As Jesus passed by, two blind men followed him, crying out,
“Son of David, have pity on us!”
When he entered the house,
the blind men approached him and Jesus said to them,
“Do you believe that I can do this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they said to him.
Then he touched their eyes and said,
“Let it be done for you according to your faith.”
And their eyes were opened.
Jesus warned them sternly,
“See that no one knows about this.”
But they went out and spread word of him through all that land.
The two blind men from our Gospel today followed Jesus and then were brought into the house after he had entered. This was a healing in a series of healings in Matthew. Others were waiting outside who also would be brought in to see Jesus. How wonderful it must have been. Bodies healed, eyes opened, lives changed for ever.
In everyone of the healings there was a profession of faith, as it is this time. And we hear this so often we can dismiss it. But people approached Jesus, asked for healing or in the case of the woman who was hemorrhaging reached out to touch his garment, and they were healed.
But in all healings, someone approached Jesus and did so in faith before they ever heard him speak.
In this case, Jesus then told the two blind men they were healed according to their faith.
Jesus doesn’t rely on formalities. He puts no requirements upon those who are healed but that they approach him and ask.
All those who asked for healing had already found nothing and no one else could help them. They had nothing else they could reach out for.
No reasonable way to stop their suffering and, isolation in most cases, but through Jesus.
It is often the case that we too have to be at the end of our rope before we plead to Jesus Christ for help.
We go through our days and life and actually believe we are in charge. That we make our own good luck. That if we just work hard and obey the rules all will work out.
Then illness stops everything. Or we are told we no longer have a job. Or financial worries catch up to us. Only when we have no other options do we turn to Jesus. We promote him from a person we spend time with one hour a week, to someone that we hang all our hope and life on.
We don’t truly give ourselves to Jesus and put his will and power and love first, as the only thing we rely on…. until we find we can’t truly rely on anyone but Jesus and love. Even the man whose daughter had died sought Jesus for her healing out of love for her and belief against all other hope that this man Jesus could do the impossible.
Today, this Advent, we need to ask if maybe our life would be better if we always relied on Jesus for everything. Today and everyday.
Lived for Jesus Christ and prayed to him always, knowing all good things flowed from Jesus.
Instead of only putting God first in our life when everything around us has failed us, we can remember everyday that HE has a plan and path for each of us to follow and a life he wants for us.
The next step is to stay connected to him in prayer, adoration, mass, and develop a relationship, for no matter how good things are going or how badly, we need help. We really need him through good and bad times to show us the way forward. So we can live in the freedom and love he offers us as children of the Father.
We must approach Jesus, put our hope in him and give him our anxieties. And ask him to heal our hearts and open our eyes to see the truth. We too can have our life changed forever. And wonder why we didn’t give all to him before.
Deacon Tony Pynes 
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