Might we all be blind beggars in this life? Think about it. Consider the one in our gospel lesson that we know as Bartimaeus as a metaphor for us today. Here we are wrapped in our cocoon, sitting in our comfortable rut, not wanting to rock the boat, content to wait for life to pass us by.

Then one day something happens. Change is in the air. We get a whiff of possibility. We can no longer sit still in the status quo. Hearing the Word of God, we jump up, casting off the trappings that have been holding us in place, and make our way to the Holy One. We open our hearts and minds to God, offering ourselves to the Divine, trusting in God’s healing power to transform us into the imago dei we were created to be, to bring us to wholeness and holiness, enabling us to walk henceforth in Love.

That’s a common model for the spiritual life. The first half of our life we tend to be like blind beggars until we reach mid-life when something happens to get our attention. We realize something is missing in our lives, and it eventually dawns on us, as St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in you, O Lord.” So long as we have life and breath, the journey continues as we are drawn closer into union with God, realizing our Oneness with all creation. With the psalmist we begin to “Taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are they who trust in him!” And with Job we come to know deep inside “that no purpose of [God’s] can be thwarted.” Blind no more, “[our] faith has made [us] well.”