(Please read the scripture passage before reading the homily.)
On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus passed through Jericho. He met a blind man begging. The blind man called Jesus the Son of David. Jesus healed him and the one healed gave glory to God and all the people did likewise.
This is a contrast to the reaction on the disciples when Jesus announces for the third time his coming passion. Luke told us that, at that time the disciples did “not understand what Jesus was saying. The way Luke tells today’s story, we are to understand that that, once the blind man had received his sight, he had deep insights into the mystery of Jesus, the Son of David.
We muddle our way through life, somewhat like the disciples. We know that someday we are going to die, and we believe that after death we shall see the Lord in his glory. We respond by scratching our heads and saying that we do not understand. We need the blind man’s faith and belief.
If Jesus is our Lord and Savior, the Son of Man and the Christ of the Lord, why are we not praising God all the time. Luke and the other Gospel writers wrote not just to record the like of Jesus, but they have arranged their material to move us towards greater faith and response to the saving mercy of God given us through Jesus. It is no accident that Luke contrasts the lack of understanding of the disciples with the faith of a blind beggar.
Luke’s community would have understood by the juxtaposition of the two stories that the community should respond to Jesus with the same faith as the blind man. The community should have recalled that it was once blind and without faith, and that the Lord took its blindness away.
We hear these passages. We hear predictions of another war with another opposing people. We hear that we may have challenging times financially soon. We experience violence and hostile divisions in our population. We still face the possibility of becoming a victim of the pandemic. Is it any wonder that we are concerned for our own safety and the safety of our families?
In these times, the Lord walks with us into Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. Do we walk like those who do not understand, or do we cry out to the Son of David, like the blind man, for sight and understanding?