HOMILY for 8th Thur per annum (II)

Sir 42:15-25; Ps 32; Mark 10:46-52

Two things struck me about today’s Gospel. Firstly, we’re (rather unusually) given the name of the man who’s healed. Why? Secondly, why did the people react so badly, even cruelly, to a blind man calling out to Jesus for mercy? It’s not as though Jesus was speaking, and so they needed silence in order to hear him. Why did they rebuke the man?

An answer, I think, can be found by paying attention to the name. The way in which St Mark gives us his name is odd: he says “Bartimaeus… the son of Timaeus”. Now, this seems tautological since the Aramaic ‘bar’ means ‘son of’ like the Scottish use of ‘Mac’, hence ‘bar Timaeus’ means ‘son of Timaeus’. So, Mark seems to be saying: ‘his name was Son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus’ (cf Mk 10:46). Perhaps he’s doing this to translate or explain the meaning of the name to us. But this seems unlikely, or at least a little unnecessary. So, we’re left wondering why.

Some have noted that the name Bartimaeus is unusual because it is a hybrid of the Aramaic ‘Bar’ and the Greek ‘Timaeus’, which gives it the meaning ‘son of honour’, from the Greek adjective ‘timios’, meaning ‘esteemed, honoured’; the typical name coming from this would be Timothy. So, we have one Bartimaeus, who is the son of Timaeus/Timothy.

But there is another suggestion, and I am rather partial to it. Perhaps the name Bartimaeus isn’t a hybrid at all but a fully Hebrew name. If so, then the ‘timaeus’ part comes from the Hebrew ‘tame’, meaning ‘to be unclean’. Now, this would fit into the Jewish purity ideals which held that a blind person was ritually unclean, and it would also resonate with an idea we find in John 9:2 where some people ask Jesus if a man was born blind because he’d sinned or his parents had sinned. So, Bartimaeus, derived from the Hebrew, could well mean ‘Son of the Unclean One’ or ‘Son of Impurity’, and his father’s name is, indeed, from the Greek, Timaeus or Timothy.

This, I think, explains the way Bartimaeus is treated by the crowds. Regarded as a public sinner or the son of sinners, we see here (as we do elsewhere in the Gospels) that those around Jesus want to keep the likes of him away from Jesus. So, they rebuke him and try to silence him. In their reckoning, only the righteous can approach the Lord. But, as Christ has already said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mk 2:17), hence he calls Bartimaeus to him. Thus we have an enacted parable: Jesus, in calling a public sinner to himself, shows that God has come in search of sinners and we should never be afraid to approach God to ask for mercy as Bartimaeus does. As sinners – and, often ‘repeat offenders’ – we might be silenced by fear or shame or other voices around us. But as Pope Francis has said: “God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy”. So, today’s Gospel invites us to take heart and follow Bartimaeus’ example: he “cried out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me’” (Mk 10:48).

And the Lord responds immediately, but he does something odd. He asks Bartimaeus what he wants (which should have been obvious). But, as Pope Benedict XVI says: “[God] wants Man to stand up on his feet, to rediscover the courage to ask for what belongs to his dignity. The Father wants to hear from the living voice of the son the free decision to see the light again, that light for which he created him”. So, God wants us sinners to acknowledge our sins, to regret them, and to freely choose once more to walk in Christ’s light; God’s mercy only makes sense when it is coupled with our repentance and a firm purpose of amendment. Such is the life of grace that we’re called to as Christians. Like Bartimaeus, we’ve been freed from the blindness of sin so that we can live a new life, following Jesus “on the Way” (Mk 10:52).

