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Spirituality of the Readings
30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Year B
October 24, 2021
John Foley, SJ

Keep on Asking

­You might remember this story, which I think I have told before.

One summer night a thicket of ducks quacked its way across the lake and dropped into a tree or two near the screened-in porch where I, on retreat, sat. Their loud, non-stop, ever-increasing racket shocked me. Each and every citizen, it seemed, felt a duty to squawk in full voice and all at once! I suppose they were having a rollicking good time, but what did they achieve with their babble?

I had assumed that they came for an evening’s rest. But could anyone rest with this earsplitting quack-talk?

Our loud-longing is heard by God, who is saying, “Hush, the whole flock is here. Settle down.”

There began a subtle change in the clatter, very gradual, as when applause reaches a peak and then, almost unnoticeably, crests and trails off. Each bird gave a bit of quiet to the next until everyone was comfortable and calm.

Except one.

This individual went on and on cawing, absurdly, all by itself.

Imagine it.

Then at last a duck-mate nudged it and said, “Hey, buddy we’re all around you and we’re safe. Zip up your beak.” And it did. There ensued the sleepy silence that I had thought they wanted all along.

I saw that this was teamwork.

I have always loved to be included in a team. Nobody perfect, yet everyone having a special place, keeping the rules, moving along together, and someone comforting the one who can’t take a hint. Today I suppose we would call it community. Or family.

God confirms this in the First Reading.

I will gather the blind and the lame, … the mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng. They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble.

My duck friends seemed to be symbols of these readings. Their alarums, and finally their trusting slumber maybe weren’t so different from what we ourselves do. Our loud-longing is heard by God, who is saying, “Hush, the whole flock is here. Settle down.”

Like the last duck, Blind Bartimaeus in Sunday’s Gospel couldn’t stop calling out to Jesus. “Son of David have pity on me!” The rest of the flock tried to shush him, but he kept right on. Over and over, “Son of David have pity on me!”

He waded through the crowd to Jesus, who asked him the same question the squawking ducks should have: “What do you want?” In this case it was obvious. A blind man would want his sight back.

Did Jesus miss this?

  “Master, I want to see.”

Just getting his sight back would not have done it, any more than just landing in the trees did the ducks. He already had the incarnate God standing before him, and maybe this was the fullness of what he wanted to “see.”

  “Your faith has saved you,” Jesus said. And the man saw. And followed.

If Jesus asked you or me, “what do you want,” how would we answer? Is the faith that saves us hiding deep inside? Are we able to call for help? Such a call can be fulfilled this very day, you know, if we let it.

  “What do you want?”

John Foley, SJ

Father Foley can be reached at:
Fr. John Foley, SJ


Fr. John Foley, SJ, is a composer and scholar at Saint Louis University.


Art by Martin Erspamer, OSB
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C). This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org