Dear Friends,

We are familiar with the phrase ‘the blind leading the blind’ – to speak of those who are being lead by a person of way of thinking that leads no where but up a blind alley or head long into disaster, without anyone realising.

There is great irony in the gospel story today. Blind Bartimaeus is healed by Jesus, his last act of healing before entering Jerusalem, on his final week before his crucifixion. The irony lies in that, apart from Jesus’ disciples, Bartimaeus, the blind man, is the only one who sees Jesus for who he really is – the expected Davidic Messiah. All the sighted people were blind and unable to see who Jesus was. It was the physically blind Bartimaeus who showed the spiritually blind people who was in their presence.

How easy for us to not see Jesus as he passes by in the broken, the needy and the difficult member of the family! Maybe like Bartimaeus we need to cry out to the Lord to open our eyes to see the Lord in our midst, not only in others but also his true presence in the Holy Eucharist – “open my eyes Lord that I might see and be saved!”

Blessing Fr Neil