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“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
(Mark 11:51-52) (Photo: MARTIN ROOIMANS)
By Apostolic sister from the Community of Saint John | France
The divine election of the chosen people is at the heart of today's first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah.
Yes, Israel is God's Chosen One, God's "firstborn child".
This original and irrevocable choice is prolonged in a new way in Christ and is promised to all who are baptized into the New Covenant.
Even today, the Lord invites us to "shout for joy" and to "acclaim" all the children of the eternal God, the elders as well as the youngest.
What indecency, when the crimes of leaders of the Church tear apart their victims and all its members, bringing shame to the nations!
But the God who cries out, "Woe to the person through whom the scandal comes" (Mt 18:7), never takes back his gifts.
"In tears they will return" and God will "guide them to streams of water, by a smooth path where they will not stumble".
With the jealous love of a parent God will wash over all humankind, from the most vulnerable to the most wretched: "Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage as streams in dry land" (Ps126).
Resolutely, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem, surrounded by those close to him and the crowd.
On their way, an incident occurs that overwhelms the disciples.
A blind man is there by the side of the road.
He is no longer begging, he is shouting! He shouts over and over at the Master, but the disciples try to silence him.
Jesus has just announced his Passion, and neither he (they think wrongly) nor they have the heart to take care of this blind beggar. Not now, there has already been too much to carry…
But the blind man believes in Jesus. He's heard so much about the Master and knows he can bring light back to his eyes.
Strangely enough, Jesus does not respond directly to the man's increasingly insistent cries.
He simply says, "Call him here!"
It is as if he discerns another blindness, all the more urgent to cure because it is unaware of itself and gnaws at the soul.
"If your eyes are closed to the distress of this child, may your ears be opened to my call to you: lead him to me!" he seems to whisper to their sleeping consciousness.
The first miracle from these verses takes place there. Torn from the interior prison sealed by their suffering, they join this blind man to support his trust and be restored themselves to their true following of the Lord.
"Courage! Get up, he is calling you!"
It is then that the man throws off his cloak of misery; he leaps up, irresistibly drawn to Jesus.
At the heart of his plea bursts his vibrant faith, the cause of such audacity. Jesus is for him "Rabboni", this Master whose authority is such that he accomplishes what he commands.
Healed and saved, he follows Jesus who goes up to fulfill our salvation.
In times of darkness and uncertainty, the risk of withdrawal or false understanding threatens our faith.
Isn't it then that God reveals, in order to arouse our compassion, a poor person who cries out to God?
When we are servants of the work of salvation that the Spirit wants to have carried out through this person, hope is reborn in us and restores our true faith in the one who saves us.
The author is an apostolic sister from the Community of Saint John in Brest (France).
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