This weekend’s Gospel is about Bartimaeus, the blind man from Jericho. I have always found this short story heart wrenching, because there are so many emotions experienced: the excitement of the crowd as they follow Jesus out of town; the absolute misery, despair and humiliation that Bartimaeus wakes up with and goes to sleep with each day; the moment of hope that Bartimaeus experiences when by chance Jesus of Nazareth, a healer passes near him; the annoyance of the crowd and their efforts to render a helpless person even more helpless; the panic and heart break that Bartimaeus must have felt. When the crowd works to reinforce his sense of worthlessness; the awful loneliness that Bartimaeus must have felt at that moment knowing that outside of Jesus, he was truly all alone. It is this last “emotion” that strikes me the most. How terrible, how awful it is to feel alone; that there is no one in your life who values you enough to stand by your side; appreciates your troubles or feels that you are worth their heart, their effort. In a story such as this, it is natural for us to focus on Bartimaeus or on Jesus; however, I would encourage you to focus on “the sizable crowd.” For all that they have been exposed to; namely, the power of Our Lord’s words; the example of His compassion; His refusal to prejudge a person; His sense that everyone has a right to His time; His willingness to presume good in every person; they proved to be the persons who were truly blind. There is a lesson in this for us, and those who don’t see it, should be a bit frightened. We can so easily be like the crowd from Jericho. I am certain, that basically they were decent people, persons inclined to be good, but they hadn’t learned a thing from Jesus. Like the people of Jericho, we too have been exposed to the teachings of Christ. We too have received His love. Yet, what have been the experiences of the Bartimaeuses in our lives? When, in their imperfect way, they cried out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me,” what did they experience from you: The “Crowd” or Jesus? When your spouse, a parent, one of your children, a classmate or neighbor in their troubles say “Master, I want to see.”, and you looked around knowing that there was no one else to hear that plea, what do they experience from you? Silence; an excuse that “I didn’t know”; or an alibi that “I have troubles of my own”? They have many faces and they are just not “Poor Souls.” These pleas come from lonely senior citizens, family members or friends with addictions, widows/widowers, parents with a troubled child, those who suffer from depression, and those who need forgiveness but are too proud to admit it. Ordinarily, their blindness isn’t cured as quickly as Our Lord cured Bartimaeus; their cure requires patience, a kind of spiritual stamina that is tough to practice. Yet it can be done, if we rely on the Lord. So, my brothers and sisters, in your daily prayers, ask the Lord to help you always remember that you and I are our brother’s keeper and that we will never have reason to regret making ourselves available to the Bartimaeuses that come into our lives.