The blindness we can't see

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today offer an opportunity to reflect on the impact that blindness has on our lives. The passage from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah presents a vision of the beauty which is expected come to the people of Israel as they return from exile and renew their relationship with God. Those thirsts we have for justice and the clear understanding and right vision of the people who change their ways to be in accord with the Will of God, as our ancestors in the faith have practiced it, is part of our hope for a better society. When we are in disagreement with others on such important matters as the right thing to do, we wish, as the text states, for those who err to come to understanding and those who grumble to accept instruction. The exhortation of the psalmist is to wait for the Lord, to be strong, quietly, internally, to have a courageous heart as we try to hear and try to see the point of view of the ones we think blind and the ones we think ignorant. The trust that we can develop in waiting for the resonance of our indwelling Spirit with the Spirit of God is the faith that Jesus encounters in the two blind men from the Gospel of Matthew today. From that faith that seeing things with the eyes of Jesus is our desire, "it can be done to us" and our eyes can be opened to see those with whom we disagree in a different light which illuminates for us the situation we previously saw as very dark.