“Jesus, have pity on me”, lamented the blind beggar; “let me see again”. Today, our cry resounds to you Jesus, beseeching you to show us your mercy and compassion as you did to Bartimaeus.

Lord, in my shouts to you from deep within me—from the depths of my subconscious, for fear of ridicule by friends and family, and from my own self-indignation—I ask you to stop awhile as you stopped for the blind beggar and “call me to you”.

And so, with courage, will I throw off all that weighs heavy on me and I will come to you, to place at your feet my worries, my burdens, my fears, my tears and my joy.

Lord I want to hear you ask, “What can I do for you?” 

When we are at our lowest ebb (in a poor state); when we have nowhere to go, no one to turn to and when we feel no one understands or even cares to bother what becomes of us, then we can truly relate to the insistent cry of the blind man “sitting at the side of the road”.

Jesus, out of the depths of our sorrow, our misery, our emotional torment, our loneliness, our uncertainty of our next move, you come and you release us and bring some kind of healing, some direction or a way out of our self-imprisonment. Only then, do we begin to live freely.

Bartimaeus follows Jesus after his deliverance and we too are grateful to him after he touches us and sets us free from some torment or strife. However, when the pain is no longer there, and when the memory of what the Lord has done for us has faded, what happens then?

Do we forget about Jesus: do we allow our spiritual house to remain empty—empty of his Spirit and of his ways (Mt 12:43-45)?Do we no longer acknowledge him and, more significantly, what he has done and can do again for us?

To keep the fervour of his love and saving grace alive—like embers of coal that need to be fanned so they keep glowing, bring heat and give fire—should be our continued resolve. 

When we lose that zeal, the energy we had when we encountered Jesus and knew his deliverance and healing power, the feeling of despair and loss can so easily again consume us. I may desire to keep that fervour going, but how do I?

When I get caught up with life’s challenges, especially living a Christian life and playing an integral part in a worldly society that demands that I do better for myself, how then do I cope?

We may see Jesus in those special times of transformation or deliverance but we often fail to see him in the present moment, in all aspects of our lives. In the same way that we often take things for granted—our jobs, our families, our friends—we take Jesus for granted.

Like Bartimaeus we want Jesus to help us in our time of need; we call out to him no matter what. But, after that, what then?  Following him along the road is no easy task and indifference is one of the real obstacles to Jesus’ life within each of us.

Reopen our eyes to see you Jesus; to shake off that apathy and become filled with zeal to love, to become kingdom builders and to serve the Father in sincerity. 
Sometimes in our desert-crossing—like the Jews in the desert who wandered for forty years—we wander and we become restless. Says St Augustine: “My soul is restless until it rests in the Lord.”
Let us light the fires, rise up and cast off that dullness in our hearts and minds! Let us keep the light of Jesus before us so we can follow him along the road.
Lord, I long to hear you say to me: “Your faith has saved you”. Come, Lord, rescue me, save me and give me your Spirit, your Spirit of love and peace. Help me to be truly faithful and to commit myself to living out a Catholic way of life. Father, we pray always for your love that sustains us all.

Gospel Meditations for the month of October are by Richard Gomez a teacher at Sacred Heart Boys’ and a layminister of the Cathedral/Sacred Heart parish