Jesus was in the business of healing, right up to the end. The scripture passages presented throughout the Lenten period show us some of the most dramatic healings, and challenge us to admit that we too are in need of such healing. The thing is that sometimes we recognize our need for healing and can ask for help, while at other times the impetus has to come from outside, from others, from God. Here's my take on the encounter of the blind man with Jesus, and its lessons for us today, unless you'd rather listen in instead.
Look beyond
Sometimes, what you see depends on how you look at things.
This week's gospel passage focuses on sight. Our ability to see is one of those things that we usually pay little if any attention to, until it is compromised, or needs to be corrected in some way. Then we go rushing after a doctor of one sort or another, looking for a cure. Is that because we've been conditioned in some way to expect nothing less than perfection? Perhaps we're just grown used to seeking immediate solutions to our problems. Could it be that we're so used to living in a society which allows us to have access to treatments for any maladies, as soon as we perceive a need that we can't even fathom the idea of anything less?
What if, like the man in today's gospel, we were not the ones who sought after immediate cures for our blindnesses? Would we be any less valuable or worthy or loveable? Would we perhaps learn a lesson or two that might change our perspective on life?
The English language distinguishes different references to sight. Today's first reading presents us with one kind of sight: the sight entrusted to Samuel, the kind of sight necessary to discern which one of Jesse's sons was to be chosen, anointed and entrusted with the task of leading the Israelites. The letter to the Ephesians refers to our call to live as children of the light, a second reference to a slightly different meaning of the word sight, and the Gospel presents yet a third understanding of sight, specifically the absence of physical sight, but the presence of trust and faith which can lead to the gift of a much deeper kind of sight. All of these examples reassure us that God has always been close to his people, and throughout history, has given the gift of sight, at times even restored it. In all these cases though, the sight given by faith is different, is deeper than the ordinary everyday understanding of physical sight.
Sight and insight that come with faith do not necessitate the presence of physical sight. Instead, they allow us to see with God's eyes, and seeing with God's eyes allows us to be particularly attuned to the blindnesses that too often exist in our world. Some are blind to prejudices, others are blind to indifference, and still others are blind to the fact that there's anything wrong at all with the society in which we live.
There was a time when faith was the primary source of sight, but in recent times, the secularization of society, the advent of democracy, the insistence on the primacy of human rights, certain scientific advances and even philosophical free thinking have all contributed in one way or other to a blurring of the faith-based sight that once was our primary guide. In a world where religion has been increasingly relegated to the sidelines, and in some cases ignored altogether, sight and insight have now been confined to the realm of an individual's free choice. Society is more and more based on the principle of individualism, and the biggest disease that plagues us is loneliness, along with a resultant spiritual vacuum.
But human beings can't exist for long in the absence of spirituality because sight which is defined by individual choice can all to often end up myopic, focused on the here and now with little or no regard for the big picture, for the ways in which one person's life impacts on the life of another. We might try to deny the fact that we need the sacred but all attempts to do so have thus far led us to lower our expectations of ourselves and of society. The result is a 'new atheism' and religious indifference. In the end we worry about superficial things and miss out on the essentials.
Today's gospel calls each of us to a new sense of sight: the kind of sight that recognizes the danger of individualism, the kind of sight that challenges the secular world not to settle for the mediocre, not to ignore the lure of the sacred because the sacred has the power to entice us, to draw us out of ourselves, to encourage us to look beyond the world around us, to set our sights higher and not to settle for merely acceptable solutions. Do we need new eyes to appreciate the sacred, or just a new appreciation for sight?
Look beyond
Sometimes, what you see depends on how you look at things.
This week's gospel passage focuses on sight. Our ability to see is one of those things that we usually pay little if any attention to, until it is compromised, or needs to be corrected in some way. Then we go rushing after a doctor of one sort or another, looking for a cure. Is that because we've been conditioned in some way to expect nothing less than perfection? Perhaps we're just grown used to seeking immediate solutions to our problems. Could it be that we're so used to living in a society which allows us to have access to treatments for any maladies, as soon as we perceive a need that we can't even fathom the idea of anything less?
What if, like the man in today's gospel, we were not the ones who sought after immediate cures for our blindnesses? Would we be any less valuable or worthy or loveable? Would we perhaps learn a lesson or two that might change our perspective on life?
The English language distinguishes different references to sight. Today's first reading presents us with one kind of sight: the sight entrusted to Samuel, the kind of sight necessary to discern which one of Jesse's sons was to be chosen, anointed and entrusted with the task of leading the Israelites. The letter to the Ephesians refers to our call to live as children of the light, a second reference to a slightly different meaning of the word sight, and the Gospel presents yet a third understanding of sight, specifically the absence of physical sight, but the presence of trust and faith which can lead to the gift of a much deeper kind of sight. All of these examples reassure us that God has always been close to his people, and throughout history, has given the gift of sight, at times even restored it. In all these cases though, the sight given by faith is different, is deeper than the ordinary everyday understanding of physical sight.
Sight and insight that come with faith do not necessitate the presence of physical sight. Instead, they allow us to see with God's eyes, and seeing with God's eyes allows us to be particularly attuned to the blindnesses that too often exist in our world. Some are blind to prejudices, others are blind to indifference, and still others are blind to the fact that there's anything wrong at all with the society in which we live.
There was a time when faith was the primary source of sight, but in recent times, the secularization of society, the advent of democracy, the insistence on the primacy of human rights, certain scientific advances and even philosophical free thinking have all contributed in one way or other to a blurring of the faith-based sight that once was our primary guide. In a world where religion has been increasingly relegated to the sidelines, and in some cases ignored altogether, sight and insight have now been confined to the realm of an individual's free choice. Society is more and more based on the principle of individualism, and the biggest disease that plagues us is loneliness, along with a resultant spiritual vacuum.
But human beings can't exist for long in the absence of spirituality because sight which is defined by individual choice can all to often end up myopic, focused on the here and now with little or no regard for the big picture, for the ways in which one person's life impacts on the life of another. We might try to deny the fact that we need the sacred but all attempts to do so have thus far led us to lower our expectations of ourselves and of society. The result is a 'new atheism' and religious indifference. In the end we worry about superficial things and miss out on the essentials.
Today's gospel calls each of us to a new sense of sight: the kind of sight that recognizes the danger of individualism, the kind of sight that challenges the secular world not to settle for the mediocre, not to ignore the lure of the sacred because the sacred has the power to entice us, to draw us out of ourselves, to encourage us to look beyond the world around us, to set our sights higher and not to settle for merely acceptable solutions. Do we need new eyes to appreciate the sacred, or just a new appreciation for sight?
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