Isaiah 29:17-24 / Matthew 9:27-31
In Singapore, we are used to efficiency and productivity. For a small country like ours that does not have much natural resources, that is what we can offer to investors in order to remain competitive.
But it is not just to investors that would be impressed with our efficiency and productivity. Any company, especially those in the service sector must be able to attend to a customer's request as quickly as possible, otherwise they will be left behind and left out.
We would think that Jesus would also be quick to attend to any request because He came to proclaim the love of God and this is especially manifested in His healing ministry.
In the gospel, we heard that two blind men followed Him shouting: Take pity on us, Son of David! But the gospel went on to say that it was only when He reached the house that the blind men came up to Him.
Why was it that Jesus did not attend to the two blind men immediately as He would usually do? Why did He make the two blind men, who already have the difficulty of making their way around, follow Him all the way to the house?
In a way, that is also much like how we felt about the way our prayers are going. We have offered prayer after prayer and the answer seems slow in coming, and at times we wonder if the answer would ever come at all.
But the experience of the two blind men tells us this - for prayer to be answered, it requires a combination of faith, perseverance and persistence.
On this First Friday as we gather in the Eucharist to pray for the petitions offered to the Sacred Heart, Jesus is also asking us this: Do you believe that I can do this?
Furthermore, the Advent season is a time of waiting in faith and hope for God to answer our prayers as He did for His people in the past.
And like how the two blind men replied Jesus, we too want to believe that Jesus will answer our prayers. It is not about how quickly, but about whether we believe. Let us believe and persist in believing.