Sunday Meditation: The Blind Will See!

Today is Laetare Sunday. We are half way through Lent and rejoice to reflect on the sure knowledge of our rescue from sin and eternal death. The Gospel reading today is one of my favorites -- the story of the man born blind. Jesus doesn't heal him outright. He makes a paste with saliva and mud and sends the man to wash in the pool of Siloam. Why? Perhaps as a gift. The man didn't beg for a cure. The disciples used the man to ask Jesus a question about sin. Whose sin caused his blindness, his or his parents? Neither, Jesus answered. Bad things aren't necessarily a punishment for sin; sometimes they occur to allow God to show his power. And Jesus does just that, restoring sight to this man who did not ask for it.

But what about the person who does ask and does not receive a cure? Does that mean God isn't listening and doesn't care? No! Sometimes the biggest miracle is the cheerful acceptance of our misfortunes and offering them in atonement for our sins and the sins of others.

Blessed Margaret of Costello knew that. She was born blind and hunchbacked, shunned and abandoned by her parents. And yet she modelled cheerful abandonment to God's providence. When a woman she knew received news that she was going blind she despaired and begged Margaret, renowned for the power of her prayers, to ask God for a cure. Think of the irony of this wealthy woman, a member of the nobility, weeping and begging the poor little blind woman, who never had the use of her eyes, to pray for her sight to be restored. Margaret tried to convince her to accept her blindness as a gift to walk more closely with the Savior, but she could not. So Margaret prayed for her and the woman's sight returned. Perhaps had she accepted the loss of physical sight, she would have been particularly blessed with interior sight. It is something to ponder.

The blind man cured by Jesus had to act. Jesus sent him to the pool of Siloam to wash. And when he finished, he could see. He became a reproach to the Pharisees who questioned him over and over about who cured him. When he described Jesus as a prophet, the Pharisees rebuked him and called Jesus a sinner. You can almost hear the man, his sight restored, laughing in their faces as he asks has a sinner ever cured a man blind from birth? "If this man were not from God, he could never have done such a thing." They insult him and throw him out into the street. But Jesus, in a touching scene, seeks him out and asks, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" And he responds, "Who is he, Sir, that I may believe in Him." Jesus reveals that He is the Messiah. "I do believe, Lord," replies this grateful and humble servant and he "bowed down to worship Him." (John 9)

How I love that blind man whose story shows us how eager Jesus is to seek us out and help us "to see." The Pharisees who overhear the conversation are indignant. Is Jesus calling them blind? To which he responds, "If you were blind there would be no sin in that. 'But we see,' you say, and your sin remains." We live among modern day blind Pharisees who claim to see. In fact, there is a Pharisees' conference meeting on Pentecost weekend to "reimagine" the Church in their own heretical image. They call themselves the American Catholic Council. Pray that the misguided among them will meet Jesus and have their sight restored. As for the malicious, many of their leaders, some demons are only driven out by prayer and fasting.

I'm praying today to have the faith of the blind man. Like the other blind man who sat at the gate calling, "Son of David, have pity on me." I want to respond to Jesus' question, "What do you want of Me?"  saying "Lord, that I may see...that I may see all those you put in my path and treat them as you would."

If you haven't been to Confession this Lent, it's not too late. Go now. It's the greatest cure for spiritual blindness.