8th Week of Ordinary Time, Thursday, 6-1-23, Year A
Readings: First Reading Sir 42:15-25; Ps 33:2-9; Gospel Mk 10:46-52
Memorial: St. Justin, Martyr
Theme: Letting Go With Faith
“As the rising sun is clear to all,
so the glory of the Lord fills all his works.
Yet even God’s holy ones must fail
in recounting the wonders of the Lord,”
Sirach’s description of God’s works is spot on with the wonder of who God really is. Even the most knowledgeable, intelligent theologian cannot begin to even know the depths of God’s splendor. When you really take the time to look at just one thing in God’s creation, you are struck with the elegance, complexity, and beauty at which that thing exists in nature. Whether it be water, air, dirt, flowers, or any living creature, you suddenly realize, in a very fractionally small way, the infinite wisdom it took to create them. It is impossible for us to define God in His limitless ways through our limited understanding of His divinity.
Knowing that God is beyond our definition and understanding of His powers, we can rest assured that He can literally do anything. There is nothing beyond His reach. For those with true faith understand this and put their entire trust in Him.
Bartimaeus understood this very well. He did not let what he had heard from others about the lowliness of Jesus’ condition affect his understanding of who Jesus was, that is, the “Son of David.” This title, spoken by a blind beggar who had never met Jesus personally, would have shocked and dismayed most Jews surrounding him. You just do not speak a title like that to anyone without good reason.” It was Bartimaeus’s faith in knowing that God can do anything, even be a lowly human being in our midst, and yet be a Son of David, the king, and his persistence that restored his blindness.
People who have faith, do not need to be convinced through science, physical confirmation, or mental intelligence to know that anything is possible with God.
Faith is not complicated. It is very simple. Trust that God exists, that He is beyond our worldly comprehension and definition, and know that with God anything is possible.
We too can be healed, when we let go of all the world is telling us about who God is, and let faith and persistence, knowing that anything is possible with God, work miracles in our lives.
Saint Justin thought he knew everything about God as a pagan philosopher until he met Jesus through the Christian movement. After his encounter with Jesus, Saint Justin became Christian and went on to be one of the most prolific opponents of pagan philosophers. Saint Justin finally understood the meaning of faith and that there was no one who could put a limit on God by defining Him in human terms.
God was beyond any description. He wrote many apologetic works and defended the faith all the way to Rome. He was denounced as subversive by the Roman Prefect and sentenced to die with six others. Just before his execution, the Prefect said to him, “Do you think that by dying you will enter heaven, and be rewarded by God?” “I do not think,” was the saint’s answer; “I know.” Saint Justin was beheaded in 165 at Rome and is now the patron saint of philosophers and apologists.
Saint James Catholic Church 