The Sunday of the Blind Man: Spiritual Sight and the Light of Christ

A condition more experienced than I think some of us would imagine — that Jesus, in the course of today’s Gospel passage, will testify that He will heal the blind. It is important that we consider what Jesus meant by His word, being blind. What is blind? Who is blind? The man who came to Jesus with that physical illness came to Jesus and asked to be healed, because our Lord Jesus Christ is the author of life. He not only had the right, but the ability and the love to heal him, and He healed him, because the man came to himself, to ask to be healed, recognizing that he had a problem and accepting that Jesus had the ability to heal him. But Jesus used that opportunity to reach other people — the same people who would condemn Jesus for performing that miracle. Those same people, He implies in His words, are blind. For them, Jesus’ vision begins with the soul. If our soul has no eyes, if the light does not reach our soul, how can we see reality in this life? He spoke to these people who had perfect eyes and said, “You are also blind, and because you do not know that you are blind, you cannot be healed.” Is this one of the most painful things He did? Because it is a kind of disease that the patient cannot understand that he has. The person must have spiritual eyes to understand that he is blind, and if they do not have them, and if they cannot ask the Lord for healing by His mercy, how can they be healed?

An interesting question for us to know right now is: what happens when Christ is challenged — the man who is blind, and of course being the healer, the author of life, the essence of mercy, He heals the man. Of course He does. He is judged for this. He is judged for this because He heals the man on the Sabbath. This reminds us of other times, for example, when Christ allowed His most hungry disciples to feed on the Sabbath. He was judged for that, for breaking the Sabbath. But they did not understand that Christ is the Sabbath. That Christ is the promise of God, the fulfillment of the promise of God, the incarnation of the promise of God in the lives of humanity. So Christ gets to the heart of why they could not understand — to the heart of why they would be angry. This man suffered his whole life from blindness, something that would be terrifying — terrified by the fact that I can’t even read this Bible in front of me right now in case I need to reference something — this man couldn’t see at all. And they see that dynamic and they choose to reject Christ on the basis of His actions. They choose to call Him crazy because of what He has said and what He has done. Where does that come from? Why would they react that way in the face of love and the face of healing? And Christ calls them out on it. He says, “What you have revealed here is that you are in fact the ones who are blind.” In order to see, in order to truly see, you have to see with your heart, with the spirit, and if your spirit is blind, you cannot see the truth.

I share with you a quote from the prayers of St. Nerses: “O Christ, who opened the eyes of the man born blind, open the eyes of my soul which has been darkened by sin. You are the light that dawned upon those who sit in darkness, the unsetting sun that illuminates every mind, the lamp that guides the feet of the lost, the door that opens paradise.”

Christ is trying to teach us this miracle of humility. It is hard for us to understand and accept our own deficits — in this case, our own spiritual blindness, our need, our dependence on Christ. He is that light. We need Him to reveal the truth to us. Without Him, there is no meaning. There is no independence in this journey. We cannot do it on our own, and that is very humbling — devastating for some people to accept — that they cannot do it on their own. Christ is reassuring us today. This is the first step of healing: understanding. Go to God with your personal vision, success, victory, overcoming. It’s okay to put that in God’s hands and let Him illuminate the path, as St. Nerses teaches us — a beautiful dependence.

Today, especially on Mother’s Day, I think it’s important for us to really take that message to heart. One thing that I reflected on in the brief Armenian remarks that I gave earlier is what was so tragic about the spiritually blind — they were lost, they could not understand how they even needed Christ to be the light in their life. But here, brothers and sisters, is where we find that the mercy of God can take us by the hand and guide us into the light, even when we don’t understand or perceive it. This is no easy task — the patience, the tolerance required. For mothers who are present here today, let our prayers be with them. Amazing, beautiful, and singular is their calling in motherhood. In this way, they embody that role — thanks to God, who took up that duty, thanks to you who illuminated the path that He has set for you, bringing your children and your children’s children into the light, even when they can’t understand or perceive it, celebrating and loving them throughout that journey. I give thanks for my own mother for doing the same for me. I give thanks for supporting me in being able to do that with our family.

But at the end of the day, none of this is possible without us first admitting what the blind man admitted before Christ: “I can’t see. Open my eyes, Lord.” Amen.