In the gospel reading from Sunday’s lectionary, Bartimaeus, who cannot see, wants to meet Jesus. The crowd try to prevent him – maybe because their logic says he must be a sinner, or because they consider him unclean, or because they want Jesus for themselves, or because they are annoyed that arranging for him to go to Jesus might be an inconvenience.
Sometimes it is frustrating or inconvenient dealing with people who have disabilities. Well, just think how frustrating life is for them! By the arrangements we all make though, we can can make life work for everyone, and affirm everyone’s humanity. I would like to think that when Jesus taught about a Kingdom of God in which the last would be first, and love was above all, he was pointing us to the ways we can take a step towards putting that Kingdom into practice. And one step towards it, I think, is by making life work for everyone – this too is a kind of healing – of broken community.