Good morning every one, welcome to celebrate today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we come to know that we are not alone but the Savior who made us is always with us and every time we come to Church we come to know that those who call on Him will never be abandoned but be given life and every time we come to Church, we call on Christ saying, “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me… sinner”.
There was a famous French painter called Nicholas Poussin, one of his famous painting was Bartimaeus and one day two people a poet and an ordinary person were asked about the beauty of picture. The poet said, ‘the figure of Christ and the grouping of the people, the color and the structure of the picture and the ordinary man said, the beauty of the picture is the discarded cane lying on the steps. When Jesus called the blind man, he threw the cane away knowing that Christ was going to heal him, going to giving him sight. Yes, faith in Christ brings life.
There are so many methods of prayers and ways to pray to God. The essence of Muslims prayer is, “God is the greatest, and I praise and glorify God. He protects me from Satan the condemned”. The essence of Hindu prayer is “Lead us from Untruth to Truth, from Darkness to Light, from Death to Immortality. Om peace, peace, peace” and the Buddhists pray to God saying, “ I take refuge in you… O Ocean of Oneness. You are everywhere and lead me to life”. And all religions teach us to pray to God and connect ourselves with higher being.
There is a prayer from the Easter Orthodox tradition, it is more like a mandra or repetion of a prayer. This prayer is so famous and every one repeats in the Church all day every day and it goes like this, “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me… a sinner”. The origin of that prayer is found in today’s gospel. Though in the time of Jesus, many people thought that sickness and poverty were the punishment of God, Christ our Lord proclaimed the Good News saying, “ Everything happens for the glory of God”. God is not a punishing one but forgiving and kind Father and that is why a blind man named Bartimeus came to Christ crying, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”.
We often see in the gospels people being healed saying there came a man to Jesus or there came a woman behind Jesus saying, ‘even if I touch the fringe of His cloak, I will get well’ but in today’s gospel, the name of the blind man is given saying that was Bartimeus son of Timeus so that people could come to know the kindness and compassion of God Almighty and so that everyone would come to know that God sent His Son not for some particular people but for all. His mercy surpassess everything and anyone who goes to Him will have life and happiness.Though the crowd tried to stop him saying, ‘do not yell or do not bother the Master”. The blind man screamed at loud voice saying, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”. No crowd could stop a faithful, no one can stop a man from loving God. when we have strong faith, nothing can stop us from practing our faith or coming to chruch and receiving churches sacraments. Then Christ our Lord said, ‘let him come to me”. When Christ looked at him with love, the first questin He asked was, ‘son, what should I do for you?” though Jesus knew what the man wanted, Christ asked him saying what he wanted because He wanted to make the conversation, He wanted to let him know that Jesus actually listnes to the needs of every one. yes, that is our God who wants to make conversation with His people. The book of Genesis says that even after creating man, God visited with Him and talked to Him every day. God not only listnes to our prayers but connects with us through variuous means. the blind man said, “I want to see again”. I want to see life and experience happiness and joy and Jesus our Lord said, “Son, your faith has saved you, go in peace”.
Conclusion: Dear friends, there are millions of ways to connect ourselves with God and the best way to talk to God is having deep faith in Him. when we bring our prayers and petition to God Almigthy with faith, God listens to our prayers so let us say, “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me”. As we pray to Him with faith, God Himself will come to us and talk to us in person so let us say, “Jesus son of David have mercy on me. And when we experience His love and healing, let us go out let every one know about the love and kindness and compassion of God almgihty so let us say, “Jesus, son of David have mercy on me”. Amen.
