I had the privilege of worshiping in the beautiful Chapel of St. Ignatius on the campus of Seattle University this past Sunday. It is a unique. modern space that feels almost cave like. Its warm, white walls angle in soft ways making the acoustics rich and round. The music was lovely, made up of both students and several generations.

At one point of the homily the priest made this statement:"Everything is on the threshold of grace." He was using the story of Bartimaeus the man who is said to be blind. He comes to Jesus asking to be healed. It is a story rich in images and intrigue. It is also one of those rare and wonderful stories that actually makes an account of a conversation with Jesus. My favorite statement part is when Jesus turns to Bartimaeus and simply says:"What do you want me to do for you?" How straight forward is that?!

Bartimaeus wants to be healed from his inability to see. I can relate, can you? There are so many situations in my life, in the life of the world that need the shadows of darkness or the grime of confusion to be scraped away. In any given day I come upon a relationship or a challenge that simply needs me to have x-ray vision, like Superman, to clear away the debris that keeps me stuck. Like Bartimaeus, I am standing on the threshold of grace, waiting to be given the gift of seeing.

My other favorite line in this story is the description that Bartimaeus comes to Jesus 'in darkness of night'. There are so many places in our lives in which we travel in the darkness of night. We look around the edges for those places where light might break in…the gift of seeing. I believe the priest at mass on Sunday was saying that this is the human condition. Most often we travel in the darkness of night, groping our way to sight. In how we do our work, how we live our lives, how we form our relationships, how we plan for our future, we are always traveling in a form of darkness, seeing nothing or only a small part of the whole picture.

But in that darkness we are also always perched on the threshold of grace. Someplace on the edge of the shadows, we can hear that question echo through time:"What do you want me to do for you?" Being present to the question and the answers that then appear allows us to step over the threshold and into the light of grace. For each of us,like Bartimaeus, healing is just within our reach, even when we don't know it.