My Dear People,

In today’s Gospel, there is a blind man who would not listen or be quiet. Upon hearing the commotion the crowd was making, he asks: “What is happening?” They told him, “It is Jesus, of Nazareth.” Bartimeus, his soul, afire with faith, cried out: “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” 

“Do you, sometimes, feel the same urge to cry out? You, who are also waiting at the side of this highway of life? You, who need more light and more grace to make up your mind to seek holiness? Don’t you sometimes feel an urgent need to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”?  What a beautiful aspiration for us to repeat, again and again! 

Many rebuked Bartimeus, telling him to be silent, just as people may have told you, when you sensed that Jesus was passing by your way. Most likely, your heart began beating faster and you thought to cry out, prompted by an intimate longing. Then, your friends conspire to tell you: “Keep quiet! Don’t cry out! Who are you to be calling Jesus? Don’t bother Him.”

Bartimeus, though, did not listen to the crowd. He cried out even louder: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Our Lord, who had heard him right from the beginning, let him persevere in his prayer. Our Lord does the same with us. Jesus hears our cries from the very first, but He waits. He wants us to be convinced we need Him. He wants us to beseech Him, and to persist, like the blind man waiting by the road near Jericho. Let us imitate Bartimeus even if God does not immediately give us what we are asking for, and even if some people try to put us off. Let us, still, go on praying. 

Jesus stopped and told the people to call Bartimeus. Some in the crowd turned to the blind man and said, “Take heart, rise! He is calling you.” But God, however, does not call us just one time. Bear in mind that our Lord is seeking us at every moment! Get up, He tells us, put aside your indolence, your easy life, your petty selfishness, your silly little problems. Get up from the ground, where you are lying prostrate and shapeless. Acquire height, weight, volume, and a supernatural outlook. 

“Never forget that Christ cannot be reached without sacrifice. We must strive to rid everything that gets in the way. Here, you have the Christian vocation! You must do the same in this battle for the glory of God, in this struggle of love and peace by which we are trying to spread Christ’s kingdom. 

As Bartimeus received his sight because of his faith, so we receive our sight—(our “mission in life”). We must walk with Jesus as Bartimeus did! We must try to walk in Jesus’s footsteps; to clothe ourselves in Christ’s clothing, and to be Christ, Himself. Your faith, in the light of the Lord, must be both operative and full of sacrifice.  We must keep in step with Him, working generously and at the same time uprooting and getting rid of everything that gets in our path. 

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente