In today's gospel passage (Lk 18:35-43), Saint Luke tells the story of one of the people that Jesus met as he was approaching the city of Jericho. A blind man was sitting by the roadside begging (Lk 18:35). We are not told whether this man had been blind from birth or whether he had met with some catastrophic incident, because the important point was the meeting that this man had with Jesus. Still, I cannot help wondering whether he had known life as a sighted person beforehand. If so, as the modern-day saying goes, perhaps he knew what he was missing, being deprived of his sight.
Surely, his life would have carried its own challenges, and he needed help in order to rise above those obstacles, not unlike the poor who still struggle in our day. Yesterday was the World Day of Prayer for the Poor. In his homily for the occasion, Pope Francis spoke about the reasons why the Lord allows our human certitudes to collapse, even at times when we seem to have fewer and fewer of them. The answer in short is so that we can learn to look to him, just as the blind man was made aware of Jesus who was passing by through the witness of others who were present along the path with him.
The words of the blind man's prayer are our words too: Lord, please let me see. In so many different circumstances, we give life to this plea every day ... if we are struggling to find answers, if we are faced with complicated conundra, or at times when the day-to-day realities we deal with seem to be overwhelming. Like the blind man, we too can be courageous in such moments; we too can raise our voices in prayer and supplication ... our God will always stop, look at us and respond to our prayer.
Have a great day.
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