NOEL
The 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time shares about how a blind man was able to call out to Jesus.
Bartimaeus, the blind man in the Gospel, couldn’t see, yet his four other senses were working. When he heard that Jesus was in Jericho, he would cry out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me." Despite getting heckled and berated by those near him, he continued to cry out to Jesus. Jesus would heed his call and would cure him.
Today, we live in a society that continues to distance itself from God. There is so much now around us that intends to drown out our call to God.
Recently, VP Kamala Harris held a rally in a battleground state. Some Christian students were there, and they shouted, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” and other phrases that gave praise to him. Harris and the crowd would heckle and drown out their cry to God. Those students had no regret as they felt compelled to do his will.
There will be times when people are doing everything to silence us from being authentic witnesses. God calls us to be faithful. There is no greater example of a multitude of men and women who have cried out to God than the saints of the church.
The saints of the church exist because they remained faithful to God. They rose when the world got comfortable. They preached, dialogued with those who were against the church teachings, and even risked their lives to ensure God’s will was done on earth.
We can be like them when we put God first in our lives.
Cry out to God because our faith will save us.