Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 2, 2022
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.
If I could have one superpower as a young adult, it would be to see the future, to know where each decision leads and how things will unfold. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I strive to predict the future, taking a step always seems a bit risky and dark.
As a sighted person, I cannot grasp what it’s like to be truly blind. At the same time, my wandering in a vocational darkness feels a bit like a spiritual blindness. It can leave me feeling lost, afraid, and pretty alone. I wonder if these blind men felt something similar.
Unable to see where I am going, I routinely pray, “Lord, help me see the way.” It’s a pretty good day when I turn to God in prayer, but my prayer is so often focused on whatever ails me that I forget who I’m meant to be focused on. I want to know the way, yet I forget that Jesus is the Way.
I’m amazed at how these two people cry out, more focused on the person of Jesus than their blindness. They don’t ask for sight but for pity. They simply hope that this person they believe to be the Son of David, the Messiah, will hear them and respond. And Jesus does. Jesus always does.
They didn’t need sight to see who Jesus is or how a relationship with him changes everything. They had faith.
Sometimes it feels like we’re walking in the dark, yet we aren’t called to walk alone. Life is full of the unknown, and we can’t know how it will all unfold. As we find ourselves in this season of darkness, may we recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the one we long for, and cry out to him in faith: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on us.”
Prayer
Lord, there are many kinds of blindness. I know that I am blind at times about what I should do or how I should live. In my blindness I pass by someone who needs a kind word or a helping hand. Improve my vision so that I can see what you want me to do and whom you want me to help. Amen.
Saint of the Day
The ancient Roman Martyrology, which lists the early Christians who died for the faith, contains the names of St. Bibiana and her family. Aside from this early testament, we do not know much for sure about these martyrs.
The stories that have been handed down tell of a Roman family—the couple Flavian and Dafrosa, and their two daughters, Demetria and Bibiana, all of whom were Christians who lived their faith with zeal, and were arrested in one of the persecutions of the Roman empire.
Flavian was marked on the face with a hot iron and banished from Rome to a labor camp, where he died from exertion, and his wife, Dafrosa, was beheaded. Demetria and Bibiana lost everything that they owned and were forced to live in dire poverty for five months. They stayed in their house and used the time for fasting and prayer.
Finally, the sisters were brought into court. Demetria confessed her faith before the judge, then collapsed and died on the spot. Bibiana was sentenced to “reformation” under a mentor of sorts, who tried to convince her to denounce her faith. Bibiana stayed faithful, and was then tortured and killed. Her body was left in the open for wild beasts to tear apart, but it was not touched.
The relics of Bibiana and her father, Flavian (whose feast day is Dec. 22), rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. A basilica named after St. Bibiana was dedicated to her in the fifth century and still stands in Rome today.
St. Bibiana, who suffered and was killed with her family for her faithfulness—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Bibiana is available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Last accessed November 21, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
