Homily

A Roman Catholic man came to attend Liturgy one Sunday earlier this year and he asked if he could email me about some questions he had. His first question was to ask why it is that we did not have any crucifixes in our church because that symbol is so important to our faith in Christ. I sent him a photo of the large bronze cross on the tetrapod which was only 5 feet away from him, and of the cross behind the altar and of the icon of the Crucifixion on iconostas. These crosses were there but he could not see them perhaps because they were not in the places where he expected to see them and so he was blind to them. I understand that. Sometimes we are blind to things not because they aren't there, but because we don’t expect to see them.

St. John paints a great picture for us of blind people in today's Gospel, but they are not all blind in the same way. First of all, you have the man himself, who is physically blind until Jesus cures him. Once he can see, strangely enough, his cure reveals the blindness of many other people. First we hear about the neighbors, who, even though they are all looking at the same man, cannot agree on who he is, because they were used to seeing him as a blind beggar and nothing more than that. They have him characterized in this way, listed, labeled, and described, so much so that because he can "see" he now looks like a completely different person to some of his neighbors.

They drag him off to the Pharisees to get their religious, authoritative opinion. The self-appointed Jewish religious authorities, declare with great conviction that the person who produced the miracle cannot be from God because He did it on the Sabbath. They think they can see that very clearly. But when some of them say that it is impossible for a sinner to perform such miracles they now decide that the man was never really blind at all! Once again, problem solved. They call in his parents to prove their point. But that doesn't work either. Calling the man back again, they tell him they know the truth, so it's time that he gets himself in line and agrees with them, but the man-born-blind will not go against what he knows, what he sees, to be true.

It is almost like a comedy, as the Pharisees are so desperate to prove this is not a miracle, they reach for any argument or tactic or idea that they can think of to try and deny the miraculous cure that is staring at them (literally) in the face. They suggest their opinion is the only one that matters, their judgment equals the truth of the situation, they see more clearly than anyone else can and they are desperate to be acknowledged. But when they cannot get the man to agree with them, they just throw him out because the one thing they are not interested in seeing is the truth. They are only interested in making sure that people accept the truth as they define it for them. You will only see what we tell you that you see.

The blind man is cured physically after he washes and sees for the first time the light of day. Imagine how glorious that must have been. But then he comes to see something else, bit by bit, as the story progresses. He begins to see by the light of Christ, and when the Lord tells the man who He really is, this clear-sighted Jew falls to the ground and worships the Lord.

We have the God-given intellect, intelligence to make judgments about the world, about truth, and about our lives. But we also need to use that intelligence and judgment with some kind of standard of truth, because people will definitely and often disagree on what is right, what is good, and what is true. We see that even in today's Gospel. So, in a certain way we are like people standing in the dark. Yes, we can still have the power of sight, we still have the power to decide how we will act, we still have our intellect, but unless there is some light, we cannot see which way is the right way to go. So we can either stumble around in the dark, or we can try and produce our own light, which is always going to be incredibly dim, extremely unreliable and insufficient to light the way well enough so we can move ahead not with fear but with freedom. Or we can use a light which is offered to us by the Lord of heaven and earth.

Jesus says in today's Gospel that He is the light of the world. Those who walk in His light need never fear they will be lost or be unable to find the truth or not have a guide and a way into a life that is truly worth living. Those who follow Christ are like this man born blind who, in the end are willing to worship Him as the Son of God and willing to love Him Who is the Lover of Mankind. Like the Pharisees there are always those who claim they have a different truth, a better light, a more compassionate and loving philosophy and they either pretend it is Christian, or they may even see their truth as superior to the teaching of Christ. There are people who have no understanding of how their car works, what infections work in our bodies, or how cornflakes are made, but they are absolutely certain that they understand how to live a good life without any guidance or wisdom from outside of themselves. We don’t have to look far to see the bad consequences of that kind of attitude surrounding us today. Everywhere we look we can see people following the most dangerous, ignorant and illogical ideologies that can only bring pain and disaster to their lives and the lives of others, even while they insist that they are being fulfilled and satisfied.

And in our own day, as it was 2,000 years ago, there are those who try to bully and coerce people into accepting their version of truth. They may even threaten to "cast us out”, so to speak, like the Pharisees threatened, cast us out as foolish, bigoted, uncaring and even hateful people. They claim they are morally superior and have a greater love for humanity and all of creation than do we who follow Christ and His truth.

But like the man born blind who could not be shaken from the Truth Who had cured him, if we, like him, continue to bow down at the feet of Christ to worship our Lord and our God, if we listen to His teaching and are guided by His Church, we will always have the light we need to walk in genuine truth and in real freedom. Truth and freedom are not made by or given to us by any human person. They are the free gifts that can only be given by Christ our Lord. Like the man who had been blind, let us say today and always, “I do believe, Lord.”