Jesus' Invitation

So, welcome to our first session of prayer as we begin the Spiritual Exercises. And we'll begin with a passage of Scripture, which is Jesus' invitation into prayer, into sharing with the Lord what we really, really desire and need. Now, before we start the biblical passage, just very rapidly, I want to make one point about the two basic methods of prayer with Scripture that Ignatius teaches. One we call meditation, the other we call contemplation.

Both are rich. Both are wonderful ways to pray with Scripture. We can feel free to use either one of them, or a mixture of them, as our hearts desire.

Meditation, in the sense in which Saint Ignatius uses it, is the application of the reasoning faculty that God has given us as a way of entering into the richness of God's Word and allowing it to touch our hearts and transform us.

So, for example, if I were praying with, let's say, the first of the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." If I meditate on this text, I might do something like this. Now I'm just going to create something to make the point.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Why is this the first Beatitude? The first of, actually, the beginning of the whole Sermon on the Mount. Obviously, Jesus sees something important in this first Beatitude.

And He doesn't simply speak of poverty, but You speak, Lord, of "Blessed are the poor in spirit." And so I can recognize that You're not speaking simply of material poverty, but of a space of the heart, an attitude of the heart, a disposition through which we face life. Blessed are the poor in spirit. There's something there about not being self-sufficient and knowing that I'm not self-sufficient and being willing to depend on God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus, why is it that this attitude of heart is the attitude of heart, or the space of heart, that even gives entrance into Your Kingdom?

Now I'll stop there, but I think we can see what we mean by meditation. That is the application of this wonderful thinking, pondering, considering, reasoning mind that God has given us to the Word of God. And as we do it, it breaks open. God's grace mingles with our human reasoning, and the Word touches our hearts. I may find myself saying as I meditate with the first Beatitude, “Jesus, help me to live more that way in my life.” Something about this is beautiful. I think of Mary. I think of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus—“Help me to live more like that in my own life.”

The second way of praying with Scripture employs the imaginative power that God has given us, this marvelous faculty of the imagination, which allows us to be present to things that are not physically before us.

If I say, for example, just mention your mother or your father, whether they're living or with the Lord, and invite you just to see them, you can see the face, you can see the person, even if they're not physically present. And this is a wonderful power that God has given us, through which we can pray with the Scriptures as well. We'll say more about this in future sessions, but I simply want to introduce that because we are going to contemplate, in Ignatius' sense, the first of these passages. So let's turn to that now. And this is the encounter of Bartimaeus with Jesus in Mark 10:46–52.

So I invite you now to let your heart slow. Let the preoccupations and the anxieties, let them subside a bit in your heart, and just let your heart be aware of the Lord.

This is how we begin all prayer for Ignatius: just aware of the presence and the gaze of love of God upon us. Prayer is always a relationship, two persons. So just let your heart see the love in Jesus’ eyes for you that, let’s say, people in the Gospel saw—the people that He healed or instructed, the people who were so fascinated that they left everything and went three days out in the desert just to be with Him. And become aware of the love in His heart that desires to speak with you, to be with you.

And now, in that setting, let's read through the text. They came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me," just over and over again.

And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. He kept calling all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me." Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take courage. Get up. He is calling you."

He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want Me to do for you?" The blind man replied to Him, "Master, I want to see." Jesus told him, "Go your way. Your faith has saved you." Immediately, he received his sight and followed Him on the way.

Now I'll invite you to be there, as it were. Just imagine that the movie of the Gospel, of the life of Jesus, was showing on the wall in front of you or in the room where you are. And you could walk right into it, and you're there, and you take part in it. That's what Ignatius means by contemplation.

So I see the crowds. I see this road now as it leaves the city, and I see the blind beggar seated by the road. How is he dressed? What posture does he have?

And maybe I find myself there by His side with Him. If you feel so moved, take His place and become Bartimaeus. You and I know how much we need the Lord to see, to find our way. And so there I am now, seated like Bartimaeus or even in his place, waiting. And I hear that Jesus of Nazareth is coming close.

