Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 29, 2006


What do Tony LoRussa and Bartimaeus from today’s gospel have in common?

In all the hoopla about the Cardinals winning the world series, I heard an interesting story that I did not know until last night. When Tony LoRussa became the Cardinals manager, he had great freedom in choosing the number he would wear on his uniform. He chose the number 10. I never gave it any thought until last night, when the Cardinals won their TENTH world series. It seems that LoRussa put the number 10 on his back to remind him every day that he put on the uniform, that this was his goal: to lead the franchise to their tenth World Series victory. Each time he put the uniform on and took it off, he was reminded of the goal. TEN. This is what I am working toward. This is the mission. This is the dream.

Bartimaeus never had a number on the back of his cloak, you can be sure. Yet, in the same way, he too, kept the goal in front of him. He kept his dream, the thing that he was most important to him before him every moment of every waking day. So much so, that when he hears that it is JESUS coming down the road, he will not be deterred, even if he were the only Detroit fan in a sea of Cardinal red. Into the noise of the crowd that was following Jesus, he shouts: “JESUS, SON OF DAVID, HAVE PITY ON ME!” Jesus’ loyal followers try to drown him out. But because the dream is so profound and so real and he has desired it all the days of his life, he will not be deterred. He cries out all the louder – HAVE PITY ON ME. And then he demonstrates an even more amazing courage – when Jesus calls him, “he throws aside his cloak.” He is a blind man in the middle of a crowd and his cloak is everything, his warmth, his place to collect coins, his protection against dogs and spit and scorn – yet because nothing matters except getting to Jesus, he tosses it aside like it was nothing.

And he hears the same question that James and John heard from Jesus last week. “What do you want me to do for you? Instead of asking for the silver spoon, he asked for his hearts desire – I want to see, Lord. I want to see. And he knows he see everything – not just the amazing beauty of the world, but the faces that kicked him and sneered at him and thought him accursed because of his blindness. But it doesn’t matter – the dream is to see, and to let what he sees influence EVERYTHING else. And it does.

Mark record simply: He followed Jesus en te hodos – on the way. He became a disciple because of what he allowed his eyes to see. He kept the vision before him. And when the moment came, he was ready to seize it.

Let me share just two thoughts about how to live into this. You have heard and read a lot from the diocese, from me, and from folks much smarter and wiser than me about Amendment 2. If you have come to the point where you see with the eyes of the church on the danger of this amendment, then continue to pray that others might see. If you have come to a different conclusion in your prayer and reflection, then I ask you to let your eyes see this (hold up the ‘line by line critique of the amendment, published by the NoCloning Org.) before you step into the poll. I was lukewarm opponent of Amendment 2 at best until I saw this. My eyes were opened to a lot when I saw this.

Secondly, there is this. I spoke to my mom who stayed up till almost 11:30 (way past her bedtime) watching the series coverage. She remarked to me – “It was fun to see so many people so excited. I wonder if I’ll ever see so many people that excited about Jesus?” Hmm…

Bartimaeus only had eyes for Jesus. He was the most important thing that his newly opened eyes would see. Like Tony Lorussa’s #10 on the back of his uniform, may we desire to see Jesus in every step of the journey, every moment of the day.