LEFT: Fernando Gallego, “The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus,” 1480-1488. RIGHT: Václav Mánes, “Healing the Blind Man,” 1832. (photo: Wikimedia Commons)
SCRIPTURES & ART: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By John Grondelski, EWTN News, October 23, 2021
John Grondelski John M. Grondelski (Ph.D., Fordham) is former associate dean of the School of Theology, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. He is especially interested in moral theology and the thought of John Paul II. [Note: All views expressed in his National Catholic Register contributions are exclusively the author’s.]
As we continue the consecutive reading of Mark’s Gospel, we encounter today the healing of the blind man, Bartimaeus. By this point in the Church year, given that we have been reading Mark since last December, the characteristics of a “Markan” miracle should be apparent: Jesus heals because he touches the whole man, body and soul; Jesus’s miracles reflect his identity and mission as Redeemer who restores man to God’s design of man fully alive; Jesus’s miracles presuppose and confirm faith.
All those elements are present in this pericope (Gospel extract). We already read a Gospel passage on healing of a blind man back on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, but that passage was from John and remains the optional passage for Lenten scrutinies. If we had followed the entire Markan lectionary instead, we’ve had heard of many healings and many invitations to “come and see,” but this is the first healing of a blind man in our Markan cycle. …