Dear brothers and sisters, Fiat!
Restoring sight to the blind man is an expression of joy, liberation and salvation. Whoever in the Bible receives this benefit from God becomes the object of love and predilection of the same God, in the consolation and freshness of a new life.
The blind beggar represents humanity that lies in the darkness of ignorance and sin. Only by acknowledging Jesus as the “Son of David” is it possible to regain sight in order to follow Him on the path of suffering and martyrdom.
However, there is willful blindness as presumption and perversity of spirit. It obstructs the heart from being disposed toward the word of God. It is the blindness of moral misery and wickedness, of the presumption of self-sufficiency and self-assertion. It leads to the delusion that one can proceed independently of God and His Word. We are blind when we are victims of our false pride and wickedness. We are also blind when we persist in error despite the evidence of the perversity and uselessness of evil. Already on other occasions this inability to see has been reproached by Jesus himself. The only condition required to regain sight is that of faith, that is, a true act of trust and unreserved reliance on the One who simply wants to renew in order to save, to transform to the end in order to renew.
“Go! Your faith has saved you”. With this statement Jesus dismisses Bartimaeus, who had pleaded to hear his cry. The Master not only intervened in a prodigious way, making him regain his sight in an act of compassion, but also lauded the faith of the poor blind man, who from the beginning had called Him “Son of David”, acknowledging Him as the Messiah Savior. In the son of Timaeus Jesus saw a deep faith that merited him to regain his sight. Jesus not only healed Bartimaeus but saved him thanks to his faith.
The story of Bartimaeus is also our story as believers, who through our Baptism have opened our eyes to the Truth of God, which is Jesus Christ. Now, these eyes that are no longer blind must be capable of welcoming the presence of the Lord, who always passes through our lives and brings salvation in our personal history, as well as in the great history of all mankind.
Following Christ also means knowing how to make this presence live and work in our times, a presence that beckons towards eternal salvation and even temporal salvation, because only in Christ is there light, justice and peace; only in Him is there true joy.
The miracle that restores Bartimaeus’ sight is meant to represent the presence and the light of Christ that heal the man in his entirety, who from being a blind beggar becomes rich through the gift of sonship, capable of following his Master. Indeed, he becomes the Master’s companion and with Him walks the path that leads to the Father.
To do this one must find the courage to trust the Son of David. It means to stand up and take the first steps to begin a new life, to close with a past of darkness and to open oneself to the light of Christ. Jesus is the source of this change; it is He who transforms life. Only Christ is our true guide and light!
However, to trust and to rely on Jesus means to have faith.
On July 24, 1922 Luisa wrote that in a moment of discouragement she felt as if the weight of all was leaning on her shoulders. Jesus took her in His arms and pressed her to His Heart, letting her place her mouth at the opening of the wound that pierced Him, telling her to have courage and not to fear because He was there with her to share together all the burden, the work, the pains and the deaths.
God’s grace wants correspondence; otherwise, it takes nothing to descend. What does it take to open and to close one’s eyes? It takes nothing. Yet, the great good of keeping them open, and the great harm of keeping them closed. By keeping them open, the eyes are filled with light - with sun; with this light the hand can operate, the foot can walk safely and without stumbling; one can distinguish objects, whether they are good or bad; one can reorder things, read, write…
Now, what does it take to lose all this good? Closing one’s eyes. The hand cannot operate, the foot cannot walk, and if it does, it is subject to stumbling; one can no longer distinguish objects; he reduces himself to inability. Such is the correspondence: nothing other than opening the eyes of the soul. And as she opens them, light comes into the mind, Jesus’image is reflected in everything she does, copying Jesus faithfully; in such a way that she does nothing other than receive continuous light from Him, so as to convert her whole being into light. On the other hand, lack of correspondence plunges the soul into darkness, and renders her inoperative.