Perhaps it is a matter of doing a second session so close on the heals of the last one, or perhaps it is the inevitable result of reading about so many healings in succession during this step - and we have not covered anywhere near all of them - but there is only one phrase that really leaps out to me in this scripture passage (Mt 20:29-34), and it is the one the retreat masters have used to title this session:
And Jesus stopped and called them, saying, "What do you want me to do for you?" They said to him, "Lord, let our eyes be opened." - Mt 20: 32-33
This is always Jesus' question to us, and this should always be our response to him.
Our eyes can be closed in so many ways, no matter how closely we have walked with Jesus in our lives. My response to Jesus' question by undertaking and continuing in these Exercises is something like that of these blind men. I begin to draw near to the final weeks of this retreat - though I'm only finishing the second of four phases, the third phase is only a week long and the fourth only covers the Easter season - I am concerned that the discipline of entering into this retreat daily will fail to make a lasting impact in my walk with Christ. It is not merely eight months of retreat that transforms a life, nor any effort at all of my own.
Holy Spirit, I pray that the eyes of my heart would truly and lastingly (can one be without the other?) be opened, that I would long for Jesus every single day and eagerly anticipate my time with him, so that you might continue to transform me in his image.
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