By William Selvaraj csc –
Readings: 1 Mac 1: 10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63; Lk 18: 35-43
The gospel of the day invites me to look out for the needy and extend my helping hands. Sometimes, I can only see through my physical eyes and judge other things or beings. But the eyes of my heart will not condemn others but give hope and healing to the people.
The blind man teaches me a lesson not to be happy with the minimum I have, rather multiply it through perseverance and hard work. He felt down because of the loss of his sight and was not satisfied in life. That really provoked him to cry aloud to the Lord for mercy. People in the crowd silenced him but he never paid attention to the useless comments; instead with deep inner faith, he cried out to the Lord: “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.” This made Jesus heal him immediately. Though people around the blind man had good eyesight, they were blind to help the needy people in society.
In our day-to-day living, sometimes we may also have limited other people from growing or allowing them to raise their voice against certain things in society. Let us introspect ourselves and ask, ‘are we also blind like others in not extending our helping hands? Are we in need of sight from Jesus?’
Today, we live in a world where external forces will try to silence us, because we speak the truth which may hurt others. When I have enough faith, I can proclaim that Jesus is the Lord
confidently and courageously.