November 17, 2014 Monday, 33rd Week in Ordinary Time ST. ELIZABETH
1st Reading: Rev 1:1–4; 2:1–5Gospel: Lk 18:35–43
When Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by theroad, begging. As he heard the crowd passing by, he inquired what itwas, and they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was going by. Then hecried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The people infront scolded him, “Be quiet!” but he cried out all the more, “Jesus,Son of David, have mercy on me!”Jesus stopped and ordered the blind man to be brought to him, andwhen he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”And the man said, “Lord, that I may see!” Jesus said, “Receive yoursight, your faith has saved you.” At once the blind man was able tosee, and he followed Jesus, giving praise to God. And all the peoplewho were there also praised God.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated
Life Experience)
Some people make it difficult for others to pray. It happened to the blind man in today’s Gospel. It was not enough that he couldn’t see; they also wanted him to be speechless. “Be quite,” they warned him. Nature made him blind; society wanted to make him mute. Worse, they even wanted Jesus to play deaf! But the blind man persevered. Faith added volume to the words society wanted to stifle. Jesus heard him and he got what he wanted. God cannot ignore people at prayer, more so if they persevere.Perseverance solved the problem of the blind man. But his story would have ended differently if he were morally blind too. When a person is too blind to see that because life is short one cannot wallow in sin without sacrificing the more important agenda in life; when one blindly hangs on to the strategy of punctuating his life at deathbed with an orchestrated repentance because anyway God is good “all the time”, he suffers the kind of blindness not even God can cure. Malice already brings in the issue of freedom. One’s free exercise of freedom renders God powerless.
The less chronic form of moral blindness is slavery to sin. It is less chronic in the sense that like mental disorder the person still has his lucid moments during which he can muster remaining strength to rise up and confess his sins. But because lucid moments are fleeting, every rising becomes prelude to another falling. The sooner he is done confessing the quicker he resumes the sinning. He is trapped in a never ending cycle of rising and falling. But for as long as he stays sincere, God can free him from slavery to sin. He only needs to cry out as the blind man did. Prayer is never left unheard. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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