RBWords

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2013  ST. NICHOLAS, bishop

     In their recent "joint encyclical" LUMEN FIDEI, Pope Francis and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI speak of faith as a response to a great love.  It is from this initial experience of love that everything else flows.  In today's gospel, the opening sentence could get past us because we might be too literal.  The two blind men "followed Jesus!"  In the gospels, this word often means "believing" and not just walking behind!  Notice that the blind men, like Timaeus in another gospel account, address Jesus by a messianic title, "Son of David!"  [Mark 10:46-52].  Their faith moves Jesus to ask a simple question, "Do you believe that I can do this?"

 

     In this season of Advent when it is difficult to see spiritually past all the secular "buy, buy, buy" and other manufactured "holiday cheer," our own faith in the birth of Jesus Christ can be severely tested.  It's not so much that we deny this, it's more like "forgetting" or "taking for granted."  When we look at the nativity scene in and among all the other decorations, we are being asked that same question:  "Do you believe that I can do this?"   The Gospel of John says it all in 3:16:  "God so loved the world that He sent his only-begotten Son!"  Do we believe in that love and that God can do this?"  AMEN