The elusive sword in the stone has captured the hearts of knights and children alike. But it’s not all fictional and sometimes fact is more surprising than fiction. It actually traces itself back to a knight named “Galgano” who, having St. Michael appeared to him on the road, told him to follow Jesus and as an act of true dedication and running to the Lord, he thrust his sword almost up to the hilt into a stone to form a cross.
Story of the blind man Bartameus is the story of all of us with God’s mercy.
Leaving Jericho, a place of sin. Jesus going up to Jerusalem to begin preparations for crucifixion. Holy city of Jerusalem, sinful city of Jericho. Bartimeus is stuck between the two, sitting on the roadside. I hate to say it, but I think most of us are here. We know that this man eventually becomes something or someone great as he is mentioned by name and his father’s name meaning the community knew him. On the roadside, he was begging. How many of us are in life begging, we aren’t going forward, we maybe arnt even going backwards. But we are just stuck, going through the motions and begging for meaning in life. We find something, and once we succumb to it, we lose the desire to be cured.
Jesus walks by and what he does, he cries out Son of David, a term for the messiah, have mercy on me. These are the same words and the same disposition we are invited to have and to utter in mass. Before we can see, before we can really encounter God’s mercy, we have to recognize sin. Its hard to fully call Jesus our savior if we don’t acknowledge I have anything to be saved from.
The blind man presses onward, even though there are obstacles. So many people get stopped or deterred in calling out to Jesus or asking for mercy. Jesus wants us to persevere, he wants our decision to follow him and be his disciple to not just be the result of some blind inertia, some baseball player who gently trots from third base to home on the hit of another player. He wants it to be a concentrated choice. Then we hear the voice of Jesus, “Call him”, this is a reminder that in the spiritual life, any progress comes first from Jesus’s part. Girl in Portland “I wonder if Christmas is real.” The Holy Spirit just hit her so hard at that moment.
Then we have the great moment, the great vocation of the Church, Jesus himself didn’t call the man, he told the disciples to call him and they go to him and say “Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.” If there has ever been a greater line to sum up the sacrament of confession it is this one. In confession it is us the disciples going to each person, all of us in sin, not with shame, not with guilt, but with love, encouragement and that desire to persevere. And the invitation to come closer to Jesus. People, please don’t fear confession. Don’t dread confession. Rejoice with confession!
He throws aside his cloak. This is St. Galgano sticking his stone in the rock, its us throwing off all the comforts of this world, all the crutches we have held onto. We have to throw them aside too. Run to Jesus. “What do you want me to do?” We too often don’t know what to tell Jesus. We are not use to unconditional love. “Master I want to see.” They say that sight is the most attune sense to faith because it reveals the particularities. Then we must persevere.