Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Our Gospel today presents one of Jesus’ healing miracles (a blind man). Taken at face value, we are inspired by our Lord’s compassion and power to heal. We can also read this account as a real-life parable. In it we are meant to recognize the disciples’ gradual coming to faith and understanding of Christ and his mission; in it we are invited to contemplate our own spiritual journey and recovery of sight. Today, let us ask the Lord to heal us of our spiritual blindness so that we might see more clearly the plans and purposes of God and follow him more closely.
Mark very strategically places the healing of the deaf-mute man (7:31-37) and this encounter with the blind man in this section of his Gospel. (You might refer back to the previous healing as it has important parallels to our text today.) The healing of the blind man is unique, however, in that it is the only miracle recorded in the Gospels that takes place in two stages. Notice that Jesus involves the blind man in the process of the recovery of his sight, asking, “Do you see anything?” Obviously, God involves each of us in our own spiritual journeys, not violating our free will or forcing anything upon us. What is it that you wish to see more clearly in terms of your relationship with God? Pause and talk with him. Perhaps the gradualness of this man’s recovery of sight symbolizes the slow and developmental process the disciples experienced as their eyes were opened to understand Jesus and his mission. Each of us are on a journey of discipleship, seeking to more clearly see and understand our Lord. We might pause at this point and reflect back on where we’ve been. Can you point to specific moments in time at which your eyes were opened and you saw and understood God more clearly? Let us celebrate those moments with joy and gratitude. Let us also ask God to continue removing the scales from our eyes (Acts 9:18) so that our spiritual sight might be sharpened more and more.
After the second time Jesus laid hands on the blind man, “he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.” The Greek word translated “see” means “to look intently” or “to fix one’s gaze upon.” This word seems to invite us to develop a penetrating gaze of faith, a desire and the ability to look intently into spiritual realities, to see as Jesus sees, to perceive with the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). We might ask ourselves, do I have a desire to look deeply into God’s Word, the scriptures and the teaching of the Church? How great is my desire for God’s Word? Do I give it an occasional passing glance or do I “look intently” and “fix my gaze” upon it? To what extent do I desire healing of my spiritual blindness? I might sit with these questions and others that arise today as I ponder my spiritual sightedness.
In the passage leading up to today’s text, Jesus asks his disciples, “Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?” (8:18). The answer to that question for each of us today, to some extent, is “yes.” Yes, Lord, I have eyes but I don’t see you; I have ears but I don’t hear you. That honest admission becomes an open door to the Lord’s healing as we turn it into a prayer. Please, Lord, heal my spiritual blindness; please Lord, in your mercy, heal my spiritual deafness. Notice that Jesus took the blind man by the hand. This loving action recalls Isaiah 41:13, “For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’” We need not fear our blindness and deafness, nor feel ashamed or weighed down. We simply come to the Lord, stretching out our hand for him to grasp, asking him to heal us, and then trusting the gradual process that will surely unfold.
I’ll see you in the Eucharist,
Elizabeth Wells
(I referenced the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Gospel of Mark, pgs 156-58 in my reflection today.)