Running through the readings this week is a sense of call. We hear of the Israelites’ joy when God called them back from exile. The Letter to the Hebrews makes it clear that only God calls the high priest.

Thomas Aquinas wrote that Christ alone is the true priest. All others known by that name are merely his ministers. Aquinas got this idea from reading the Letter to the Hebrews. While all of us are summoned by our baptism into a common priesthood, and some fewer of us respond to the call to ministerial priesthood, the true priest mediator of all that’s holy among us is Jesus himself.

As Jesus was leaving town, trailed by his disciples and a parade of people, a blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, was sitting alongside the road. When he heard that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus! Mercy, have mercy on me!”

Seventeen-year-old Valerie Herrera, a senior at Cristo Rey high school in Chicago, received the rare opportunity to ask Pope Francis a question via satellite on national television several weeks prior to the pope’s first visit to the United States.

My friends, we turn now for forgiveness to the God who delivers us.

Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. Who is the model disciple? If it’s the Gospel of Mark, chances are it’s not “the disciples.” They’re too busy deciding who can and cannot talk with Jesus. They may be walking with him out of Jericho, but they’re not necessarily following.

It is said Helen Keller was once asked if there was anything worse than being blind. She replied, “Having no vision.” —Stephen Kendrick, Holy Clues