Reflections on Scripture | Memorial of Saint Justin

Join Msgr. Don Fischer as he reads and delivers a short reflection on today’s gospel, followed by 3 1/2 minutes of contemplative music and a closing prayer. Msgr. Don hopes that today’s reflection on the gospel will empower you to carry the Word in your heart throughout the day.

Choose either the video or audio below.

Gospel
Mark 10:46-52

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
“Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”
Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.

Reflection

There's a beautiful way in which we are asked from this reading to imagine our relationship with God in terms of our asking for things. It seems to me that the grace that God creates in us gives us the wisdom to ask for the right thing.

And I can't think of any prayer that is more pleasing to God than to say, free me from the blindness of the things I do not know yet that I need to see, that I need to know about you and about me and why I'm here. But the interesting thing is, at the same time that he's asking for this request, Bartimaeus wanting to see it's actually Jesus calling him.

And so it's really interesting that we we need to understand that when we pray for something that is God's will. That prayer is, in a way, a gift to us from God. He gives us a longing for the things we need. And if we pay attention to those longings, not just as a request that might or might not be fulfilled, but as His desire to give us the thing we need.

When there's a need. Pay attention, because it's very much about God calling you into a new understanding and a new awareness.

Closing Prayer

Father, awaken in me an awareness of the needs that we have for you, particularly where we are in our journey and what it is that we're closest to understanding that we don't yet fully know. Give us the trust and the confidence that our longing will be answered and it will bring us the thing that we need the most. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Reflections Archives

Kyle Cross