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. In the gospel the blind Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus, and Jesus to him.

What’s the price of mental and spiritual blindness? It doesn’t help to argue that we’re not blind. Each of us makes decisions to close our eyes to a lot we prefer not to see or feel or think about. This kind of selective attention makes it easier and simpler to navigate through our days.

The great journalist A. J. Liebling was a boxing fan and once wrote about a boxer who fought under the name of Pete Herman. Liebling had seen one of Herman’s last bouts, when the fighter was nearly blind but not admitting it. Herman fought, Liebling wrote, “by a system of feint and touch.” As long as he was in some kind of physical contact with his opponent, he would get his bearings and could be devastating.

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.

Two tourists are sitting in a small, ancient church in Wales at twilight when a girl of about 12 enters holding the hand of a boy who must be her younger brother. As the two make their way forward, the girl gently guides the boy’s hand along the rough stone wall. They stop at a statue of Mary to trace her face and feel the cold marble folds of her gown.

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