Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Luke (18: 35-43) in which the blind man hearing the crowd as Jesus was passing by, cries out ‘Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me’.  Fr Paul says the healing story we hear today of the blind man at Jericho comes in all three synoptic gospels, that is Mark, Matthew and Luke. In this Gospel, Luke makes a few little adjustments to the story which he has taken over from Mark. In Luke, Jesus is approaching Jericho rather than leaving it; this change is made to fit in the story of Zacchaeus in Jericho. It is also the first time in Luke’s Gospel that the title ‘son of David’ has occurred and it occurs not once but twice. Maybe, Luke was thinking that Jesus is the son of David, going up to Jerusalem to claim David’s city as his own, but who knows?  The whole point of the Gospel, says Fr Paul, is the faith of the blind man. It is a faith that Jesus himself points out, especially, contrasting it with the lack of understanding by the disciples of what Jesus is to meet in Jerusalem, which happens just before this encounter with the blind man. Luke also tells us about the gratitude of the healed man and also the crowds glorifying God. For Luke, the praise of God is important. Fr Paul says, with this in mind there are two questions we might reflect on, ‘What needs healing in my life at the moment? What are the things I need to be grateful to God for at this time?