Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Seeing Beyond the Village

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 02.15.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Mark 8:22–26

Friends, after Jesus heals the blind man in today’s Gospel,
he tells him, “Do not even go into the village.”

Now, blindness is a biblical image for lack of spiritual sight,
the inability to see things as they are.
One of the effects of the fall was a loss of holiness—seeing with the eyes of Christ,
appreciating the world as a participation in the creative energy of God.
All of us sinners, to varying degrees, are blind to this metaphysics of creation

One of the origins of this spiritual debility is too much time in the village.
Jesus the healer and judge has to lead us blind people out of the city and give us sight
—and then strictly enjoin us not to return to the blinding ways of the village.

We unfortunate village dwellers must, through the power of Christ, put on the mind of Christ.
And then we must live in a new town, the community of love and justice which is the Church.
It is this city of vision that effectively challenges (and judges)
the enduring power of the blinding society.

[MurphsLaw]

+++When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida,
people brought to him a blind man
and begged Jesus to touch him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked,
“Do you see anything?”
Looking up the man replied,
“I see people looking like trees and walking.”
Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time
and he saw clearly;
his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.
Then he sent him home and said,
“Do not even go into the village.”+++