I was once reading one of the seminal works of Western literature when a line jumped out at me that has stuck with me for many years now. That line was “Prayer is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Or I heard it on an episode of The Simpsons. It’s tough to say after all these years, but either way, the sentiment rings true. There is a big difference in praying when we feel like we’re stuck in a corner, and building up an interior life so that we have a relationship with God when those difficult moments come our way.
 
In the same way, there is a difference between trusting in God because we have exhausted all other options and trusting in God because we have built a relationship with Him and we know that even if His plans don’t match up with ours, He will care for us and do what is best, just as any loving Father would. Today’s Gospel provides one of my favorite examples of trust in the Bible, which is saying something, because many characters in salvation history are called upon by God to abandon themselves to Divine Providence. Abraham is repeatedly tested so that his faith in God’s ability to build him up into a great nation can be revealed and strengthened. Moses is asked to trust that God has something in store for His holy people on the other side of a great desert. The Blessed Mother is asked to trust that God knows what He is doing when He asks her to take part in the birth of the Messiah, which caused her to put aside all her other plans and expectations.
 
In one brief line in today’s Gospel, we see an exemplary model of trust in Jesus. The disciples tell Bartimaeus, a man blind from birth, that Jesus is calling him. He immediately springs up, throws aside his cloak, and runs to Jesus. Running would have been dangerous for a man who couldn’t see anything, but more than this, his act of throwing aside his cloak demonstrates how confident he is in God’s plan for him. People born blind in the
ancient world didn’t have the social structures to protect them that exist today.

They were often isolated and could be hurt or taken advantage of. By throwing away his cloak, Bartimaeus is throwing away that which
protects him from the elements and saying that he is ready to let go of his earthly safety so that he can grasp God’s plan for him. If he didn’t truly trust that Jesus would be there for him, he would never have thrown away his greatest security in this life.
 
Those of us who do not struggle with things like blindness can fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t need God’s help in ninety percent of our lives. Our sense of self-sufficiency prevents us from seeing the incredible work that God would accomplish in our lives if we would only let go of our false sense of security and allow Him to work through us.
 
Each one of us has something holding us back from being the disciple God is calling us to be. It sounds strange, but it’s not our weaknesses or the things of which we are ashamed that stand in the way of the Holy Spirit lighting our hearts on fire. What’s holding us back is our belief in our own strength. As we meditate upon the example of Bartimaeus, who threw caution to the wind and abandoned his fear in favor of trust in Christ, may we always ask for that same trust in God’s Providence. It is only once we overcome our tendency to trust ourselves more than we trust God that we will truly be free to follow Christ in all things.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McCullough