In this Sunday’s Gospel the blind man, Bartimaeus, sitting on the edge of the road begging, recognizes and “sees” who Jesus is and cries out to him, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Because, through the eyes of faith, Bartimaeus has seen who Jesus is and he is able to ask to be healed …“Lord I want to see”!
Those words could very well be our cry for clarity in the way we “see” the world around us…these words may well be the exclamation of our deep desire to live more fully in Christ and to see the world as Jesus saw it.
We want to believe more; we want to see more…but we are hindered by our individual and collective blindness, and it can hold us back from following Christ with complete and utter abandon.
The Word we hear today is meant to stir up our discipleship, to rouse our “Gospel sight” that we might see the world as God sees it -- that we might have our blindness removed and truly see the poor and marginalized as our sisters and brothers and reach out to them. That with our Gospel sight roused, we might see clearly the systemic injustices in our society; the scourge of systemic racism and bigotry, misogyny, the hatred toward immigrants and refugees and those who are “othered” by individuals and groups filled with hate.
Let this “Gospel sight” see the injustice of our broken immigration system that separates families and denies asylum to those honestly seeking a safe home, a place to live without the constant threat of death. That we might see how misogyny holds back our mothers, our sisters and our daughters and cheats our country of the richness of the gifts they have to share with the world.
Let us pray for “Gospel eyes” that help us “to see” solutions to the international wars raging around the world, solutions to local and global poverty, solutions for the hunger and suffering of migrants and refugees sojourning around the globe searching for freedom and justice…searching for a home. Let us pray to work for and “to see” solutions for all that divides our nation that we might live in peace and harmony, seeing each “other” as equals, as sister and brother, as God see us!
Amid all the suffering, hurt and fear in our families, our country and our world today let us, like blind Bartimaeus cry out: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us, send us your grace to “let us see” a way forward to build up our families, our nation and our world, to become a people of peace, a people of hope, and create families and communities of openness and acceptance, where the stranger is welcomed, and the wounded are healed. Amen.
Blessings,
Fr. Tim
Those words could very well be our cry for clarity in the way we “see” the world around us…these words may well be the exclamation of our deep desire to live more fully in Christ and to see the world as Jesus saw it.
We want to believe more; we want to see more…but we are hindered by our individual and collective blindness, and it can hold us back from following Christ with complete and utter abandon.
The Word we hear today is meant to stir up our discipleship, to rouse our “Gospel sight” that we might see the world as God sees it -- that we might have our blindness removed and truly see the poor and marginalized as our sisters and brothers and reach out to them. That with our Gospel sight roused, we might see clearly the systemic injustices in our society; the scourge of systemic racism and bigotry, misogyny, the hatred toward immigrants and refugees and those who are “othered” by individuals and groups filled with hate.
Let this “Gospel sight” see the injustice of our broken immigration system that separates families and denies asylum to those honestly seeking a safe home, a place to live without the constant threat of death. That we might see how misogyny holds back our mothers, our sisters and our daughters and cheats our country of the richness of the gifts they have to share with the world.
Let us pray for “Gospel eyes” that help us “to see” solutions to the international wars raging around the world, solutions to local and global poverty, solutions for the hunger and suffering of migrants and refugees sojourning around the globe searching for freedom and justice…searching for a home. Let us pray to work for and “to see” solutions for all that divides our nation that we might live in peace and harmony, seeing each “other” as equals, as sister and brother, as God see us!
Amid all the suffering, hurt and fear in our families, our country and our world today let us, like blind Bartimaeus cry out: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us, send us your grace to “let us see” a way forward to build up our families, our nation and our world, to become a people of peace, a people of hope, and create families and communities of openness and acceptance, where the stranger is welcomed, and the wounded are healed. Amen.
Blessings,
Fr. Tim
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