Priest Gregory Sols email: gregsolisjr@gmail.com__ Phone: 361-249-7908
Sunday, January 30, 2022
The healing of the blind man (Luke 18:35-43)
And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging: And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him, Saying, what wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.
Why does God allow people to be born blind? How can the person born blind deserve to be deprived of his sight if he has not yet committed any sin worthy of punishment? We may be tempted to accuse God of a great injustice especially if this type of ailment affects someone close to us, like a child. But we must remember that temporary physical blindness is but a second of unpleasantness in the potential eternal blessedness of the glory of Communion with God in Heaven. It is just how as tasting a bitter medicine for a moment causes us agony, but heals us of a serious ailment.
Our Lord only allows physical blindness in this fallen world to be a symbol of the spiritual blindness that all mankind possesses to some degree. When our first parents sinned against God they were driven away from the light and suffered the darkness of condemnation.
But as we hear in today’s Gospel reading, our Lord Jesus Christ drew near to the city of Jericho. Jericho is interpreted as ‘moon’, and so we can understand this event to be describing the condescension of our Lord in assuming a human body to recover the light that it had lost, as the moon depicts the weakness of our mortal nature by waning in its monthly changes. As our Lord suffered as a human, humans are raised up to divinity.
As we hear the blind man call out to Christ to have mercy on him, we see that those that went before Christ told the blind man to be quiet. We understand this event to symbolize the spiritually blind longing for the light of truth, but as they cry to the Lord the crowds of bodily desires and the uproar caused by our vices try to silence or prayer to God.
As we pray to God to come and deliver us from darkness and lead us into light, images of our sins come into our hearts and obscure our inner vision, sometimes rising up in our thoughts as images to throw us into confusion in the very act of praying.
We are being instructed to imitate the blind man when such assailments come our way, and to cry out even more fervently to our Lord to have mercy on us since we are weak and unable to fight against the crowds of temptations that remind us of our sins. Even if we are remorseful for our sins, the sorrows of repentance hardly drive away the images of past sins.
Then we hear that our Lord stopped and ordered the blind man to be brought to Him. The two natures of Christ are emphasized here. In our Lords humanity which can be described as changing and moving, our Lord has become close to us and attracted us towards Himself. Once this has occurred, our Lord calls us to Himself as He stands still in His Divinity and gives us His Light that heals us from our blindness.
When Christ called the blind man to Himself, He asked him what he wanted, and the blind man requested only that he would be given his sight. We must imitate him and not ask for deceptive riches or earthly gifts or passing honors, but only for Light.
Then after healing the blind man, our Lord credits the man’s faith in his being healed of his blindness, emphasizing our part in responding to our Lords grace with our free will. He is not ashamed to give all the credit to the blind man although it is in reality only by His great mercy that the blind man even had the opportunity to be healed. Our Lord loves all mankind and desires that all be saved and offers great mercy to all. Only some respond to this call with the desire to receive spiritual sight and that is why our Lord credits those that faithfully beg our Lord for sight for being healed by their faith.
Then the man who was previously blind follows after our Lord. This means nothing else than imitating our Lord who left an example of how to live. “He refused to prosper in this world; he endured reproaches and mockery, he bore up under spitting, scourging, blows, a crown of thorns and a cross. Because we had fallen away from inner joy by our delight in material things, He showed with what bitterness we must return to it.”-Gregory the Great
And as this man was healed by his repentance and perseverance and by imitating Christ, others gave glory to God and also entered into the process of being healed of spiritual blindness. May we continue on our path in seeking God’s Light, healing us of all darkness by our constant prayer to our Lord, His most pure Mother, the Bodiless Hosts, and all the Saints. Then we too may attract others to abandon the darkness and draw close to God and be healed. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment