Today, a blind man called Bartimaeus cried out loudly to Jesus, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” This prayer moved the heart of Jesus. They found each other face to face: God with his desire to heal and the man with his desire to be healed; two freedoms, two converging desires. “What do you want me to do for you?”, the Lord asks him. “Master, I want to see.”, the blind man answers. “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” With these words, the miracle was worked: God's joy and the man's joy.

And Bartimaeus, who had come into the light, as the Gospel narrates, "followed him on the way"; that is, he became a disciple of the Lord and went up to Jerusalem with the Master to take part with him in the great mystery of salvation. This account, in the essentiality of its passages, recalls the catechumen's journey towards the Sacrament of Baptism, which in the ancient Church was also known as "Illumination".

—Faith is a journey of illumination: it starts with the humility of recognizing oneself as needy of salvation and arrives at the personal encounter with Christ, who calls one to follow him on the way of love.