Throwing off the cloak -- taking on a new life

In last week's gospel reading, the blind man, Bartimaeus, dared enough to call out to Jesus who was passing by, even while being shushed by everyone Jesus calls him over, so he throws off his cloak and asks for healing from the depths of his heart. He is healed, then proceeded to follow Jesus in his way. Our new deacon made much of the analogy between throwing off the cloak and walking away from your old life. But there's more: ahead lies a radically new life in Christ, and one is not done without walking that road: forward! It is a grace to find that it is not some uncertain trek, where mystery casts dark shadows too dark to see. Much of it is revealed in light, plan in the day, as is much of his word. Who'd have known it, when the Spirit prompts, by Scripture's words, "pray constantly," it wasn't rocket science? For me, as for many over the centuries, it meant the Liturgy of he Hours. And suddenly, wonderfully, everything changes!