The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with our need to open our eyes and see with our faith the transformation that we need to seek under the guidance of the Spirit.
"That I might see"
The reading from the First Book of Maccabees describes the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes and renegade Jews who supported installation of Gentile cults.
* [1:14] Gymnasium: symbol and center of Greek athletic and intellectual life, it was the chief instrument of Hellenistic culture. Jewish youth were attracted by sports and encouraged to join youth clubs. They received training in military skills and in the duties of citizens. Many were won over to paganism, and some even sought surgical correction of their circumcision (since physical exercise was carried out in nudity).1
Psalm 119 praises the glories of God’s Law.
* [Psalm 119] This Psalm, the longest by far in the Psalter, praises God for giving such splendid laws and instruction for people to live by. The author glorifies and thanks God for the Torah, prays for protection from sinners enraged by others’ fidelity to the law, laments the cost of obedience, delights in the law’s consolations, begs for wisdom to understand the precepts, and asks for the rewards of keeping them.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus heals a Blind Beggar near Jericho.
* [18:38] Son of David: the blind beggar identifies Jesus with a title that is related to Jesus’ role as Messiah (see note on Lk 2:11). Through this Son of David, salvation comes to the blind man. Note the connection between salvation and house of David mentioned earlier in Zechariah’s canticle (Lk 1:69). See also note on Mt 9:27.3
Cindy Murphy McMahon comments that the Gospel is encouragement to be open, to be interested, to ask questions. If we don’t pay attention to what is going on around us, and we don’t want to seek new experiences and information, we may miss something God has in store for us. At the very least, we will stay exactly where we are instead of growing.
Be tenacious. If you sense God is present, go for it. Others tried to silence him, but he sensed this was something special and he did not want to miss the opportunity. He was relentless in pursuing a possible blessing… God wants us to know ourselves intimately and accurately, and to prayerfully seek God’s will in all matters that concern us… Remember the Giver and give God the glory. How often do we pray for something and move right on to the next request, the next problem, after giving God a quick thank you for a successful outcome?4
Don Schwager quotes “The blind man knows that Jesus is the Son of David and the Messiah,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"The blind man must have understood that the sight of the blind cannot be restored by human means but requires, on the contrary, a divine power and an authority such as God only possesses. With God nothing whatsoever is impossible. The blind man came near to him as to the omnipotent God. How then does he call him the Son of David? What can one answer to this? The following is perhaps the explanation. Since he was born and raised in Judaism, of course, the predictions contained in the law and the holy prophets concerning Christ had not escaped his knowledge. He heard them chant that passage in the book of the Psalms, 'The Lord has sworn in truth to David, and will not annul it, saying: "of the fruit of your loins I will set a king upon your throne"' (Psalm 132:11). "The blind man also knew that the blessed prophet Isaiah said, 'There will spring up a shoot from the root of Jesse, and from his root a flower will grow up' (Isaiah 11:1). Isaiah also said, 'Behold, a virgin will conceive and bring forth a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us' (Matthew 1:23; Isaiah 7:14). He already believed that the Word, being God, of his own will had submitted to be born in the flesh of the holy Virgin. He now comes near to him as to God and says, 'Have mercy on me, Son of David.' Christ testifies that this was his state of mind in offering his petition. He said to him, 'Your faith has saved you.'"(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 126)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 18:35-43 shares that the mother, teary but resolute, prayed like the blind beggar, she called upon Jesus as the Son of David, the long-awaited Messiah, the one who would come and restore God’s people and usher in his kingdom. Then she told Jesus exactly what her son needed at that very point in time. It was like the beggar asking Jesus, ‘Please let me see’ (Luke 18:41).
Jesus’ love and care for each one of us is so very personal. Like the blind beggar and like this boy’s mother, Jesus wants to hear from us. Today, imagine Jesus asking you, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Luke 18:41). Then tell him exactly what you need. “Jesus, Son of David, thank you for caring about my every need.”6
Friar Jude Winkler explains that the Deuterocanonical Book of Maccabees reveals the time of Hellenization of Israel when some Jews were ashamed of their religion. The Blind Beggar recognizes Jesus with the eyes of faith. Friar Jude reminds us that “saved” is the term used in the Gospel when people are healed physically and spiritually.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that “Stinking thinking” is the universal addiction. Substance addictions like alcohol and drugs are merely the most visible forms of addiction. Actually, we are all addicted to our own habitual way of doing anything, our own defenses, and, most especially, our patterned way of thinking, or how we process reality. The very fact that we have to say this shows how little we see it. By definition, we can never see or handle what we are addicted to. It is always “hidden” and disguised as something else. As Jesus did with the demon at Gerasa, someone must ask, “What is your name?” (Luke 8:30). The problem must be correctly named before the demon can be exorcised. We cannot heal what we do not first acknowledge.
Contemplation teaches us how to observe our own small mind and, frankly, to see how inadequate it is to the task in front of us. As Eckhart Tolle says, 98% of human thought is “repetitive and pointless.” [1] How humiliating is that? When we see how self-serving, how petty, how narcissistic, and how compulsive our thinking is, we realize how trapped and unfree we truly are. We might even call it “possessed.” The only way to be delivered from our “body of death” (Romans 7:24), or what Tolle calls the “pain body,” [2] is to find oneself inside of a “body of resurrection” (1 Corinthians 15:35–44; Romans 6:4). In other words, an experience of a deeper love entanglement absorbs all our negativity and nameless dread of life and the future. Paul’s code phrase for this positive, realigned place is en Cristo (in Christ), which is to live by choice and embodiment within the force field (“Mind”) of the Risen Christ.7
Spiritual blindness can inhibit our transformation, in Christ, from dependence on our cultural norms to the freedom of full life.
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