30th Sunday in ordinary time. Today’s readings: Jeremiah 31,7-9; Hebrews 5,1-6; Mark 10,46-52.

There is only one thing that the people of God, utterly dejected by the experience of being exiled in Babylon, wanted to hear God say to them: “Return, come back home.” Given the fact that a great part of the theology of the Old Testament is the fruit of this exilic experience, it is no wonder that the theme of this great return is a central one, as shown by the recurrence of the verb ‘shuv’, which means precisely ‘to come/go back’.

Naturally, despite the importance of the Promised Land to the people of God, the return was not merely one to a geographical location, but more importantly to the God who alone could guarantee stability in the land. Hence, ‘shuv’ essentially referred to a reconnection with the Lord, and it entailed a reaffirmation of faithfulness to the God of Israel, which was their first calling and, thereby, the mark of their true identity.

In modern times, the notion of coming back to one’s origins was skilfully retold by Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist, which tells the story of a young shepherd from Spain called Santiago. In pursuit of his dream of finding a treasure beneath the pyramids, he sets off on a long, eventful journey, only to realise that the treasure was located precisely beneath the tree in Spain where he had dreamt about it. It is as though the author is saying that we often fail to appreciate the wealth we inherently possess and that, despite our many wanderings in life, the most worthwhile journey of all is that which leads us to rediscover who we are and with what we have been gifted.

The most worthwhile journey of all is that which leads us to rediscover who we are and with what we have been gifted

Much like Santiago, the blind Bartimaeus in today’s gospel yearned to be able to behold the light, of which he must have been deprived for several years. However, what is markedly different between Santiago and Bartimaeus is that the latter had already experienced and enjoyed that which he was now longing to regain, namely his sight. Conversely, Santiago had never known the excitement of owning a treasure.

Thus, what is striking about the gospel is not only the awesome miracle by which Jesus gave Bartimaeus back his physical sight, but the fact that this man’s healing reflects the very story of his people, who were always called to come back to the relationship with God that they had from the very beginning.

In Jesus’s conversation with Peter prior to the passion, the Lord instructed the apostle as follows: “I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Lk 22,32) Peter too needed to be drawn in again by Christ after denying the friendship he had enjoyed with him for years. But nowadays, many are those who have not been raised in the faith at all. Apparently, our nation is rapidly losing that collective memory of a solid grounding in the Christian faith.

This begs the question to what, exactly, is it that such people are to return? Indeed, God calls out to believers and unbelievers alike to orient themselves to Christ who alone is the interpreter of the true human nature.

What is at play here is an existential return not to our individual past experiences, but to humanity’s first calling to walk with God in intimate communion with him.

Unless we wish the epitaph that read: “Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and nowhere to go” to be applied to us, we must learn to come, or come back, to our real home while still on earth. And just as Santiago’s journey back to Spain was marked by his love for a beautiful girl called Fatima, so does our journey entail a falling in love with God, our truest home.