Not seeing our blindness

The episode today from the Gospel of Luke in the Roman Catholic Lectionary tells of the blind beggar who hears the crowd moving by and calls out to determine who is passing. The passers-by inform him that Jesus is moving through. He calls out in a determined manner, not in search of the alms, which he needed to continue his existence, but in a faith filled appeal to be changed and to know again full life. When this exercise of faith, trust persistence and courage is compared to the assimilation of the Jewish tradition by the Greek conquerers described in the texts from Maccabees we see an abandonment of the relationship with God through the Covenant for the false security of integration and acceptance of the way of the conquering power. The blindness of the people allowed the deception of the Hellenization of Israel to be perceived as progress, yet the historians record that many were killed and enslaved by the Greek masters. Some chose to maintain their sight and vision of the relationship with God and they became martyrs. We need to be stirred from our patterns like the blind beggar so that in the sight of faith we may recognize those deceptive promises and popular movements, today, which threaten our desire to maintain our relationship with God. We can avoid blindness as we call out in faith.