A Cry that stopped God!

Lk 18: 35-43
Ah! There is nothing surprising in it... Because, from the beginning, God could not stand the cry of man. When ever man cried, God stopped His business to attend the cry of him. When God confronted Cain after the first assassination in human history, one of his concern was this cry: "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground" (Gen.4:10). That concern of God for human being continued to the New Testament and in fact the very reason for God becoming man was to attend to the "cries" of man. And that is why Lk 18:40 is a very significant one for us: "Jesus Stopped..." The cry of a blind man for mercy forced a "stop" from the Son of Man!

The blind beggar in the Gospel behaves in a strange way perhaps: he does not ask for alms today... rather, he is seeking God's mercy. And he is not bothered about the reaction of the crowd - that is quite normal to the beggars. They just do not bother about what is spoken about them. Lk 18:38 -"Then he cried out" and 39 - "he cried out all the more..." talks about how he encountered the Lord. And this cry prompts Jesus to "stop". God stops at the cry of a "nobody in the society".  What a comforting and consoling assurance it is that we have a God who stops to listen to our supplications and petitions. Our God never leaves us unheeded...