And this man, out of his great need, and each of us, out of his or her need and our hope that in Jesus we will find healing, we begin to approach the Lord. But he's helpless. He's blind. He can't approach the Lord the way the others in the crowd can. And you and I, at times when we feel our own even desperate need for the Lord as we face family situations, struggles in our own hearts, discouragement, financial troubles, struggle with the culture that surrounds us, and the sufferings of our Church.

Sometimes we too feel our own need and our own helplessness. And maybe as we pray, by God's grace, a spark of hope grows within us that in Jesus, there will be an answer. And now I watch as this blind Bartimaeus pours out the need of his heart and his hope in Jesus in this repeated cry. And maybe I make this repeatedly to the Lord myself now in my prayer: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me, over and over and over.

And as I pray, his cry becomes my cry. And I find myself saying to Jesus, Jesus, Son of David, you who love me, my Savior, you to whom all things are possible, have mercy on me. Come close. Help me in my helplessness. Help me to change. Help me to grow. Help me find my way through this difficult situation. And I don't stop. I make this prayer over and over to the Lord.

And I see that Jesus hears this cry of the blind Bartimaeus and that of my own heart. And I see Jesus stop, set aside the crowd, set aside His journey. The only thing that matters to Him now is the response to that cry of the heart.

And I hear Jesus say to those around Him, "Call him." And I hear them say to Bartimaeus, and today to me, "Take heart. Rise. He is calling you." He doesn't want you to remain locked in your discouragement. He's calling you out of that.

And I feel my heart begin to lift with a new hope. And now, like Bartimaeus, I stand before Jesus, and our eyes meet. I see His face. What do I see in His eyes? What does Bartimaeus see in his eyes that gives him such courage and such hope?

And now I hear his question to me, his question to the deep place in my heart that is afraid or discouraged or in need. What do you want me to do for you? What do I want You to do for me, Jesus? What is the need? The real need, the deep need, the many needs? What do you want me to do for you?

Take time in your prayer now. Pause, maybe, if you feel so moved, and answer that question. One of the most blessed things you can do in prayer is to answer that question which Jesus asks.

And now as I pray, the crowd, the surroundings recede in some way. And there I am, Jesus and I alone in the midst of the crowd. And now I speak to Him from my heart without hurry, and I answer His question. And I dare to tell Him all that I hope He will do for me, all the hope, all that I hope for from this time of prayer. And I say to Him in my own life, Master, let me receive my sight.

Help me to see where I am confused and discouraged and depressed and struggle and don't know the way forward. Don't see where You are leading clearly, and I am confused. Master, let me receive my sight. Help me to see. Help me to see my way clearly through the doubts and fears that so often press on my heart.

Help me to overcome. Show me the way to overcome that obstacle that keeps me from the closeness I long for with You. And now, with Bartimaeus, I experience Jesus' word of healing: Go your way. Your faith has saved you.

Something has changed. Something has been healed. I sense the love that pours out from Him and brings healing and new hope to my life. And now, like Bartimaeus, I follow Jesus along the way.

Take a moment, again following Ignatius, as your prayer concludes, just to look back over the time of prayer and ask: What word or words in the Scripture most spoke to my heart? And what were You, Lord, saying to me through those words?

What touched my heart in this time of prayer? What was my heart feeling as I prayed? Hope, struggle, and what did I sense the Lord saying to me?

Sometimes, I'll just conclude on a personal note: it seems to me that that prayer of Bartimaeus, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me," summarizes all of our prayer.

That's the deep prayer. We come with so many needs and such helplessness to the One who is infinitely loving, warmly loving, personal, close, the Savior, and infinitely powerful. And we simply say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. You know what I need. Heal me in the way that I need.

I remember a wonderful Jesuit priest commenting on this passage and about Bartimaeus' answer to Jesus' question, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the priest commented that if Bartimaeus, instead of answering and expressing what his heart really deeply did desire, were to have mentioned something different— you know, there's a family member or there's this situation— but he answers the question deeply, authentically from his heart. If he had not done that, would the miracle have taken place as it did?

This is a beautiful thing to do in prayer. Tell the Lord what's really there. Don't hesitate. That's what He really wants to know. And that's where His healing will come.

So blessings as we—well, I was about to say conclude our prayer on this first day, but it's really just a beginning for the day. God's blessings.