16 November 2026 · Latin Rite
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“Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.”” Luke 18:42
In the last weeks of the year the first readings come from the Book of Revelation. The risen Christ speaks to the church of Ephesus, praising its hard work and endurance, but with one complaint: “you have abandoned the love you had at first”. A community can be orthodox and busy and still have grown cold. The remedy: remember, repent, and do the works you did at first.
Near Jericho a blind beggar hears that Jesus is passing and cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The crowd tells him to be quiet; he shouts all the more. Jesus stops and asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, let me see again.” He receives his sight and follows Jesus, glorifying God. Persistent prayer, a clear request, and a life of following: this is how first love is recovered.
Theme: “Lord, let me see again.”
Cry out, return to first love, ask for sight and follow.
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” Isaiah 35:5
“Then he shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”” Luke 18:38
Apply: Pray the Jesus Prayer often today.
“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.” Jeremiah 2:2
“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” Revelation 2:4–5
Apply: Take up one practice of your first fervour.
“Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Psalm 119:18
““What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.”” Luke 18:41–42
Apply: Ask Jesus plainly for what you need.
Christ restores sight and love.
Follow him, glorifying God.
Take-home resolution: Read Revelation 2–3 this week: the letters to the seven churches.
Dear friends, in these last weeks of the year the Church reads the Book of Revelation. Today the risen Christ speaks to the church of Ephesus. He praises its hard work and endurance, but he has one complaint: you have abandoned the love you had at first (Revelation 2:4). A community can be correct and busy and still have grown cold.
The remedy is threefold: remember from where you have fallen, repent, and do the works you did at first (Revelation 2:5). Remember the joy of your First Communion, your wedding day, your first steps in prayer. Love is renewed by returning to its source.
Near Jericho a blind beggar hears that Jesus is passing by and cries out: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! The crowd tells him to be quiet, and he cries out all the more. Jesus asks: what do you want me to do for you? Lord, let me see again (Luke 18:38–41).
Let us make his prayer our own: Lord, let me see. Let me see where my love has cooled, and let me see you again as I saw you at first. And when we see, let us do what the blind man did: follow him, glorifying God. Amen.
Children, the blind man shouted to Jesus and did not stop. Jesus heard him! Pray today: Jesus, help me to see you in everyone.
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Open my eyes, rekindle the love I had at first, and let me follow you on the way, glorifying God. Amen.
In these last weeks of the year the weekday readings open the Book of Revelation. Today the risen Christ speaks to the churches of Asia and calls Ephesus back to the love it had at first. In the Gospel a blind beggar near Jericho cries out to the Son of David and receives his sight. Both readings are about seeing again: a Church that must remember what it has lost, and a man who prays, “Lord, let me see again.”
Setting.
Revelation was written by a prophet named John, in exile on the island of Patmos “because of the word of God” (1:9), most likely near the end of the reign of the emperor Domitian (about AD 95), as St Irenaeus reports. It is addressed to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia, in today's western Turkey. Its style is apocalyptic: visions, numbers and symbols that show history as God sees it. It was meant to be read aloud in the liturgical assembly, and its first aim is to strengthen Christians under pressure, not to give a timetable of the end.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.” (1:3)
One reader, many hearers: this is the Church at prayer. The blessing is not for curiosity about the future but for keeping the word.
“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” (2:4)
A church can work hard, endure much and test false teachers (vv. 2–3) and still lose the heart of the matter. Right teaching without love is not enough (compare 1 Corinthians 13:2).
“Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” (2:5)
Three verbs: remember, repent, do. The way back is not a new feeling but the old works of love taken up again. The lampstand is the church itself (1:20); without love it loses its place.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism speaks of a “second conversion”, an uninterrupted task for the whole Church, which is holy and yet always in need of purification (CCC 1428). The letter to Ephesus is that call in miniature. Since seven is the number of fullness, the seven letters have long been read as words to the whole Church in every age: each of us may hear in them what the Spirit is saying today.
Setting.
Jesus is on his last journey to Jerusalem. Just before this he has foretold his Passion for the third time, and Luke notes that the Twelve “understood nothing about all these things” (18:34). Then, at Jericho, a blind man sees what they do not: he calls Jesus “Son of David” and asks for sight. Mark gives his name, Bartimaeus, and places the healing as Jesus leaves Jericho (Mark 10:46); Luke places it on the approach, so that it leads straight into the story of Zacchaeus.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Then he shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”” (18:38)
A short prayer from a man who has nothing: a name, a title and a cry for mercy.
“Jesus stood still and ordered the man to be brought to him” (18:40)
The crowd on its way to Jerusalem would not stop for a beggar. Jesus stops.
“Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God” (18:43)
Healed, he does not go home; he follows Jesus on the road to Jerusalem, the road of the Cross.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism counts the cry of the blind among the prayers Jesus answered during his ministry (CCC 2616), and it sees in the invocation of the holy name of Jesus, joined to the cry for mercy, the simplest way of praying always; from it grew the “Jesus Prayer”, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners” (CCC 2667–2668). Every Mass begins with the same cry: “Lord, have mercy.” St Augustine, preaching on the blind men by the road, noted that the crowd tried to silence them, as the noise of the world, and even careless Christians, may try to silence our prayer; the answer is to cry out all the more (in substance).
Was the healing on the way into Jericho or out of it?
Mark and Matthew place it as Jesus leaves Jericho, Luke as he approaches. The evangelists arrange events to teach, and Luke puts this healing first so that two stories at Jericho, a blind beggar and a rich tax collector, show the same truth: Jesus seeks the lost. Some have also pointed out that there were two Jerichos, the old town and Herod's new city nearby. The substance of the event is the same in all three Gospels.