open ear to the ever-new word of God. Here God is speaking to this person and no other; to this beggar at the Temple gate who receives some gift, this person who is spiritually blind and lame and is to be healed, this disciple, listening to the Master. He must be really ready and willing to be this particular individual; he must not take refuge behind the barricades of ecclesiastical anonymity for fear of this encounter. The whole glory of this prayer is that, here, the very same personal encounter is meant to take place as in the Lord’s
