First Reading:
Jeremiah 31: 7-9. God will lead his people home from exile.
Second Reading: Hebrews 5: 1-6 Jesus can sympathize with all our limitations and weaknesses.
Gospel: Mark 10: 46-52. Jesus frees a man from his blindness.
Sunday Reflections from Fr Carlo Tei
Many Christians nowadays do not seem to take their faith seriously enough. Nothing, therefore, is more important for all of us than to re-discover the meaning of our Christian faith and all its implications. Today’s Gospel episode can help us find out the steps one has to go through in order to live by faith in Christ. Such steps are exactly the same as those which the blind man took before he could “follow Jesus on the road”.
1. A blind beggar is sitting at the side of the road. He cannot see Jesus who passes by. Others can only tell him about his coming. But, as soon as he knows that it is Jesus, he expresses his faith in him, by trusting in his healing power. Those who scold him do not scare him. He keeps on asking Jesus to have pity on him. Then some people help him to get ready for the call by Jesus. He throws off the cloak, jumps up and goes to Jesus and tells him that he wants to see. His sight is returned and, along with it, a total faith in Jesus is granted to him, so much so that he chooses to follow him.
2. The process of faith matches the above description.
• It starts with a manifestation of Christ in a man or a woman’s life: it is necessary that Christ should pass by first. And, indeed, Christ “passes by” every man and every woman of the world. This passage, however, is never visible. In order to recognize Jesus, who passes us by invisibly in the daily happenings of life, we need someone to tell us that it is Jesus.
- Someone told us about Jesus. And since then we were able to believe in him.
- So many of our brothers and sisters still have not had the opportunity to hear that Jesus is close to them. Is it not our duty to tell them? Is it not our mission as Christians to bring to others the “good news”, to manifest Jesus to others, to unveil his invisible presence?
• As soon as someone comes to know Jesus, he has to trust him completely, otherwise his encounter with Him will not bring healing and salvation. Anyone who knows Jesus and wants to be saved by him has to make an act of faith in Him, which means a complete trust in and surrender to him. He needs to stand firm, fearless of all difficulties and obstacles or of all worldly temptations which he may find on his way to Christ.
• If he stands firm, others around him (i.e. the Church) will help him get ready for the call by Jesus, they will help him to know Jesus better and better, and make the final decision, which is called “conversion”. One is “converted”, when he gets rid of his old self, symbolized by the cloak, when he gets rid of his old sinful life, centred on selfishness and self-sufficiency, and he is ready to get up: to start a new life, centred upon faith in Christ and love for God and his children. This life gives us a new sight: a new way of seeing things. We see things from Jesus’ point of view, and, as a result of this, we follow Jesus. We live, taking Jesus as our only model; we walk, in the world, very close to those who walk with us. We care for them, take their difficulties at heart, and share their sorrows and aspirations. We let the Spirit of Christ and his Gospel guide us and turn us into the witnesses of His Kingdom of justice and love. And we strongly hope and pray that all men and women of the world will soon recognize God as their Father.
Is this what we are doing in our daily lives? May Jesus help us to cure our blindness, so that we may follow him steadfastly and courageously along the road of life and thus contribute to the spreading of His Kingdom of justice, peace and love.
天主聖三，我們感謝你將教宗若望保祿二世，賜給教會，使他彰顯天父的慈愛、基督十字架的光榮，及聖神愛的光輝。他完全信賴你的無限仁慈，及聖母瑪利亞慈母般的轉求。他給予我們耶穌善牧的生動肖像，並為我們指出成聖是基督信徒日常生活的必然本分，又是通往與你永恆共融的道路。請你因教宗若望保祿二世的轉求，依照你的旨意，賜給我們所需的恩寵。願他早日被列入諸聖的名冊。亞孟。
