Mark reveals the desire of Jesus that we see the inner beauty of life, that we cast off whatever blindness leads us to isolation and that we understand that inside people are new exciting possibilities to be better and to always be more: more human, more Christian.

These are scary times. Everyone seems on edge. If we have become news junkies we see only the chaos and tragedy of other people’s lives invading our homes and we can become blinded to the goodness, charity and beauty of human life with God.

Blindness leads to fear, my friends and Satan lives on fear and despair.

But we have come together today as God’s People, as people professing that Jesus is Lord, and that through Him Satan has no more power over us, he can no longer deceive us even in our blindness, so we cannot give up hope. We are after all descendants of the resurrection! We are all descendants of Bartimaeus who was cured of his blindness, so he could reveal the Light of Faith to all.

My friends, Catholics believe in the goodness of humanity, even though we are sometimes blinded by the evil we do. Take the Light of Christ that casts off the shadows of sin and build new relationships based on respect and love of even your enemies. If we do this my friends, we need not despair. God is with us; He heals our blindness and brings us into the Light of the New Day!