Ordinary Time 
Pause
How do we need to be healed?
For our physical selves and in our inmost hearts–
For our individual lives and in our families–
For our schools, neighborhoods, and communities–
For our countries and across continents–
From the depths of the ocean to the moon and back–
We pray:
God, show us mercy.
Listen
Jesus and his followers came into Jericho. As Jesus was leaving Jericho, together with his disciples and a sizable crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, Timaeus’ son, was sitting beside the road. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was there, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy!” Many scolded him, telling him to be quiet, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, show me mercy!”
Mark 10:46-48
Think
What makes a miracle?
Is a miracle only the Happily Ever After, the successful healing, the celebration?
Or is it also a miracle every time someone whose life is seen as worthless finds their voice?
Bartimaeus couldn’t see Jesus with his own eyes, and in his condition, he would not have been welcome in the crowd of Jericho’s citizens following Jesus. He was an outcast from his city, from “good society.”
The religious culture of the day may have blamed him – or even his parents – for his disability, as if blindness was punishment for some unseen sin.
But he heard something about Jesus, maybe picked up on some small bit of conversation, some whisper or piece of gossip from the people who passed him on the road. Whatever he heard, it was enough to make him raise his voice.
It was enough to make him brave, to make him loud, to make him not stop when they tried to shut him up.
It was enough to give him hope in a merciful God.
Nikki Finkelstein-Blair
Pray
Let me see miracles at work everywhere, God, especially in the faith of those who dare to shout for mercy. Bring them – and all of us – your healing. Amen.
Go
Follow Jesus' invitation: Seek, and find mercy.
Ask, and share in healing.
Gather, and join in praise.
Go, and be overjoyed.
