Whenever someone wants me to baptize their child . . . I invite them to first sit down with me and talk about Baptism.  . . . And if they accept my invitation, the first thing I ask them is what they expect Baptism to do for their child.  . . . I have asked that question of a very great many people over the past thirty years, . . . and almost without exception they’ll talk about baptism into the Christian community and faith as being life enhancing; . . . that Baptism is a way of accessing the benefits of supernatural good.  . . . And then I spend the rest of my time with them, before the Baptism, explaining how they are wrong:  that Baptism isn’t life enhancing; . . . it’s life defining!

    Now, I don’t tell people they’re wrong because I’m perverse.  I tell them that the Christian Faith is life defining because I read about it being that way in a book!  I read about it in the Holy Bible.  . . . And so have you these past five Sundays.  Because, for these past five Sundays we’ve been listening to a portion of Saint Mark’s Gospel which begins at Chapter 9, verse 30 and goes to the end of Chapter 10.  We’ve been listening to a portion of Saint Mark’s Gospel which is called “Mark’s Little Catechism.”  And what Mark’s Little Catechism does is use the teachings of Jesus to tell us how the cup of Christ’s Blood we drink and the Baptism of Christ’s Death and Resurrection with which we are washed define who we are . . . and the Humble character of our lives.

    And so, we have discovered, these last several Sundays, that a Humble character is Chaste; . . . Jesus expects us to be Detached from relying upon the power of the world or of the flesh or of the devil to affirm us and make us feel good about ourselves, but instead a soul that is Humble chooses to find his (or her)affirmation in Obedience to the Heart of God as it is revealed in the spirit of His commandments, . . . manifesting the Father’s uncommon love with Simplicity; . . . with a simplicity that employs possessions and intellect for no other purpose than to do good.  . . . Moreover, Saint Mark warned us last Sunday that without this character of Christian Humility to govern us . . . we squabble.  . . . A Christian individual and a Christian community that is not disciplined by material and spiritual Simplicity, moral and spiritual Detachment, and Obedience to the Heart of God . . . find it impossible to manifest the Father’s uncommon love to one another or to the world; . . . they simply become petulant and squabble.  This is why I say that Christian Baptism doesn’t enhance human life . . . but defines it.

    But, . . . in the end, it requires a miracle to give each of us the vision to follow Jesus.  . . . Which is the final caveat of Saint Mark’s Little Catechism.  . . . At the conclusion of his Catechism Mark tells us about Bartimaeus.  . . . For all that Jesus has said to us about the elements of Christian Humility; for all His careful explaining . . . we are like Bartimaeus; . . . we lack vision.  . . . Each one of us here today has only caught a scent of Jesus.  . . . We can’t really see His holiness; . . . we can’t quite see His magnificent and glorious mercy, grace, and love.  We know of it; . . . it has brushed our cheek like a breath; we have smelled its sweetness, . . . but it isn’t quite evident; . . . it isn’t quite evident from hour to hour or day by day.  . . . And so, here we are, blind beggars, crying out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

    And the world at large is no help to us, Mark says.  The world at large has other things on its mind and finds our interest in Jesus annoying.  The world at large has other remedies for our lives -- remedies involving sex, money, and power.  The world at large has no use for Jesus; . . . it finds simplicity frightening . . . chastity oppressive . . . and obedience suspicious.  The world at large regards our cry to Jesus with annoyance, . . . so much so that the world at large even trains our children that it’s impolite to make public appeal to God’s Son; . . . the world at large trains our children not to pray!  . . . The world at large regards our cry to Jesus with contempt . . . and in a thousand different ways is attempting to silence us.

    But Jesus has heard you, Mark says.  Jesus hears you, and so you have every reason to “Take heart; rise, [because Jesus] is calling you!”  Throw off every encumbrance and come to Jesus, Mark says.  He has heard you and stopped . . . and is waiting for you to come to Him so that He might ask, . . . “What do you want me to do for you?”  . . . When blind Bartimaeus was asked that question, he said, “Master, let me receive my sight.”  . . . “And immediately,” Saint Mark says, “immediately he received his sight and followed [Jesus] on the way.”  . . . Bartimaeus receives his sight and follows Jesus on the way to Jerusalem . . . and the Crucifixion.

    That’s how Mark’s Little Catechism ends.  And the point Mark is making is to tell us that while our Baptism into the Death and Resurrection of Jesus defines us as a people of simplicity, detachment, and obedience, . . . we attain to the fullness of the life which our Baptism defines . . . we attain to the fullness of the Life in Christ not only by improving our minds and training our bodies; not only by force of will and determination; . . . not just by reading spiritual books or learning Christian Yoga.  . . . All these things can be helpful, and it is a very good thing to desire and to work at mastering Christian Humility; . . . it is even better to attempt to develop habits of Simplicity and Detachment and Obedience.  But “with men it is [still] impossible [to attain to the heavenly life],” Jesus tells His disciples in Mark’s Little Catechism; . . . “With men it is impossible, but not with God.”  . . . And so, we attain to the fullness of the Life in Christ . . . by a miracle, Mark tells us.  We attain to the fullness of the Life in Christ by crying out to Jesus, . . . “Master, let me receive my sight.”  We attain to the fullness of Life in Christ by prayer; . . . by praying with the tenacity of Bartimaeus; . . . by persistent appeal to Jesus to grant us vision; . . . to give us the sight that the Father intended us to have before we were blinded by sin.  . . . And as He has done for Bartimaeus, . . . Jesus will do for you.