Homily – Rev. James L. Nadeau, Pastor -  October 24^th, 2021

You may be saying, “Blind Man - how does this connect to us?”  But . . . it does.
The story relates to us so much – you can’t imagine.
So, let’s put ourselves, our minds, and our hearts into the story.


The Story
In this story, a man is hollering from the side of the road. The road was crowded with people traveling to Jerusalem, including Jesus and His disciples. People recognized Jesus as the Great Teacher, Healer, Miracle Worker, and took notice of Him.  The rippled excitement spread! The Blind man was quick to pick up on this and knew that Jesus was there, so . . . he yelled! He had heard the stories about Jesus and put it all together. He knew that Jesus was the Messiah, so he yelled, “Son of David!” Remember what Jesus said, “Your faith has made all the difference.”  Boom! The blind man was healed, and he followed Jesus.

Our Blindness
Bartimaeus was blind, and I think we are, too. We are blind in our faith when we don’t see God; when we don’t recognize the good, the holy, the love, when we fail to see Jesus in others.
            We are blind when we receive communion not believing it really is the body of Christ Himself.
            We are blind when we maliciously talk about others.
            We are blind when we miss mass.
            We are blind when we go too far . . .
            We are blind when we don’t see the need to pray.
            We are blind when we fail to love.

Well, that was the story and a list of how we are blind. Now, let’s get to the guts of this.

How can we regain our sight? Easily. Simply. You can see again if you take this story, this knowledge of God and put it into your heart. See if it will change you as it did Bartimaeus. Please don’t be like Bartimaeus in blindness only. Notice in the end, he is the hero of the story.
He doesn’t give in.
He keeps asking.
He won’t be shouted down.
He believes with a fierce passion.
And . . . he becomes a follower.

I know that each o f you can become a hero in the story of our faith.
Don’t give up.
Be persistent about something you really want.
Don’t be shouted down by the other people in society telling you to shut up.
Shout loud and take a stand for clear values, for love, the goodness.
And please, believe in Him with the same fierce passion of Bartimaeus.

Follow him by living Jesus’ ways.
Because there are so many out there who need to see you, see you loving, see you living your faith.

Try that this week.

LIVE so that someone will be able to look at you and say,
“That  person’s faith in God has made all the difference.”

If you don’t want to try that, then, please be careful not to bump into anything.