St. Luke 18: 35-43
Ephesians 5: 8-19
We have probably
all had moments in our lives when we couldn’t see very well. Maybe the power went out at night at home,
our eyes took a while to adjust after walking out of movie theater, we lost our
glasses, or we were headed east or west at just the right time to be blinded by
the light of the sun. Unfortunately, we
have also had moments when we have been blind in other ways when our actions,
words, and thoughts went against God’s purposes for our lives. In fact, it’s an ongoing struggle to have a
clear take on how what we do each day impacts our souls, as well as our
neighbors in whom we encounter the Lord.
St. Paul
reminded the Ephesians that they had come out of the darkness of paganism and
immorality by putting on Christ in baptism and the life of His body, the
Church. Instead of returning to the
shadowy ways of the world, he called them to turn on the lights, see the truth
about themselves, and live accordingly.
“Awake from sleep, rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light,”
he tells them. It’s not a time to be in
a drunken stupor or to be lulled into complacency in any other way, but instead
to be alert and focused so that we won’t be lulled back into the darkness.
Our Savior, in His
earthly ministry, certainly healed many blind people. We read in today’s gospel text of a blind
beggar who was so eager to see that he would not stop yelling out, “Jesus, Son
of David, have mercy on me!” as the Lord passed by. Even though others told the man to be quiet
and not to cause a scene, he continued to plead for healing. He succeeded in getting Christ’s attention,
and He asked the man a simple question:
“What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man responded, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” Christ said, “Receive your sight; your faith
has made you well.” Immediately he could
see again and began to follow the Lord and to glorify God.
Unlike the
Gentiles we mentioned earlier, this fellow was Jewish and waiting for a Messiah
to fulfill God’s promises to Israel. But
he was not able to see the Savior as He passed by. His eyes were shut to the Lord and to all the
beauty of the creation. He lived in
darkness. He was poor and wretched, a beggar,
who could do nothing but call out for help from the Son of David, a common name
for “the anointed one” whom the Jews expected.
And the man’s sufferings had made quite clear to him what he
wanted: to be able to see, for he was
tired of living in darkness. When the
blind man had his chance, he took it—refusing to shut up when he heard that
Christ was passing his way.
Of course, the
man knew a portion of the truth. He knew
that Jesus was the Son of David, the Messiah, Who could miraculously restore
his sight. He had enough faith, enough
trust in Christ, to ask for that. His
plea for mercy sounds like an early version of the Jesus Prayer. But the man did not know that Jesus Christ is
truly the Son of God. Like the rest of
the Jews, he was probably waiting for a Messiah who would be a great political
and religious leader, not a Savior Who is both God and man. Fortunately for him and the rest of us,
Christ is not a stern master who has mercy only on those with perfect
understanding. He heard the man’s humble
plea and restored his sight; then the man gave thanks to God and began to
follow the Lord.
Jesus Christ
came to bring us all into the light of His life, regardless of whether we are
Gentiles or Jews and no matter how we have lived or what we have done. Just as a blind person could only beg and pray
for a miracle in that time and place, we cannot force or earn our way into the
blessed life of the Kingdom. We all need
His mercy. But like both the blind man
and the Ephesians, we have to do our part to become receptive to the light of
Christ in our lives.
A person who
keeps his eyes closed will never see the day or the beauty of the world. Likewise, it is impossible for those who
insist on filling their lives with darkness to receive the light of
Christ. If we are asleep, we are not
awake. If we insist on living in the
shadows, we will never see clearly.
The good news is
that we have already open our eyes to the light, for we have put on Christ in
the waters of baptism, been sealed with the Holy Spirit in chrismation, and
nourished with the Body and Blood of the Lord in the Eucharist. Our eyes have been opened to behold the glory
of the Lord. We have entered into His
house, the Church, and confessed Him in the words of the Creed and in our
hearts. Indeed, we know that we are
able at any moment of the day to show the humble faith of the blind beggar
through the words of the Jesus Prayer.
Nonetheless, our
spiritual vision is still obscured by a measure of darkness. We still look at other people with
self-righteous judgment, envy, lust, and other bad attitudes. We make hateful, profane, and other
unedifying comments that make faithfulness harder for ourselves and other
people. We drift off to spiritual sleep
thinking that we will find fulfillment in pleasure, possessions, and the praise
of others. We are lured powerfully back
to the darkness in many ways. So we continue to need therapy to help us keep
our eyes open to the brilliant light of Christ, to the salvation that He has
brought to the world.
That’s why it’s
good that we have seasons like Advent to wake us up from our slumbers, to
switch on the lights and tell us it’s time to wake up. In these weeks of preparation for Christmas,
all of us need to gain strength in resisting our self-centered desires by fasting
or some other form of self-denial. All
of us need to place greater focus on prayer.
All of us need to confess our sins and turn away from them through
repentance. All of us need to give alms
and become more generous to the needy with our time and resources. All of us need to love and forgive our
enemies. In these ways, we all need to
open our lives more fully to the light of Christ.
At the same
time, we also need to do everything that we can to shut out the darkness that
so easily overtakes us. Most of us
probably do not have to look very closely at our lives to identify habits, weaknesses,
relationships, or social settings that can dim the spiritual light pretty
quickly. We have to be prudent and
persistent in discerning how to respond to those temptations, but it’s not our
intelligence or will power that is our hope.
It’s the mercy of the Lord, the same One who responded to the plea of
that blind beggar. So when we are
tempted to wallow in the darkness, we need to follow his example of calling out
to Christ persistently with humility, asking for His forgiveness and healing. That fellow would not shut up even when his
pleas disturbed others, and we must learn not to abandon our spiritual
disciplines, mindfulness, and prayers even when our thoughts, feelings, and
friends want to lead us away from the light.
Sometimes we
feel like it will kill us to resist certain temptations. Of course, that’s not true, but it is often
how we feel. We all need to cultivate
the faith that Christ comes to heal and strengthen us, not to frustrate and
destroy us. The disciplines of Advent
are not about legalism or causing inconvenience. Instead, they are tools for our healing, ways
for us to turn away from the darkness and to walk in the light, into a life
where we are not the slaves of sin but embrace joyfully the glorious freedom of
the children of God.
No matter where
we are in our journey to the Kingdom, we can all welcome the light of Christ
more fully into our lives in the coming weeks.
No matter our measure of spiritual health or disease, we can open
ourselves more fully to the mercy and healing of the Lord. He made a blind beggar see and turned
idol-worshipping pagans into saints. And
He will do the same for us, if we will only stay focused on Him and turn away
from the many distractions that blind us to His truth. As we prepare for Christmas, let’s do
everything that we can to walk in the light of the Lord.
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