The glorious season of Pascha has opened
the eyes of our souls in a very different way.
Like the blind man whom Jesus
Christ healed in today’s gospel text, we share a lack of spiritual vision that
cannot be overcome by more experience of the world as we know it. For this blindness is a symptom of our
collective and personal turning away from the union with God for which He
created us. It is the consequence of our
continuing to prefer the ways of death to the ways of life. We may learn to make out the shadows of the
tomb, but that is nothing compared with beholding the divine glory. Learning how to stumble around in a world of
death has nothing in common with sharing in the joy of Christ’s resurrection.
The jailer in today’s reading from Acts
provides a striking example of this kind of blindness, for he was ready to kill
himself rather than endure the penalty that awaited him for letting his
prisoners escape. He knew how things
worked in the Roman Empire. When St.
Paul assured him that he had nothing to fear for they were all still in their
cells, the jailer was so shaken that he asked what he needed to do in order to
be saved. In other words, he came to recognize his blindness and wanted to
leave behind the pitch black tomb of death and to enter into the light.
Jesus Christ’s resurrection made
that possible for him, for us, and for the entire universe. He has given life to the dead, restored
sight to the blind, and made even the dark prison of the tomb a gateway to the brilliant
light of life eternal. He enables us to see,
to know, and to participate in the divine glory for which He made us in His
image and likeness. He has set us free
from the bondage of our sins and of the misery that we have brought upon
ourselves. The good news of this season
is that we may rise up in Him from these darkened, pointless ways of living to
the light, truth, and joy of the Kingdom of Heaven. We may share in Christ’s eternal life, in His
victory over sin and death, even now.
But in order to do so, we must follow the example of the blind man in
today’s gospel reading.
Notice that he had to actually obey
the Lord’s instructions in order to regain his sight. Christ put clay on the man’s eyes and told
him to wash in the pool of Siloam from which water was taken for rites of purification
at the Temple. He did so and he could
see. This washing reminds us of baptism
in which we enter into Christ’s death in order to rise with Him into the new
life of the Kingdom. Even as Christ put
clay on this man’s eyes, He puts a robe of light on us in baptism. “As many of
you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal. 3:27) He clothes us with the glory of His divinized
humanity, fulfilling our calling as those made in the image and likeness of
God. This is also what Christ did for
the jailer who had been ready to kill himself, but then believed and was
baptized along with his family. He had been ready to embrace death, but then
entered into life. Like the blind man, he was set free from
darkness and beheld the light.
The Lord enabled both men to begin a
new life, but note that what we read about them describes only the beginning of
their journeys. Like the rest of us,
they had a long road before them. They still
had to live faithfully each day and intentionally turn away from the darkness
in order to open themselves more fully to the light. They had to cleanse and focus the eyes of their
souls in order to sharpen their spiritual vision, to grow in their personal
participation in and knowledge of the Lord.
Christ said “Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt.
5:8) Purity of heart was surely a goal
for these men as much as it is for us, and we have certainly not yet attained
it. We do not yet have the eyes to see
with clarity how the darkness has obscured our full participation in the brilliant
light of the resurrection. If our goal
were simply to become a bit more functional in daily life or to succeed by the
standards of our culture, that would not be much of a problem. A little conventional
religion can serve those mundane aims well. Our goal is quite different,
however. We want to become radiant with
the divine glory like an iron left in the fire.
We want to see, know, and participate in God by grace, to become
partakers of the divine nature. (2 Pet. 1:4)
For that to happen, we must purify
our hearts by turning away from all the dark and deadly influences of sin in
our lives. None of us has perfect
knowledge of our sins, of course, but we all know them well enough to keep us more
than busy with repentance. In other
words, Christ has restored our spiritual vision in baptism such that, despite
our imperfection and distorted spiritual vision, we all have enough knowledge
of Him to know generally where we fall short and where we need to grow. Instead of despairing that we are not at the
heights of spiritual perfection, we simply need to do what we presently have
the spiritual strength to do in turning away from death and toward life. In words, we must with humility take the
steps we are capable of taking as we reject obvious corruption in our lives and
embrace faith, hope, and love. By uniting ourselves to Christ even in these
small ways, we open ourselves to His purifying presence in our hearts. We invite Him to cleanse and clarify the eyes of
our souls such that we will know Him more fully. And the
more we know Him, the more His holiness and purity will become characteristic of
us.
On this last Sunday of Pascha, let
us all open ourselves to the brilliant light of our Lord and glorify Christ Who
is risen from the dead. Let us radiate the
joy, holiness, and blessedness of His resurrection. Let us be so filled with the divine glory that
darkness can find no place in us to hide. Then we will truly have the eyes to see Him and
to become living witnesses of the good news that Christ is Risen!
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