{"id":342,"date":"2016-06-04T13:15:47","date_gmt":"2016-06-04T18:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.st-andrew.church\/?p=342"},"modified":"2016-06-04T13:15:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-04T18:15:47","slug":"sixth-sunday-of-pascha-a-reflection-on-the-man-born-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/?p=342","title":{"rendered":"Sixth Sunday of Pascha – A Reflection on the Man Born Blind"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Fr. Irineos<\/p>\n

Reflection on the Healing of the Blind Man<\/div>\n
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In today\u2019s Gospel reading, we hear of Christ healing the man who had been born blind.\u00a0 This story is familiar to us.\u00a0 Christ spits on the ground, makes clay and puts it in the man\u2019s eyes, and instructs him to wash in the pool of Siloam.\u00a0 The man does as he is told and his sight is restored.\u00a0 He returns, not to find Christ, but to face others who question how this miracle could have occurred.\u00a0 Some people even doubt that he is the same man, for never before had it been known for a man blind from birth to be healed.<\/div>\n

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Eventually he is brought before the Pharisees to recount what happened, but the Pharisees, doing what Pharisees do, seem more concerned about somebody having the nerve to heal on the Sabbath day than about the great miracle which has occurred in their midst.\u00a0 When Jesus first encounters the blind man, his disciples ask him whether it was the man or his parents who sinned to cause his sorrowful condition, but Jesus explains that neither the sins of the blind man nor those of his parents are responsible for his blindness, but rather that he is in that condition, so that the works of God may be revealed in him.<\/div>\n
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And indeed, with his healing those marvelous works shine forth and amaze the crowd.\u00a0 Yet the Pharisees are unimpressed.\u00a0 They are so weighed down by their own concerns, with some trivial infraction of their laws, that they miss entirely the wonders of God revealed in the working of a previously unfathomable miracle.\u00a0 And in that sense, perhaps the Pharisees in this reading are much like you and I in our day to day lives.\u00a0 How often do our prejudices or judgmentalism keep up from truly appreciating small wonders of God\u2019s glory shown to us every day?\u00a0 Maybe somebody has offered you a great mercy, but pride prevents you from accepting it.\u00a0 The neighbor who offers to fix your broken sprinkler system so you don\u2019t have to call a repair man.\u00a0 The co-worker, who offers to pitch in on a project that is going to keep you at the office until midnight.\u00a0 Oh, we politely thank them and turn down their offers, because these are things we can handle on our own.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need their help.\u00a0 The need to be self-sufficient in all things is prized so highly in our culture, that those whose good works are pleasing to God become an offense to us, rather than a revelation of the glory of God!\u00a0 Or maybe it is our own pharisaical tendencies.\u00a0 That new lady who offered to help teach the Sunday School class, she has a tattoo! She\u2019s defiled her body; we can\u2019t have her teaching in the Church.\u00a0 \u00a0Sure, John cuts the grass every week and makes sure the parish property is kept up, but everyone knows he doesn\u2019t tithe!\u00a0 When we elevate our personal laws to such a level that we can no longer see the beauty and wonder of anything that does not strictly meet our personal legal standards, like the Pharisees, we miss out on the works of God happening around us every day.<\/div>\n
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But in this lesson there is one person who did not have any problem proclaiming the glory of God: the blind man.\u00a0 The Pharisees tested him, over and over, but he never backed down.\u00a0 He never denied the miracle that Christ had worked.\u00a0 When they urged him to give God the glory and reject Christ, who they called a sinner, he refused.\u00a0 He would not judge.\u00a0 \u201cWhether he is a sinner or not, I do not know\u201d the healed man says, \u201cWhat I know is that though I was blind, I now see.\u201d\u00a0 And when he is cast out of the synagogue and vilified by the Pharisees, Christ comes to him and asks him \u201cDo you believe in the Son of God?\u201d\u00a0 Now this man did not know that the person asking him this question was the same one who healed him, because Christ sent him to wash in Siloam, and was gone when the man returned.\u00a0 But the man does not hesitate.\u00a0 \u201cWho is He, Lord\u201d he asks, \u201cthat I may believe.\u201d\u00a0 And when Christ humbly reveals himself to him he falls down before him and proclaims \u201cLord, I believe!\u201d<\/div>\n
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I suppose it should not be surprising that one who has received such a precious gift from God should proclaim his belief without hesitation.\u00a0 Is our own reticence to see the works of God in action in the world a result not having had such an encounter with Christ?\u00a0 If this is what holds up back, what binds us with pride and prejudice, we need only to look a little deeper into today\u2019s readings to see that like the blind man, we too have been equipped with the personal encounter with God\u2019s work to proclaim God\u2019s glory as the blind man did.\u00a0 Blessed Theophylact writes \u201cEvery man is blind from birth\u201d as a result of being born into this fallen world, and that \u201cfrom the moment we were punished with mortality . . .\u00a0 a thick cloud covered our eyes like a cloak of flesh.\u201d\u00a0 As the spit dropped into the dirt to create a healing ointment, the Holy Spirit descended on the Virgin Mary and the greatest healer of all was made incarnate and dwelt among us.<\/div>\n
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Like the blind man, we have been healed.\u00a0 We have been washed in holy baptism, like the blind man washed in Siloam.\u00a0 We have been tested by the endless temptations of our modern age, as the blind man was interrogated and challenged by the Pharisees.\u00a0\u00a0 Is God\u2019s mercy and love for us not as great a work of majesty as the restoration of the blind man\u2019s sight?\u00a0 The cloak of sin has been lifted from our eyes.\u00a0 The chains of death have been broken for us by Christ\u2019s glorious Resurrection.\u00a0 We are restored; we are healed.\u00a0 Let our vision not be clouded again by the petty concerns of our fallen world or by our prejudices or fears.\u00a0 Let us not be caught unaware of the wondrous works of God surrounding us and lifting us up.\u00a0 Rather, let us be like the blind man healed and proclaim, Lord I believe!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Fr. Irineos Reflection on the Healing of the Blind Man In today\u2019s Gospel reading, we hear of Christ healing the man who had been born blind.\u00a0 This story is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[39,41,43,42,40,44],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-sermons","tag-6th-sunday","tag-blaind-man","tag-christ","tag-healing","tag-pascha","tag-sermon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343,"href":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}