I think that I, like a lot of us, have always thought that the worst, the absolute worst, disability to have, would be blindness.  I think that it is so hard for all of us who have our sight, to imagine being in the dark continually.  Our fear makes us believe that in not being able to see, we would miss out on whole aspects of life.  How much important information might we miss out on if we couldn’t see?  And how much danger could that put us into?  Did you ever see that old Audrey Hepburn movie where she was blind, and she was trapped in her house with a murderer?  It really made you appreciate the gift of sight!  My thinking on blindness changed a great deal when I met a young man from Anderson, Indiana, a few years ago, who was blind.  Mike had been blind since birth.  And he was one very funny guy.   You could look at Mike and not tell exactly whether he was blind or not.  So Mike would tell stories of people trying to discretely find out whether or not he could see.  Some would wave their hands in front of his face, and he would feel the air, so he would know what they were doing.  And he’d say, “Stop waving your hand in front of my face!” Some just came out and outright asked him, “Are you blind?”  He always had a snappy, come-back answer like, “No, I just really want to be like Stevie Wonder.”  Mike used one of those thin, walking sticks to feel his way as he walked along.   Some idiot asked him once, “Why are you using that stick?”  Mike replied that he really, really liked toasting marshmallows on a fire, so he carried the stick to always be ready.  In addition to some great one-liners about being blind, Mike also taught me that there were many different kinds of blindness.  And just because you can see with your eyes, doesn’t mean that you’re NOT blind.  Mike said that many times because we rely on our vision so much, people who can see often fail to use their sense of smell, and their sense of hearing, and their sense of touch.  And we miss out on so much.  Mike also said that blindness in our mind or blindness in our hearts, is much worse than not being able to see with our eyes.  And you know, I’m sure he’s right.

        Today, Jesus heals this blind man, Bartimaeus.  As we hear this incredible story of healing power, we are reminded that Jesus also wants to heal us of our blindness too.  We might think that we aren’t blind.  But as my friend Mike would point out to us, we are ALL blind in some way.  We all need Jesus’ healing power.

        First of all, we are blind to God.  We live in a world that has so distanced itself from God, that it is really no wonder that so many can’t see Him anymore.  We blind ourselves with our sin and our wrong choices, and then we can’t see God.  Then we say stupid things like “Where is God?”  or “Does God really exist?”, when the problem is not with God, the problem is with us.  We blind ourselves to the power and love of God, and then we want to blame Him for it.  We’ve got it all wrong.  Our God wants to help us, not hurt us!  Praying for God to heal our blindness towards Him, is many times the first step to really seeing Him in action in our lives.

        Secondly, we are blind towards each other.  We can be so selfish.  We go through this world and this life, and we really do think that it is all about us.  We like to pretend that we don’t see our brothers and sisters, or our brother’s and sister’s needs.  It is so much easier and cheaper to take care of ourselves.  If we don’t see the poor, if we don’t see the sick, if we don’t see the lonely, then they must not exist, right?  Wrong.   Sometimes, we like to pretend that we are blind, or act like we are blind, because then we think that it gets us out of our responsibility to others.   Guess what?  It doesn’t.  You don’t need to go to Africa, or South America, or Haiti, to know that there are people in great need there.  Nor do you need to have 20/20 vision to know that there are people in great need here also.  Sometimes, many forms of blindness can be an excuse.  And many times, it’s more comfortable and easy to hand on to our excuses, than it is to be healed of our blindness.

         Our God wants to help us.  He wants to help ALL of us, to see clearly with our eyes, our minds, and our hearts.  There are many different kinds of blindness.  Isn’t it good to know that our God can take care of ALL of them.

May God bless us today,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…AMEN !!!

    St. Maria Goretti…Pray for us !!!