When I met my close-to-one-year-old niece for the second time in India a week ago (she is my cousin's daughter, who lives next door), I didn’t realize a newborn baby could teach me anything. I presumed our relationship would be a one-way street—I would offer my love as an uncle to my newest niece, and she would be the beneficiary.
Focus and Trust
But instead, she has taught me a lot. She has shown me the importance of trust. She trusts her parents and grandparents, and trusts that her caregivers will be there for her. She trusts that she will receive what she needs when she cries out. She knows that she is vulnerable and cannot make it in the world alone. She realizes she needs others to provide nutrition, comfort, and love, or she will not survive or thrive.
She also has a singular focus: her immediate need is. She is not easily distracted or dissuaded. On the other hand, I can lose focus and become sidetracked by multitasking, seeing alternatives, and listening to different voices.
Reflecting on today’s first reading, where Peter tells us to long for pure spiritual milk like newborn infants, I see a parallel in my life. Just as my niece looks lovingly into my eyes as her grandmother feeds her the bottle filled with milk she so desperately needs, I need to lovingly gaze upon Jesus in the many ways He is available to me: in the Eucharist, in His Word, in the people around me, in those in need, in nature, in community with other Christians. Peter says that doing so will help build a follower of Christ into a spiritual house for the Lord.
I need to trust Jesus the way my niece trusts her immediate contacts. I need to be aware that Jesus’ love surrounds me and sustains me, just as my niece realizes her vulnerability and dependence.
In the Gospel of Mark, Bartimaeus exhibits that same focus and trust. Realizing and articulating our needs, may we jump up and go to the Lord whenever we hear his voice.
Courage and Determination
The blind Bartimaeus, too, is an unlikely teacher to guide me a step forward on the road to holiness. He was a helpless, blind beggar. But he saw what Christ’s disciples of three years still did not see: that for Jesus, anything was possible. This blind man also showed what I, after decades of being a follower of Christ, still don’t have—the courage and determination to reach out in faith to Him. I am still blind to wrong attitudes in myself and to the specific needs of others, and too blind to see God’s love and goodness everywhere. I still try to help myself or seek help in the wrong places.
It could be so easy! My newborn niece and Bartimaeus teach me that with trust, courage and determination to reach Christ, miracles will begin to happen in my spiritual life.
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