Fr Columba McCann OSB
My sister worked for most of her life as a psychotherapist. I always had the sense that, in addition to her professional training, she had an innate gift in this area. She could walk into a room and see the
dynamics at work between people in the way they related to one another. She could see things no one else could see. It was unnerving at times, because she seemed to have x-ray eyes! It goes to show that seeing is more than just the colours and shapes that your eyes pick up. It’s about what you perceive. It’s about being in touch with reality.
We have just heard the story of the prophet Samul who is sent by God to find a new king for Israel among the sons of Jesse. When Jesse parades his sons before him, one finer and stronger than the
next, Samuel is not satisfied. Initially he was taken in by superficial appearances, but the Lord helped him to see. God looks at the heart, he is told; we tend to look only at appearances. It was the little guy who hadn’t even been included in the beauty pageant who got the crown, David the shepherd boy, a little nobody in his family. God saw in him the future king of Israel who would shepherd his people. No-one else saw it. They were blind.
All over the world right now there are thousands of people who are preparing to be baptised as adult Christians this Easter. Following an ancient tradition, today’s gospel is chosen specially for them. During these weeks they are coming to see ever more clearly who Jesus really is, and so the story of the healing of the blind man is ideal for them. But it’s also read for us who are already baptised.
When most people looked at the blind man they were thinking about sin: was he blind because he was a sinner or because his parents had sinned? Jesus sees him in a completely different way: this blind man will reveal God’s glory. Jesus puts mud on his eyes and tells him to wash in the pool of Siloam, the name of which means ‘the one sent’. But Jesus himself is the one sent from the Father. People preparing for baptism are being given a hint that in the waters of the baptismal pool, they are going to be plunged into Jesus himself.
The blind man begins to see with his eyes. But a deeper vision begins to dawn slowly on him. When questioned by the authorities he refers initially to ‘the man Jesus’. Later, under the pressure of argument, he says that Jesus is a prophet. Net he is able to see that Jesus must be from God. Finally, when he meets Jesus again, Jesus reveals himself as the Son of Man – a person wielding great authority given by God. But a deeper intuition, not even spoken by Jesus, takes him even further: he calls Jesus ‘Lord. This can simply mean ‘master’ but here it is also the respectful name ‘Lord’ given by Jews to God himself. We know this because when he calls Jesus ‘Lord he worships him. He has really begun to see!
Sadly the authorities are becoming more and more blind to Jesus because of their religious certainty. Their thoughts are boxed in by a narrow view of what God allows on the Sabbath day. We might say, ‘That’s well and good for people who are about to be baptised; they come to new insight about Jesus. But what about us? We are already baptised!’ This reminds me of a medical fact when it comes to ophthalmic surgery. Sometimes people who have been blind for a long time undergo a successful eye operation where everything functions
perfectly. The eye is now working exactly as it should, but they still cannot see. This is because it takes their brain some time to adjust to the new information it is receiving from the optic nerve. I think it may be like that for many of us and our baptism. We have received the Holy Spirit, we have been given the vision and insight, the light of Christ shone into our depths in baptism. But we still can’t see it, we seem unable to access it. Lent is a time for post-operative therapy, not
physiotherapy but therapy of the spirit.
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the traditional therapies to awaken our spiritual sight. Prayer puts us into close contact with Jesus, just like the blind. Jesus might as well be touching us. In fact he is even closer than that. Acts of kindness – almsgiving- activate the love that has been poured into us in Baptism so that it becomes an active energy in our lives, releasing joy and light. The search for immediate comfort and convenience often blinds us to the things that really matter, the things that give us life, and so some restraint in following all our attractions tunes up our spiritual awareness – fasting from food, from drink, from the internet, from gossip, or whatever it is that diverts us from bathing in the joyful light of Christ.
You don’t need to be a psychotherapist to have x-ray eyes. Our baptism has given us the capacity for a way of seeing that can keep growing from now into eternity. Lent is the time to open our eyes.
Awake, O sleeper!
Rise from the dead,
And Christ will shine upon you!