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Saint Paul
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Amid distractions, prayer helps lead us to Jesus

Deacon Charles Friebohle

bigstock-Prayer

Just imagine that you’re going up north on vacation, and on the way you see a blind beggar on the side of the road. You stop to help the man, and he tells you something about yourself that not even your family members can see. This describes the Gospel passage for Oct. 25.

As Jesus was heading to Jerusalem from Jericho, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus calls out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” This statement is ironic in that throughout Mark’s Gospel, people don’t clearly see that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of David. But a blind beggar on the side of the road clearly sees Jesus’ true identity. This is reinforced in the way Bartimaeus is healed. In other passages, we hear of Jesus touching to heal, even using his spittle mixed with mud. But here, he only uses the words, “Go your way; your faith has saved you,” showing that what brought about this healing was the faith that Bartimaeus had in Jesus.

In a different way, we are all blind like Bartimaeus when it comes to seeing who Jesus is. We live in a world full of distractions that tempt us to turn away from God, in small ways that we might not notice and in ways that can totally change our lives. The world is like the crowd that tried to quiet Bartimaeus from calling out to Jesus. We have to be like Bartimaeus and call out to Jesus, to follow him even when there are obstacles in our way.

We might not be physically blind, but we are all somehow spiritually blind, and in Christ we can be healed of our blindness. In baptism we receive the faith of the Church to follow Jesus and his teachings. But we don’t always follow, so we need to be healed of our blindness in the sacrament of reconciliation.

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Something else we can do to keep our sights on God is to take time to pray every day. This can take many forms — from praying the rosary to going to eucharistic adoration to simply talking to God about what is happening in our lives.

Each day we must be like Bartimaeus and renew our faith in Jesus. We must look past the crowd that is telling us to stop what we’re doing and call out to Jesus. I have found that an easy way to keep answering this call is to make a morning offering every day. When we wake up, all we have to do is say a prayer, giving everything to God.

Deacon Friebohle is in formation for the priesthood at the St. Paul Seminary for the Diocese of Duluth. His teaching parish is St. Peter in Mendota. His home parish is All Saints in Baxter.


Sunday, Oct. 25
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings

  • Jeremiah 31:7-9
  • Hebrews 5:1-6
  • Mark 10:46-52
 


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