Posted on 03/19/2023 7:35:09 AM PDT by MurphsLaw
Today's Gospel Reading of Jesus restoring the unamed Blind Man's sight-
is looked at from the transformational and Sacramental nature's of God
being "rubbed" into us.
A look into a deeper understanding of how we too, can often be blind-
when we think, we do see.
15 min. YouTube video link below:
Friends, today in the strange and strikingly beautiful account
of the healing of the man born blind in John’s Gospel,
we find an iconic representation of Christianity as a way of seeing.
Jesus spits on the ground and makes a mud paste,
which he then rubs onto the man’s eyes.
When the man washes his eyes in the pool of Siloam as Jesus had instructed him,
his sight is restored.
The crowds are amazed, but the Pharisees—consternated and skeptical—
accuse the man of being naïve and the one who healed him of being a sinner.
With disarming simplicity, the visionary responds:
“If he is a sinner, I do not know.
One thing I do know is that
I was blind and now I see.”
This is precisely what all Christians say when they have encountered the light of Christ.
It was St. Augustine who saw in the making of the mud paste a metaphor for the Incarnation:
the divine power mixing with the earth, resulting in the formation of a healing balm.
When this salve of God made flesh is rubbed onto our eyes blinded by sin,
we come again to see.
I hear the echo of my Dad’s voice, that he said often.
“I see said the blind man when he stepped in the cow pie.”
It takes a pretty crappy situation to learn or see God.
Job 42:5 I had only heard about You before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.
Job 42:6 I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”
This was our reading and sermon today too!
Back in the day, I heard it as:
“I see,” said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw.
“I hear,” said the deaf man, as he gathered his flock and herd.
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