Friends, welcome to Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an

apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization using media both old and

new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with

Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring

the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite

you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each one of us.

Peace be with you. Friends, our gospel today contains this marvelous story of the

healing of blind Bartimaeus. It's an icon of tremendous power. What I mean is it's

a sort of sacred picture of the spiritual life of the process of salvation all of

it. It's gorgeous. The fact that he's named is interesting. Here I'm following

Richard Bauchum, the great biblical scholar who said, you know, sometimes the

people that Jesus cures aren't named. Think of the manborn blind or the

Cappartum D'Amoniac. But other cases they are named. Think of Zacchaeus and

here Bartimaeus is named. Now how come his speculation was well because they

were still around. Maybe at the time the gospels were written. We have this

fantasies sometimes that after Jesus died in Rose, everyone that knew him got

on a spaceship and flew away. No, they were around. They were remembered. They

could verify their own stories. And so Bartimaeus was probably a well-remembered

member of the Christian community. Anyway, it speaks to the facticity, the

historicity of this great story. But as I say, it's also at the same time a

marvelous spiritual icon that we should read symbolically. So

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