30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 25, 2009
The blind, nameless son of Timaeus , wrapped
in a heavy woolen robe to protect himself
against the wind , rain, dogs and crowd,
sat on the corner of two busy streets
in the center of the city of
begging for the simple things he needed just
to live, pennies and pieces of bread.
Although he could not see the city,
he knew it thoroughly by its sounds,
the peculiar sound of the sandals that
stopped by his side now and then to put
pennies into his hand which appeared from
inside his robe, or the kind tone of the
voices of those who shared with him their bread.
Most of the city’s sounds were familiar to him,
that is until today, for something
dramatically different was happening in the
streets now, the sounds of rushing sandals on the
cobblestones kept getting louder,
far louder than he had ever heard before,
and the shouts that went with the rushing
sandals kept increasing, rising higher and higher
until they seemed to fuse into a song,
Jesus, Jesus.
The son of Timaeus pushed himself back from
the corner of the streets into a darkened doorway,
out of the way, for a man who couldn’t see should not be
in the path of a rushing crowd. He stayed in the
doorway…for a while…until the excitement of the
crowd captured him.
Unable to control himself,
he got to his feet and began shouting with
the rest of them, Jesus. Jesus,
so loud that some around told him to be
still; he wouldn’t be silent and shouted even
louder, Jesus, until a voice came back to him:
“What do you want me to do for you?”
“I want to see.” “Go your way; ……your
faith has saved you.” In a memorable act of defiance,
the once blind man threw away his robe as
much as to say I will not go on my way as the others you
have healed have done back to their farms,
back their families, or back to their corners.
I am going to follow you and by my
faith heal others as you have healed me.
I’ll call them to come out from behind
the cloak they have wrapped around themselves
to hide from the world or from whatever they fear.
And once freed from fear
to find a name for themselves,
and to discover their place in the sun.