Sunday of the Blind Man
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
“For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” (Jn.9, 39)
This is what the Lord Jesus Christ said to the blind man, who was healed by Him, after he confessed his faith in Jesus Christ as Son of God.
What do these words mean?
“The blind whose eyes were opened” were those simple and unlearned people, who having believed in Christ, were enlightened by His divine teaching, as the Blind Man healed by the Lord.
But the Pharisees and Scribes who deemed themselves teachers of the people, who have devoted their lives to the study of the Scriptures, who thought that they were able to see the truth, when they rejected the Messiah – Jesus Christ, their hearts and minds were darkened.
Faith is a spiritual vision; faith gives a person the ability to see things that are invisible to our physical eyes. On the contrary, disbelief resembles blindness. An atheist who claims that nothing exists but the material, resembles a blind man who cannot see light. But the light doesn’t cease to exist, just the blind cannot see it.
The Lord said: “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind” (Jn.9, 39).
The judgment here means “separation”, “division”. The coming of Jesus Christ divided the world into those who believed in Him and those who rejected Him. It is not God Who makes this judgment. Every person must make it. Everyone must decide: to be with Jesus Christ or go away from Him. The Lord calls all to come to Him and be saved, but there are so many who disregard His call.
So it was in the time of Jesus Christ, and so it will be until the end of the world: for some, Christ is the “chief cornerstone”, on which they build their life.
For others He is the “stone which the builders rejected”, the “stone of stumbling”, at which they stumble and fall. This is the judgment, which the Lord Jesus Christ brought to the world.
Elsewhere in the Gospel the Lord says: “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” (Luke 12)
This judgment separates believers from unbelievers, those who love God from those who love the world. Because it is precisely the love of this world that prevents us from believing in God. Love for this world pushes a man to seek only earthly things. His heart becomes constantly obsessed with various cares and desires, leaving no room for any spiritual thought.
Holy martyr Tiburtius said to the judge: “We rejected what seems to exist, but doesn’t really exist, and instead found something that appears nonexistent, but what actually exists”.
When the judge didn’t understand his words, Tiburtius explained to him that everything that this temporal world has and presents and promises to give, only seems to be something essential, but in reality, is nothing, because it quickly ends. While the future life, which appears nonexistent to people attached to the world, since they do not see it, nevertheless, it exists and will always be without any changes.
To obtain such clairvoyant faith we must pray often, we must remember eternal life, the inevitable end of our life and the final Judgment, at which we will be judged for all our actions, words and thoughts. We must always remember the “one thing needful”: to live in faith and save our soul.
Amen.
