Saint Luke’s Gospel tells of a blind man who was sitting
by the roadside begging, and who cried out,
“Jesus, Son of
David, have pity on me.” This is one of a number of encounters that Jesus
has with the blind, and all of them are particularly valuable to us for our
meditation and growth in spirit and in holiness.
This man was blind; he could not see. That is, he could
not see the many things that we see naturally without giving a moment’s thought
to them.
The blind man, however, did see in a deeper sense; He “saw”
that a great and powerful man was approaching him; he” saw” the reality of
Jesus’ lineage (Jesus, Son of David), and he “saw” his own need for merciful pity.
The word he uses in Greek is eleison,
the same word we use at Mass when we pray Kyrie
eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison. And we usually translate it as “have
mercy,” but the current English translation of the Scriptures we are using at
Mass has the blind man calling out not for mercy, but for pity.
That might rankle us and shake up our pride a bit. Do we
think of ourselves as needing pity? The blind, the lame, the helpless,
the lost, the paralyzed, the total loser---all of these need pity, a
special brand of pity. They need the pity that is going to lead to
action, to reparation, to restoration and to thorough healing.
But do we need pity? What might it cost our pride
if we began to think of ourselves, not only as sinners in need of mercy, but
certainly as the lost an prideful needing pity?
It might do us some good to humble ourselves in that way.
And if we do, then, we will begin to see what we often overlook and what
we tend to ignore or hide away.
Jesus has an answer to all of this: His answer: What
do you want me to do for you?
Out of your humility, ask him. Now.
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