Ephesians 2:4-10
St. Luke 18:35-43
If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that
there have been times when all that we could do was to ask from the depths of
our hearts for God’s mercy. When we have
lost loved ones, when we or our family members have been sick or in danger, or
when we have not seen a way out of a very difficult situation, our spiritual
vision became focused. Then we called
upon the Lord for help, not as a reward for our merits, but because He alone is
our salvation and our hope.
As we continue preparing to celebrate the Nativity of
Jesus Christ at Christmas, we are reminded by today’s gospel text of how we all
stand before Him: blind, weak, and in
need of blessing beyond our own power or ability. For our Lord was not born as a reward for
humanity’s good behavior, but purely out of the divine love and mercy for human
beings, and the rest of creation, deformed and suffering from our sins.
That is why St. Paul taught that we are saved by grace
through faith “and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, lest anyone
should boast.” The blind beggar performed no good work that earned the Savior’s
mercy. Instead, he simply called out
persistently, “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 the Savior’s
attention, and He asked the beggar only 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.
One of the reasons that we practice intensified prayer,
fasting, and almsgiving during Advent is to become more like that blind beggar,
for we want to long from the depths of our being for our spiritual eyes to be
opened by the healing presence of Jesus Christ.
We want our vision to be focused.
It is hard to cultivate that attitude, however, in such a busy time of
year, when we are often surrounded by rich food and a cultural obsession with
spending money. So much in the media
tells us that the season is about simply indulging ourselves in whatever we
want. Unless we are careful, we can
easily be so distracted by our decadent culture that we will not even notice
our spiritual blindness, much less want to be healed from it. Like too many today, we will forget that
Christmas is fundamentally about Jesus Christ and not about money, pleasure, or
good times with our friends and family. Yes, we will celebrate Christmas as a
season that begins on December 25 and leads to Epiphany, but unless we prepare
by spiritual disciplines in these weeks of Advent to welcome the Incarnate Son
of God into our lives in a new way at His Nativity, we will not have the
spiritual eyes to behold the glory of His birth. We
will risk being blind to the salvation that He came to bring the world.
Nothing that we
could possibly do could ever earn or deserve the Incarnation of Jesus Christ,
but we must all do our part if we want to open ourselves to His healing
presence, if we want to participate personally in His salvation. For example, the blind beggar kept crying
out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
He did nothing other than to persist in calling for Christ’s help, even
when others told him to be quiet. We do
not know about this man’s beliefs concerning the Savior. As a Jew, he probably thought that Jesus was
the kind of messiah expected by his people:
a righteous teacher and leader who would bring God’s blessings upon the
Jews, but not the Incarnate Son of God.
Christ does not require an elaborate confession from him, however, but
took his persistent cries as evidence of his faith. That is how the man regained his sight.
On the one
hand, we have great advantages over the blind beggar, because we have already
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. We have entered into His Body, the Church,
and confessed Him in the words of the Creed. 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.
These advantages, however, may tempt us to laziness,
for it is easy simply to take the Lord’s mercy for granted. Remember that Christ said, “To whom much is
given, from him much will be required.” Our
spiritual blindness deepens when we allow our faith to be merely a collection
of abstract ideas or beliefs and not personal participation in the Divine
Energies such that we become like an iron left in a fire that takes on the heat
and light of the fire. In other words, religious
doctrines, practices, and traditions do us no good if we do not grow in
holiness through them, if they do not become paths to our partaking of the Divine
Nature. Our souls, bodies, and minds
must actually be sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our spiritual blindness must be overcome. Otherwise, we simply judge and condemn
ourselves by claiming the spiritual advantages of Orthodox Christians without
actually embracing them or being transformed by them.
The more we participate by grace in the life of the
Holy Trinity, however, the more we will develop the deep spiritual insight and
focus of that blind beggar. He was
certainly aware that he was blind and could not heal himself. He had no illusions about where he stood
before God or in relation to others. But
when he had his chance, he took it and no one could stop him. He zeroed in on
the one thing needful; and then the mercy of the Lord healed him and
transformed his life. I wonder if the same can be said of us? Given the teachings of our Church and the
examples set by so many Saints, we should all be clear on the kind of faith and
faithfulness that bring us more fully into the life of Christ. Orthodox Christianity is not a Gnostic sect
with secret teachings for an elect few, but a public witness for the salvation
of the world. As hard as it is to
believe, we are all called to become holy.
Christ’s mercy is for you, me, and our neighbors just as much as it was
for that blind beggar.
That is why we all need to use the disciplines of this
season to help us become more aware of our spiritual blindness so that we will
be able to regain our spiritual sight.
In other words, the first step in receiving the Lord’s mercy and growing
in holiness is to recognize our sinfulness, as we do in Confession. Prayer,
fasting, and generosity to the poor and needy are good teachers of our own
spiritual sickness because we usually find them so hard to do and, when we
actually do them, we often do them so poorly.
Of course, it is prideful to think that we should be the judges of our
spiritual disciplines. Better to follow
this advice from St. Macarius of Optina, “Pray simply. Do not expect to find in your heart any
remarkable gift of prayer. Consider
yourself unworthy of it. Then you will
find peace. Use the empty cold dryness
of your prayer as food for your humility.
Repeat constantly: I am not
worthy: Lord, I am not worthy! But say it calmly, without agitation.”
In other words, be like that blind beggar who knew
that his only hope was in Jesus Christ.
Refuse to give up in prayer for the Lord’s mercy, as well as in whatever
types of fasting and almsgiving you are able to do at this point your life. Use your weakness in all of these endeavors
as food for your humility, and get on with the daily life of faith and
faithfulness as the Lord strengthens and focuses your spiritual sight as He
sees fit. Surely, there is no better way
to prepare to behold the glory of our Savior when He is born at Christmas.
