John 9:1-41

Meditatio (Reflecting)

I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.

Oratio (Responding)

Todays reading is long, and full of lots of imagery, and meaning. But we will focus today on the vision and blindness. At the time of Jesus the people believed that if you were born with a disability, or later in life contracted an ailment, that it meant that either your parents were sinners, or that you had sinned in a way that lead to this punishment. Jesus starts the passage by using the ability to see to show the error of this way of thinking. He explicitly states that this is not the reason that the man was blind, but then uses his disability to prove that point, by granting him sight that was blind from birth.

The second point I want to make is about how He did it. Just like God made clay when He created Adam in the garden, Jesus uses clay to recreate this blind man in His image. The clay is a mixture of water and dirt, the water (saliva) comes from the divine God, and the earth comes from the physical world. It is a combining of the divine nature with the worldly nature. That is how we were created before adam and eve sinned, and it is how we are recreated through the sacraments of anointing (using the clay, aka. confirmation) and the washing (in the pool of siloam, aka. baptism).

God’s original plan was for us all to be perfect combinations of Mind, Body, and Soul in the garden with Him, but then sin entered the world, and human kind rejected this close connection with God, and thus we now have to have our relationship with Him restored. That is the point of Jesus’ life, teachings and sacrifice, and it is through the sacraments that He left us, that we are restored to right relationship with Him.

Through baptism and confirmation we go from the blindness of sin into the vision of full communion with Him. But then sin comes back into our lives again, and thus we have the sacraments of confession and eucharist to bring us back into full communion after we fall. We then are given the sacraments of holy orders or marriage so that we can devote our lives to the service of the lord, and finally we have the sacraments of viaticum, to bless us when we are sick and dying so that we can be in right relationship with Him at the last moments of our lives. Everything that jesus did was for our salvation. To restore us to full communion with the father. So that at the end of time, we can be restored body and soul to full relationship with Him, like adam and eve had before the fall.

That is the reason for all of this, this life, the church, our faith, and our journey toward the lord. It is for us to rightly order our lives toward the one that is the source of everything. This is the story of the blind man, and it is the call of all of us. Do not be like the pharisees, who knew the law, and believed that they could see, but were actually blind to the truth of Jesus and the real reason for God’s love. They were stuck in the trappings and lures of the this world, and were blind to the promise of eternal happiness with God. So if you are blind, open your eyes to the promise of God and His sacraments, and you will be forever changed.

Contemplatio (Contemplating)

Take time to simply remain in the presence of God.

Resolutio (Resolving)

Oh lord help me today to find some way to share your word, and your promise to the people of my family that are lost and stuck in sin.