Contemplating the Gospel: Healing the blind

Blindness -- and sight -- are an important theme in the Gospels. When Jesus healed the blind men, he said it would be done "according to your faith." Their physical healing is linked with their spiritual state, which makes sense because we Christians do not believe that we are merely souls trapped in bodies or that we are simply physical beings, but rather that we are soul-bodies, physical and spiritual, of one piece. Our spiritual health is connected in a deep way with our physical well-being.

Before reading the Gospel, the priest prays quietly: Loving Master, let the pure light of your divine knowledge shine in our hearts and open the eyes of our minds that we may understand the proclamation of your holy Gospel.

But sometimes we are blind to others around us, or to important values. Aggravated by politics that ignores one part of our faith, we decide to curse our enemies, in the process denying ourselves another part of our faith. In a funk, we don't realize that someone else is having an even worse day. We act out of habit, not thinking, not allowing Christ to change us--but still asking him to change everyone around us.

Jesus would be happy to heal us blind people, too. He asks us to listen to the words of the Gospel and to carry them in our hearts. He asks us to allow the Holy Spirit to open our minds to see new life. This new life gives opportunities to plant his blessings. With new eyes, we see that those who seem to be our enemies, those who do not value what we value, really need the love of Christ even at the risk they might reject that love. No longer blind, we allow Christ to change us and to change the attitude of our hearts. We become Christian, Christ-like.

Rev. Jerome Wolbert, OFM, is a Franciscan friar serving the Byzantine Catholic Church in Northeast Pennsylvania.