Bride of Christ, and we are now members, then the things of the world ought not impress us. The rebukes of people that don’t belong to Christ ought to just make us kind of chuckle and move on. In a certain sense, we have to make scorn and great again. We have to laugh at the worldlings and move on, following Christ and not feel embarrassed to pray before a meal in public, not feel embarrassed or ashamed of belonging to Christ because those around us don’t, that’s our pride. And it’s not to our credit, it’s no merit of ours. Christ beckoned us, each one of us, ‘Come. Come over here,’ just as he beckoned Bartimaeus.
And so, how can I give any concern to what the world would think? How could that even enter into my calculations? If somebody belittles our devotion, we chuckle, and pray for them, and move on. St. Hilary says faith, when forbidden becomes more inflamed. In the midst of dangers, it’s secured. In the midst of security, it’s endangered.
I remember when I was living in Germany speaking to Catholics who had lived and grown up in the communist regime of East Germany, and they longed for those days. They said, “We missed the days of trial, the days of suffering, the days when we didn’t know if we would be arrested for our Faith, because we were all united in the truth, because of this imminent threat.” And then once that threat was gone, the messages put out were akin to something put out by, you know, some anodyne NGO. There was no radical embracing of the Faith. They longed for the days of trial. And they said, “This is not helping our children grow up in the Faith that we grew up in. We all thought that this western, this new, this new western world would be good for our children and they said it’s destroying their faith.”
Bartimaeus didn’t allow the crowd to hinder him. He shouted all the more and he didn’t say have pity on me. He said, “Have mercy on me.” Ελεησον με (eleison me). We hear that in the liturgy. Kyrie Eleison / Have mercy, Lord. Ελεησον με. Have mercy on me. So he’s broken by sin. He’s also broken in his body. He’s wounded by his own sins. He’s wounded by his weakness, his own participation in fallen nature, his actual sins. He’s not merely asking in that petition. He’s not merely asking for a healing of his eyes, but he’s asking for salvation. “Ελεησον με/ have mercy on me,” not have pity on me, “have mercy on me.” This encompasses his entire being. When Our Lord has mercy on us, He transforms our entire being.
And when he heard that Christ was beckoning him, what did he do? Mark tells us he threw off his coat and he leapt up. And he ran to Christ. And that strikes me. I mean, this cloak, it must have been everything for him. It was a shelter for him. It was his warmth. It was his security. It was his worldly attachment. It must have been dilapidated and filthy and nonetheless, it was part of his identity. It was a certain protection from elements, and he throws it off, and he’s exposed. He throws it off, and he runs to Christ, and he never goes back to pick it up. And there’s a lesson in there for all of us, especially as Lent approaches.
This was his one worldly attachment. And before Christ says those words and transforms his soul, he got rid of it. This is so important, this order of events. For Christ to truly do what He wants to do, we have to rid ourselves of things. We have to rid ourselves of attachments. We have to rid ourselves of self. What is my attachment? What is my cloak that I hold on to? It could be a lack of forgiveness towards somebody. It could be self-pity because of old wounds, or perhaps there is nothing in that order of things, and that’s wonderful. It could be a superficial attachment to hobbies.
The strategy of Satan is always the same, even though it takes a different shape in every life. It’s anything but Christ. Anything but Christ. If he can get us to give our hearts, our minds, our time, our attention to something that is not Christ, that is a victory for his kingdom. And that’s why Satan fears a mind that enters into mental prayer. He fears a body that fasts. He fears a body that does penance. It causes him such repulsion, and his attacks, his temptations continue, but he hates it all the more. He hates engaging with us all the more. And when he’s rebuffed more easily, makes him think twice about renewing his attacks.
What is my cloak? What is my attachment? John of the Cross tells us that a bird can be held down, whether it’s tied to a heavy metal chain or a tiny thread. Both of them are sufficient to keep the bird on the ground without being able to fly. So, what is it that holds me down? It could be something great; it could be something small. Often people who seek liberation from demonic influence have to relinquish their attachments before that even can take place. For us to obtain a plenary indulgence, especially in this Jubilee year, we have to be detached from sin.
So, he threw off his cloak, ran to Christ. That’s our task, this Lent that is upon us, to throw off whatever cloak we have and run to Christ and let Him have his way with us. Let Him do whatever He wants with us, make whatever demand He wants, with no calculations on our side, with an absolute act of trust being totally exposed like Bartimaeus was exposed. And when we make that humble, generous act of trust and surrender, wonderful things happen, but you have to make it before our Lord can act, just like he threw off his cloak before Our Lord can act.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen.
~Fr. Ermatinger