Blindness is a universal ailment that afflicts all of us. We may not need the restoration of physical sight. But what we do need is vision, something to get us moving in the right direction. We need to see who we are before God, where we are going and what we must do along the way.
We are blind to God’s presence in our lives, to the needs of our neighbors, to people of other races, religions, nationalities etc. In our blindness, we would rather build walls of separation and construct social barriers than welcome the stranger into our midst and address the needs of the refugee.
It takes time to be able to see. Blindness does not let go of us all at once. It takes patience and repeated efforts to open ourselves to the light.
The Gospel today gives us a vivid and dramatic miracle story. It is not only about the cure of the blind man. It is also about the deeper light-giving that happens as the man faces opponents and naysayers to his experience. This is a pretty long narrative. The healing happens quickly and the major part of the gospel happens after the healing. But if we listen attentively and reflect on the details, what should jump out at us is that this story is not just about the healing of a single blind man. It is our own story. And it is our community story as well.
The story of the man born blind reveals to us what decisions we need to make if we wish to encounter Christ. Jesus gives the man his physical sight but that is just the first step on the man’s journey to spiritual sight. In the confrontation he has afterward with the Pharisees the man will continue to progress from his newly acquired physical sight to spiritual sight.
Like the blind man in today's story, our eyes have been opened. God gives us the light to see. If we want to find Christ, we too must be willing to take the next step, a step that will allow us to discover the light of the world. And we must be willing to take it more than once.
This is a challenging gospel story through which we have yet another opportunity to check our own vision. We can look back with eyes wide open and reflect on what choices we have made in our lives. We can look forward to see what yet needs to be done.
Despite all of our protests of unworthiness and ineptitude and despite our blindness and lack of vision, the Lord reassures us. "As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the World." Jesus' words ring just as true now as they did when He spoke to the man born blind. He wants to open our eyes and to bring us the only light capable of shattering the darkness and blindness of this world.
Life is more than playing it safe. When the next step is offered, we should be willing to take it. Christ calls us to new relationships, to new abilities, to new possibilities. The Season of Lent is a constant reminder that he continues to reach out to each and every one of us as the Light of the World and the God of Comfort and Peace.
We can do no less for one another.
