Man Born Blind: Seeing Ourselves in God’s Light

 1. There are two kinds of vision: bodily vision and spiritual vision. We see some things with our corporeal eyes, and we also see things, or rather, understand things with the eyes of our intelligence. Our bodily vision is limited: we cannot see without light, we cannot see things that are too far, we cannot see things that are too small. Our spiritual vision is also limited. We cannot understand things that are more perfect than us. We are able to understand the visible world, we can make sense of it and explain many things in nature and in history, we can even conclude that there must be a Supreme Being who is the cause of everything that is, but we cannot see Him. Not only is He beyond the reach of our bodily vision, but He is also too perfect for our spirit to understand. Our bodily eyes cannot see directly the sun because it is too luminous, too much for our eyes; in a similar way, our intelligence cannot see God. We can know that He exists, we know He must be there, even everywhere, but, on our own, we do not know how to reach Him, we cannot encounter Him, we cannot know what He is like, what does He think, or whether He loves us or not. Our spirit is blind to God; we are born blind.

God sent His Word to the world so that man may be blind no longer regarding God. Today’s Gospel (cf. John 9:1-41) can help us to see how God delivers us from spiritual blindness. The man born blind, at first, does not see Jesus: he can only hear His voice. We cannot yet see Jesus either, but we can hear His instructions through the Scriptures and through the ministers of the Church. Jesus instructs the man born blind to wash at the pool. Jesus instructs all of us to be baptized. When the man born blind finally washes, he cannot yet see Jesus, but he can now see the world. He now can see that God has loved him, and he believes in Jesus and gives witness to Him before others. After baptism, we do not yet see God, but we are enabled to believe and understand the things God did for us and the things He taught us.

2. Without faith, we cannot see who we really are, because without faith we cannot know what God thinks about us. Without faith, we can know that God wants us to be: it is obvious, we are here and we would not be here if we had not been wanted by God. God, however, not only wants us to be, but He wants us to be with Him. God not only desired to give us existence, but He also wanted to give us His own Self. He created us to love us and, because of that, He gave us the possibility to become His lovers. We did not know this, we could never come up with this, so God revealed it to us, and indicated to us the way to the pool, so that we may wash and see, so that we may see and believe, so that we may believe and love.

There is great darkness in today’s world because human beings cannot see that they are loved. They are blind. They sometimes think that they will be loved only if they are successful; that they are lovable only if they are fortunate. They can only see the appearance of the world, they can only hear what people say, but they do not have light to see beyond. People see themselves as worthless and they cannot see how wrong they are. They need to hear that voice. They need to wash and see. As St. Paul says, “Everything exposed by the light becomes visible” (Ephesians 5:13).

3. People sometimes live according to wrong patterns of perception. “I am worthless if I do not achieve this or that.” “I am a failure if I do not have this or that.” “Life is about having fun, comfort, a good time; otherwise, life is not worth living.” One truly begins to live when one realizes, “This is not true, I am not worthless. I exist because I am already loved by God, by a God who thinks that I could be a great friend of His.” The light of faith exposes our misguided behaviour and allows us to see, as if it were saying: “You are running, you are racing. What are you running for? What do you need…? Do you really need that…? Where are you going…? And then what? Is that where you belong…?”

Realizing that we are running and discovering why is one of the most liberating things. Discovering why we run, why we live the way we do, is one of the most important things. Sometimes, it has something to do with a misguided sense of worth, as if the only way to feel good about ourselves were achieving this or that… Faith is a light that exposes these misconceptions and help us recover a true sense of worth. I am loved. God wants my love. I may appear worthless to others and even to myself, but so also appeared the humble manger that held the body of Christ. God chose the manger. My life may be rough, but so also was the cross on which Jesus rested. My heart may be empty, hard and cold, but so also was the tomb from which Jesus rose from the dead. God sees me as a lovely home for His love. I just need to open the door.

Let us wash and see who we really are. Let us live accordingly. There is a difference between running from something dangerous and running towards the beloved. There is a difference between working under pressure, like a slave, and working because you love it. Life is not like paying a debt but more like blossoming for God. Life is giving back to God the fruits of the talents He has already given you. Life is saying “yes” to the One who has already said “yes” to you and is now thirsty for your response.