There are many who pray for others, but not themselves. They feel like God has more important things to do, or there are people with more urgent needs. We may be like this at times, or perhaps we feel that our prayers are not being heard, or answered. And yet our Gospel shows us a Jesus who is intensely interested in hearing what this blind man, Bartimaeus, has to say, and even though it must have been clear to everyone that he wanted Jesus to heal his blindness.
And yet Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”
If ever you have any doubt at all as to the importance of your prayers, your needs, your desires in the eyes of God, remember today’s Gospel. This is the same Jesus who encourages us to ask and promises we shall receive, who tells us that we have a Father who knows what we need before we even ask (Matthew 6:8). And yet we are encouraged to ask; what is this?
Look at Jesus upon the Cross: that is our God saying, “There is nothing more important to me than you.” Indeed He knows our needs before we ask, but what Father does not delight in the sound of His child’s voice? And what a consolation to know that when we pray, we have a God who in spite of His greatness, in spite of all that He is constantly doing, He will never, ever turn a deaf ear to us. Should ever you struggle to pray, struggle to believe that your prayers matter and are heard, hear the words of the apostles in our Gospel: words that all the saints of heaven would say to you in such moments of doubt.
“Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”