Wednesday of the
Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
(James 1:19-27; Mark 8:22-26)
Faith is said to be a new way of seeing. One sees through the empty promises of sin to
the care which Jesus exemplifies. Today’s
gospel demonstrates faith taking shape in two stages. In the first, preliminary stage Jesus rubs
spittle on a blind man’s eyes. He sees, but weirdly. Then Jesus touches the man’s eyes again causing
him to distinguish clearly. The first
stage of the cure represents the insufficient way Jesus’ disciples accept him
as Messiah. They see him as a warrior
who will somehow ignite a revolution to liberate Israel from foreign rule. In the second stage the disciples see Jesus
for whom he really is – the suffering servant who will sacrifice himself to
free humanity from enslavement to sin.
The coming to a deeper, truer faith in Jesus is
replicated in many persons’ lives. One
woman lived what today is a rather common life.
She had sexual relations with her boyfriend, whom she eventually married,
and submitted herself to the man’s whims.
Then, taking her baptismal faith seriously, she repented of the reckless
life she had and became an exemplary Christian, wife, and mother.
We too want to move to a deeper relation of faith in
Jesus. Our avenue is prayer – speaking
to Jesus from the heart and listening to him in the gospel. Such faith allows us to put everything in
proper perspective. It enables us, like the
man Jesus cures in the gospel, to see clearly.
