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The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John 9:1-38<\/em><\/p>\n If you were given the choice between having your physical sight or having your spiritual sight, which would you choose? \u00a0Imagine if you could only have one or the other. \u00a0Another way to look at it is, which is more preferable, to be physically blind or spiritually blind.<\/p>\n We take our 5 senses seriously and perhaps it\u2019s true that we don\u2019t take any one sense more seriously than the sense of sight. \u00a0Physical sight allows us to perceive and examine the world around us. \u00a0It would be quite difficult to imagine life without our eyes. \u00a0But we don\u2019t often think about our spiritual sense of sight. \u00a0We rarely if ever think that there is such a thing as spiritual blindness. \u00a0Our society has become so \u201ctolerant\u201d and \u201caccepting\u201d of so much that it is hard for us to fathom that in fact there is such a thing as blindness that is not physical.<\/p>\n We know this is true because we see it in today\u2019s gospel passage. \u00a0This story is remarkable not only because it deals with a man born physically blind, who miraculously receives his sight. \u00a0Rather the real magnificence of this passage is that it clearly deals with the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees and leaders of the Jewish people, the people who were supposed to know God. \u00a0Surely these men would recognize the work of God when they saw it! \u00a0Surely they would bow to their knees and honor the one capable of such great miracles. \u00a0Surely they would recognize that all of their hopes and dreams in a Messiah would be fulfilled in this Jesus of Nazareth.<\/p>\n But we notice that a funny, rather, a tragic thing happened. \u00a0They could not see the Lord Jesus for who He was. \u00a0They refused to see Him as He was. \u00a0Rather they preferred to see Him through their sinful ways. \u00a0Why did they not recognize Him? \u00a0Because they chose to trust in themselves and in their own righteousness and not in the Lord. \u00a0In our own society this is what has happened with Jesus. \u00a0We are told that growing numbers of people do not go to church and by the way, if you choose to stay home most Sundays, you are part of the growing problem in this country. \u00a0If the exercise of your faith is optional and casual, it is likely that your children will not exercise faith at all.<\/p>\n In our day and age, everyone you meet has an opinion on Jesus Christ. \u00a0But our opinions on the Lord are tainted. \u00a0They are deeply affected by whether or not we are trying to live lives of holiness and purity. \u00a0Our opinions are also affected by whether we are prepared to be corrected by others. \u00a0When I meet people who leave Christianity to study Hinduism or Buddhism or Islam or atheism, I often see people who refuse to be corrected, who refuse to be accountable, who refuse to be taught by Christ. \u00a0I see people who would rather change who they worship than change who they are and how they behave. \u00a0Being a faithful Christian is harder and more demanding because Christ demands more than formal religious practices. He demands my heart.<\/p>\n This is what I see in the example of the Pharisees in this passage. \u00a0No matter what they see. \u00a0No matter how many questions they ask. \u00a0No matter whether they hear personal testimony. No matter whether they question direct witnesses to the miraculous events. \u00a0Nothing will change their perception of Jesus Christ. \u00a0In the Psalms it is written \u201cWith the pure, You show yourself pure, but with the perverse, you appear to be perverse\u201d (Psalm 18:26). \u00a0It is because the Pharisees were impure, that Christ appeared impure to them. \u00a0And it was ultimately because the blind man was pure, that he truly recognized Christ as the pure one, the Messiah. \u00a0What are my thoughts about Jesus? \u00a0What do my thoughts about Jesus actually say about me?<\/p>\n Another point in today\u2019s reading is how we look at the difficulties or tragedies of life. \u00a0The disciples saw the tragedy of a man born blind and they wanted to know only one thing; \u201cWho is to blame?\u201d \u00a0\u201cThis man was born blind. \u00a0Who is to blame, his parents or him?\u201d \u00a0Yet the Lord offers us another way, a better way to deal with tragedy and the difficulties of life. \u00a0In essence He tells His disciples \u201cDon\u2019t try to blame anyone for the bad thing that has happened, instead recognize this as a chance to witness God\u2019s work.\u201d \u00a0And this is really true. \u00a0Would we recognize and give glory to God if life was always smooth sailing? \u00a0I don\u2019t think so. \u00a0But when things become difficult, when life becomes too much to bear, when we are forced into a certain amount of desperation we find that God often provides a way and He prepares our hearts to receive it.<\/p>\n We spend so much time blaming others when things go wrong. \u00a0The Lord wants us to rise above that level. \u00a0He wants us to see that whatever difficulties arise, whatever tragedies and circumstances may come our way, He has allowed it and He can resolve it in due time.<\/p>\n In the history of the world there had never been a man born without eyes who was miraculously healed! \u00a0God did the impossible because He can create out of nothing. \u00a0And if the Lord can create out of nothing, He most certainly can create out of something, even if that something seems like a terrible thing. \u00a0This is the way of the God of love. \u00a0The God who does not blame us. \u00a0The God who does not condemn us. \u00a0The God who goes out of His way to provide healing because He was merciful to the blind man and He is merciful to us. \u00a0Tragedies happen because the world is fallen. \u00a0Our Lord Jesus Christ heals and restores because He has overcome everything difficult in life, even Death itself.<\/p>\n May we have faith in this merciful God and His only begotten Son and may we be granted healing of our own blindness and rejoice with this blind man \u201cI once was blind, but now I see!\u201d \u00a0And glory be to God Forever AMEN.<\/p>\n