Monday
of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial
of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
November 17, 2014 8:30AM
I am thinking that the story about
the blind man in today’s gospel is like a miniature picture of the Christian
life
The man knows that he is blind.
Jesus asks him: “What do you want me to do for you?”
And the man immediately responds:
“Lord. Please let me see.”
In other words, “Lord, I want to see.”
The beginning of the Christian
life in each of us must come from our recognizing that we also are in a sense
blind.
We also need to see, to have a vision
for living our lives.
In the gospel incident, this man
trusts Jesus and is open to his power.
So Jesus, it seems joyfully,
says: “Have sight; your faith has saved
you.”
The lesson here is that trust
also opens us to Jesus.
We need to take the risk, the
jump of trusting him.
Our trust opens us to Jesus’
power and the vision that comes from that.
Or maybe we can put it the other
way around and say that trust opens us to Jesus’ vision and the power that
comes from that.
Our trust and Jesus’ vision
empowers us to make sense of our lives and to see, to see purpose and meaning
and direction.
There is one more thing in this
passage.
As soon as the man receives his
sight, he follows Jesus.
The seeing and the following tell
us that the value or power of what Jesus
has to say becomes clear to the extent that we try to practice and live his
way.
In one way, the vision leads us
to follow Jesus.
And in another way, our experience
of following Jesus makes it clear that the vision makes sense and is the right
and only way to live.
That is my take on this beautiful
gospel story of Jesus giving sight to the blind man.
