Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me!

One of the common sites in Sydney is seeing people who are homeless and living by their wits on the streets. Our encounters with them can vary depending on what we see and what we don't see. An initial reaction can be what do they want from me, which can be quickly followed by many questions and even judgements which are raised in our minds and in our hearts. So often we can walk by with a blank expression on our faces pretending not to see or preferring not to acknowledge their presence. They can easily become a non-person and even when the cry out we would prefer it if they kept quiet.

Yet in the Gospel, Jesus calls the blind beggar to him and responds to his deeper cry that he may see again. I think this is a challenge for us as Jesus allows the person to be treated with dignity and respect. He looks beyond the fact that he is begging by the road and even the fact that the crowd is trying to silence him. He wants the person to ask for what he can do for him. This seems like an obvious question but is one that we are reluctant to ask maybe because we have already presumed the answer. We may have become jaded by regularly encountering the same person whose life does not seem to change. Yet there may be a challenge for us to acknowledge the person and even if we do not give them money at least to give them the benefit of our presence for a short time. By knowing them and they know us we can discover that our lives have a value which cannot be measured in money. Our presence makes a difference for the times when we cry out with the same voice, "Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me!"