On this Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we read in the Gospel of Mark:
They came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So, they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, he is calling you.” He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way (Mark 10: 46-52).
At first glance, we might be tempted to say, “Well, that’s nice; Jesus does a miracle for a blind man. So, what does that have to do with me in the twenty-first century?”
Well, just like Timaeus, we also might be blind. Our blindness might not involve our eyesight. Rather, we might be blind to our own faults. We might be blind to the goodness that is buried in others. We might be blind to the path God is asking us to follow. The good news is, however, that Jesus can remove the blindness if we just ask.