In the first reading today from Sirach 42, the sacred author does something that we should do always. He recalls the great things that God has done. In the Gospel reading today from Mark 10, Jesus has an encounter with Bartimaeus, a blind man. Bartimaeus, a street beggar, begins crying out, “Son of David, have pity on me!” The crowd kept trying to silence him, but he persisted. “Son of David, have pity on me!” Jesus stops and tells the disciples to “Call him.”
The disciples go to Bartimaeus and say, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.” He gets up, goes to speak with Jesus and received his sight. What a great story! Of course, any theologian worth his or her salt will tell us that Bartimaeus represents all of us. We are all blind in one way or another. And we can only be healed, receive our sight, if we go to Jesus and ask him to heal us.
If someone walked up to you today and said, “Jesus is calling you!”, how would you react? Would you check your cell phone? Would you blow them off as some kind of religious nut? What if someone wrote you a note to that effect? Well, then, prepare to blow me off. Because I’m telling you. Jesus is calling you! He wants to heal you of your blindness, heal all of your infirmities. The problem is, of course, that we don’t know we’re blind. But that’s OK! Jesus is still calling you!
Father, help us to realize our blindness, our woundedness. Open our ears so that we can hear that Jesus is calling! Give us the grace to answer His call today. Amen.
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