Post-feast of Theophany; the Holy Martyrs Hermylus and Stratonicus (313-24)
Read
James 2:14-26; Mark 10:46-52
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
My three year old daughter, like every child her age, is persistent when it comes to her desires. Saying “mama” once is not enough, especially when mama doesn’t respond after hearing it once. Instead, she will say “mama” until her desire, mama’s attention, is fulfilled.
Bartimaeus is like a child in his persistence. Once he knew that Jesus was passing by, his voice could not be drowned out by the crowd or those who rebuked his persistent cries to Christ. Instead, their rebuke led to even greater persistence until his desire for Christ was fulfilled.
We all desire communion with God. The world offers us many roadblocks and plenty of rebukes when it comes to fulfilling this desire. Rather than allow those roadblocks to hinder our desire for communion with God, we need to respond with the persistence of a child and the persistence of Bartimaeus to seek out our desire stronger and more deeply than before.