Follow the Lord along the road of our lives!

Bartimaeous was blind, and in his society that meant he
lived on the charity of others. That had been his fate, his role
in society. He had to let go of all of that in order to be healed
by Jesus. He left behind his cloak, which he had used to beg
for alms, and he left his spot beside the road. In response to
his faith, Jesus restored his sight.
The story of the blind Bartimaeous, is really a story about
each one of us. Is there anyone among us who has not
experienced the need to cry out, “Jesus have pity on me?” Is
there anyone among us who has not experienced the need for a
clearer vision of what this life of ours is all about? Is there
anyone among us who has not experienced the need to move
out of the dark night of the soul and into the light — the
TRUE LIGHT that enlightens us all, as the Apostle John puts
it? Which is really another way of asking, “Is there anyone
among us who has not experienced the need to focus on the
question of who we are and what we ought to do through eyes
of faith?
Bartimaeous‟ sight having been restored, he followed
Jesus, not up a blind alley, but into the light. Ordinary light is
a form of energy that stimulates the nerve-endings in our eyes.
You can get as complicated as you want to, trying to go
further with a description of light, but it really comes back to
that simple definition.
How beautiful to think of Christ, the light of the world, in
this way. How beautiful to think of Christ as Divine energy,
power from Almighty God, stimulating the nerve-endings of
our eyes of faith, making it possible for us to take that
awesome leap of faith and penetrate the darkness and see more
clearly what life is really all about! It is that awesome leap of
faith that truly gives us strength to cope, strength to live
creatively, strength to love unconditionally!
At the end of the Gospel story about Bartimaeous, we are
told very briefly what happened to Bartimaeous. “Immediately
his sight returned and he followed Jesus along the road.” This
is all we really need to know. As we view the world with new
sight, let us, like Bartimaeous, truly follow the Lord along the
road of our lives!