My father has his first, and only, heart attack in St Vincent’s Hospital as he was waiting for heart surgery. The doctors decided not to bring forward his quadruple by-pass surgery but leave it at the scheduled time. Dad said he spent the next 36 hours in intensive care, repeating a cry very like Bartimaeus’, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner’. Like Bartimaeus, he prayed from the depths of his need.
Desperation can be a great gift. It focuses us on reality as it truly is. In his need, Bartimaeus did not care what the crowd thought, whether they were telling him to be quiet or how to relate to Jesus. In his need, he knew who Jesus was at a level deeper than this crowd knew. In his need, he was able to state simply and starkly what he wanted from Jesus. In his need, he realised what truly mattered. Unlike James and John, in last week’s Gospel, who, when asked by Jesus what they wanted, had sought power and prestige, this man’s need was simple and basic. And when Jesus fulfilled his need, he responded in the true manner of a disciple, following Jesus along the way – the way leading to Jerusalem, to suffering, death and through to Resurrection.
Our desperate needs are to be treasured. When their time has passed and our lives have returned to what passes for normalcy, for equilibrium, we should often revisit them to recollect the wisdom they have to offer us: the clarity regarding what is truly important in life, the knowledge that we can truly open ourselves to God, the experience that God can be truly merciful and tender in our lives.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 