“What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk 10:51)
FIRST READING - Jer 31:7-9
First reading from the Book of Jeremiah
Thus says the LORD:
Shout with joy for Jacob,
exult at the head of the nations;
proclaim your praise and say:
The LORD has delivered his people,
the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I will bring them back
from the land of the north;
I will gather them from the ends of the world,
with the blind and the lame in their midst,
the mothers and those with child;
they shall return as an immense throng.
They departed in tears,
but I will console them and guide them;
I will lead them to brooks of water,
on a level road, so that none shall stumble.
For I am a father to Israel,
Ephraim is my first-born.
SECOND READING - Heb 5:1-6
A reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews
Brothers and sisters:
Every high priest is taken from among men
and made their representative before God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring,
for he himself is beset by weakness
and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself
as well as for the people.
No one takes this honor upon himself
but only when called by God,
just as Aaron was.
In the same way,
it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest,
but rather the one who said to him:
You are my son:
this day I have begotten you;
just as he says in another place:
You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY - Mk 10:46-52
From the Gospel according to Mark
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
"Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more,
"Son of David, have pity on me."
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
"Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you."
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?"
The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."
Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you."
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.
THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Gospel (Mk 10:46–52)
THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE
Dear People of God,
In today's Word of God, God tells all mankind that: He is the Father of all things. The most beautiful creation of God the Father is mankind. God the Father loves and protects all His children without excluding anyone, even though His children are sinful and imperfect before Him. However, He still creates opportunities for them to repent. He heals their wounds when that creature stands up and returns to God the Father.
Today's Word of God speaks of the image of a disabled and blind child of God. This child courageously abandoned his sinful past, abandoned all the constraints of the world, and ran to cry out for God's mercy. And his prayer was answered by God. He had healed his body and soul.
This is the truth that Jesus Christ Himself demonstrated on this earth, to help people have absolute faith in the power, strength, and love of God. God does not exclude any soul, so let us have the courage to abandon the path of sin and return to the mercy of God the Father, to His loving heart–the only Love of all creation.
Besides, God the Father also calls on people in today's world: to have a loving heart to know how to have mercy on their fellow human beings, and to know how to forgive, share, and support each other. Thanks to this, they also know how to abandon the path of sin and return to God the Father, to reconcile with Him through the Sacrament of Confession and the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
God the Father as well, teaches people to know to:
-Always be closely connected with God the Father through the loving heart He gave from the beginning when He created each person.
-Be closely united with God the Father, courageously abandon the path of sin, trust, and have absolute confidence in His mercy. He will heal the body and soul of people.
-Know how to call upon God the Father: please have mercy on me, please forgive my sins, please give me strength, so that I can courageously abandon sin and return to God the Father; courageously abandon the worldly temptations that Satan brings, to obey the will of God the Father in all places and at all times. These prayers please God the Father. He will accept and come to dwell in us. Only the power and might of God can cleanse the sins of man, can dispel the control of Satan's imprisonment in the soul of man, and only He can bring eternal life to all creatures.
Today's Word of God, God the Father teaches us to know to: open the eyes of the soul to see the loving gestures that God the Father bestowed upon humanity, right from the beginning of creation; gestures of love that are true, concrete, close to man through the real man himself, Jesus Christ, God who came to earth as a human, sacrificed, died on the Cross and was resurrected to redeem man.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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