Reading through some homilies available on a number of websites or blogs, my attention has been drawn to a negative reality in many of these reflections on the Word of God. So often the focus is a protracted examination of one's past sinfulness. Why can we not move forward to look at the experience that is ours when, first, we thank God for the forgiveness won for us by his Son, and, second, look at how God might want us charging forward, filled with enthusiasm and excitement about and in Christianity and in particular our Catholic faith?
In the gospel today, Jesus questions two blind men who have come to him. Obviously they are seeking a cure for their blindness. Jesus addresses the issue as soon as he sees them coming to him: "Do you believe that I can do this [heal their blindness]?" Jesus' question might well be read as a little divine advice to the two blind men as well as to each of us. If these men believe that Jesus can heal their blindness, why should they worry about his healing them?
All Jesus asks of us is that we admit our sinfulness once ... not time and time again. Once a confession is made, when words admit sinfulness, a true believer will immediately begin to do the good that God has called him/her to do.
Your forgiveness will be real if you truly believe Jesus died for your sins. Accept this gift and move on to do good and to enrich others.
