Friday of the First Week of Advent
When I was in middle school, a seemingly minor incident on the playground while my mother was monitoring recess duty left her with a detached retina and needing surgery on her right eye. Although the doctor was able to reattach the retina, it kept tearing in the process, which required more surgeries. Over the span of several years, she had more than 20 surgeries on the eye to repair it and was considered legally blind because as she described it, “there was a constant strobe light flashing in my eye.” Three years ago, however, due to technological advances in medicine, she had one more surgery that corrected the eye. She no longer has the ‘strobe light’, her vision is 20/20 (with glasses), and all things considered, she is healed. Today’s Gospel reading focuses on Jesus giving sight to two blind men. In Matthew 9:27-28, it says, “As Jesus passed by, the two blind men followed him, crying out, ‘Son of David, have pity on us!’ When he entered the house, the blind men approached him.” What struck me in these first two verses is the fact that the men were following Jesus, and they approached him. I imagine these men, as my mother did for so long, walking slowly and cautiously, trying to anticipate every step forward, so as not to fall. Moving quickly was not in one’s habit. Yet, something also tells me that these men felt a strong sense of urgency to call out asking for God’s mercy. While these men in the Gospel story depict physical blindness, for those who can see and are working in social ministry roles, it speaks more of a spiritual blindness, one in which we choose not to focus on Jesus, but rather, on other things like making a deadline, running to a meeting, or crossing one more item off of our ‘to do’ list. This Gospel challenges social ministers to slow down this Advent season and really see each person we encounter as if we were looking at Christ himself.
Catherine Orr is the Coordinator for the national Roundtable Association of Catholic Diocesan Social Action Directors and the Pastoral Associate at Lumen Christi Parish in Mequon, WI.
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