A WORD FROM THE PASTOR

Spititual Journey Like Bartimaeus

Dear friends, perhaps in your spiritual journey you too have felt like Bartimaeus, the blind man in today’s Gospel. I am giving two stories, both connected to the Gospel message. Each story leaves some moral lessons. Hope they are useful. Have a great weekend!

Transforming Vision:
The musical Les Miserables is based on the epic novel by Victor Hugo and dramatizes the adventures of Jean Valjean. After serving nineteen years in prison for stealing some bread to help his sister’s starving child, Jean is paroled. Unable to find work, Valjean steals from a priest, who in turn lies to save him from being sent back to prison. Given a second chance, Jean Valjean undergoes a moral and social transformation: he takes a new name, becomes wealthy, befriends a dying prostitute, raises her orphan and twice risks everything he’s gained to save others.

What the Lord did through the priest for Valjean is similar to what he did for Bartimaeus. Both Valjean and Bartimaeus were nobodies, social outcasts, but when Jesus entered their lives, they became somebodies, Jesus’ disciples. Many are the times Jesus has stopped to take notice of us and to transform us. When we were nobodies, Jesus made us somebodies. When we were spiritually sick, Jesus made us whole. When we were down Jesus lifted us up. Can we in turn stop more often to ask people: “What can I do for you? How can I be of help?”

Give Sight to all who are Blind:
There is a beautiful anecdote in the book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, written by Harold S. Kushner. There were two storekeepers who were bitter rivals. Their stores were across the street from each other. They would spend each day sitting at the doorway keeping track of each other’s business. If one got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival.

One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, “God has sent me to teach you a lesson. He will give you anything you ask for but I want you to know that whatever you get, your competitor across the street will get twice as much. If you’d like to be wealthy, the man across the street will be twice as rich.” The man frowned for a moment and said, “All right, my request is, strike me blind in one eye, so that the man across will be blind in both eyes.” While the man in this story was praying to become blind, Bartimaeus in today’s Gospel was crying out to Jesus to be healed of his blindness.