Here and Now with Francis 6/16/16 (Christ, blindness, beggars, encounter, mercy, following, discipleship)
The Lord’s passing is an encounter of mercy that unites everything around Him to enable us to recognize one who is in need of help and of consolation. From a beggar to a disciple: this is also our path. We are all beggars, all of us. We are always in need of salvation. And all of us, should take this step every day: from beggars to disciples. And so, the blind man sets out behind the Lord and begins to be part of His community. He whom they wanted to silence, now witnesses in a loud voice his encounter with Jesus of Nazareth . From the audience “If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother …. For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore, I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land” (Deuteronomy 15:7.11). The contrast between this recommendation of Go...