The Gospel reading for today was Luke 18:35-43:
As Jesus approached Jericho
a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging,
and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening.
They told him,
"Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."
He shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!"
The people walking in front rebuked him,
telling him to be silent,
but he kept calling out all the more,
"Son of David, have pity on me!"
Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him;
and when he came near, Jesus asked him,
"What do you want me to do for you?"
He replied, "Lord, please let me see."
Jesus told him, "Have sight; your faith has saved you."
He immediately received his sight
and followed him, giving glory to God.
When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.
Let us reflect for a moment about the faith of the blind man.
Few of us know what it feels like to live this life without sight; many of us know what it is to fear the unknown. I assume that some of the feeling of fear that we experience about what we cannot anticipate or predict is similar to the feeling of fear one would have when he cannot see.
This begs a question of us; how courageous is our faith? How fundamental? How complete?
In this Gospel reading, we hear of a man who is rebuked for his audacity. He is told to be quiet, and yet he throws himself into making a ruckus. He will not be hushed.
When Jesus calls the man to himself, he asks the man what he desires. His simple answer of "Lord, please let me see," is certainly one of faith in the power of Jesus. However, this supplication comes after the man has shown how strong his faith is in that he would not be quiet, would not be hushed, and disregarded the social norms for the sake of drawing near to God.
It is his audacity that is the sign of his faith, that comes before he even asks for healing.
Perhaps we need to keep this in mind for our own lives. How many times in our culture are we, people of faith, hushed? How often do we feel the oppression of social norms keeping us from reaching out to a stranger in need or speaking up about the truth when our friends or family are misguided? I know how easily I can close my mouth and think of what I would say, if I were free to do so. Well, why am I not free to do so? Fear? I seek acceptance. I seek to not "rock the boat." I seek to remain in good standing with people, and therefore I would rather not confront them with the truth or rebuke them.
Certainly, the virtue of prudence and the gifts of the Holy Spirit assist us in judging accurately when we should or should not speak or act. There are times when it is not appropriate, or when we could do more detriment than harm. But this cannot be the case every time. Nor should it be the case most of the time. We should be practicing a much more fear-less faith! Truly, we should be practicing the proper fear, which is fear of the Lord. It is he who is our final judge, not society, culture or our family and friends. None of them will judge our eternal life - only the Lord. So we must remember who it is that we should be calling out to - Jesus - and no one else.
The very end of the Gospel states that "When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God" - perhaps we find this hard to imagine in our own day and age. Yet, if more of us acted in great faith, and had the audacity to proclaim the truth of Christ even in the midst of opposition, perhaps more people would find themselves believing again! Jesus performed miracles both because of the good of healing and because of the confirmation of his identity before the people. Those who might have doubted were perhaps brought to faith by seeing this blind man's faith rewarded so beautifully.
We must keep in mind that God's will is not our will, and that his plan for our lives is perfect. While we may not be able to see into the future and anticipate what that may mean, we must act daily with the faith that is a testimony to the power and love of our Savior. We should pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to pour out grace and to strengthen his gifts in our lives. We must pray to be courageous if we hope to see the miracles our world needs.
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