Wednesday, February 19m 2025

Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 8:6-13.20-22; Mark 8:22-26)

Today’s gospel shows Jesus curing by stages.  After he puts spittle on the blind man’s eyes and laid hands on him, the man sees, but not well.  People look to him like trees that walk.  But after a second laying on of hands, the man sees others distinctly – young and old, tall and short, men and women.

The gradual process by which the blind man comes to see clearly resembles the way Pope Francis is asking the world to recognize undocumented immigrants. At first, they will be seen as problems, that is, separated from their humanity and draining the host country’s resources.  But coming to know them, the nationals will realize that most immigrants want to work and live in peace.

Immigration is a difficult issue. It won’t end soon or be resolved easily.  Countries like the United States need to amend their laws to accommodate more outsiders.  To be sure, such changes will still leave some immigrants in difficult situations.  But they would increase host country nationals’ awareness of the poor and, perhaps, increase the hope of prospective immigrants. 

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

 Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 8:6-13.20-22; Mark 8:22-26)

Today’s gospel should be read in tandem with yesterday’s and tomorrow’s.  The three form a continuum in the Gospel of Mark.  Yesterday Jesus chided his disciples for failing to understand him.  They had seen him feed thousands, yet they could not grasp that the power behind his work is his relationship to the Father.  In tomorrow’s gospel Peter will at last perceive that Jesus is the Father’s anointed one with the mission of saving the world from its folly.

Like the disciple’s gradual coming to understand Jesus, the blind man in today’s gospel recovers his sight in stages.  First, after Jesus lays his hands on him, the blind man can see people as if they were trees on the horizon.  Then after a second imposition of hands, the man can see clearly. 

Understanding Jesus is coming to believe in him.  He is not only human but also divine.  We may want to make the claim that Jesus was the greatest human that ever existed.  However, that is not enough reason to follow him unto death.  But once we see Jesus as the one God chose to reveal His love to the world, we cannot but follow him. 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

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. 

Homilette for Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 8:6-13.202-22; Mark 8:22-26)

“I see,” said the blind man. He is only being ironic. He does not claim to have sight as we usually think of it. But he may have insight – the ability to see the truth of things. Insight is the kind of vision which the blind man of today’s gospel ends with.

Jesus first gives the blind man physical sight to distinguish shapes and colors. But he is challenged to discern the nature of things. People to him are walking trees. Then Jesus tries again, and the man sees clearly. Most of all, his newly gained sight enables him to recognize Jesus as the long awaited one of Israel who is to bring shalom, the fullness of peace, to the land.

In the contemporary world thoroughly given to the awe of science and technology, we are challenged to identify Jesus. We may claim him as our “Lord and God,” but what do these terms mean if we spend our lives in pursuit of fortune or adventure? Mark’s gospel calls us to unrelenting recognition of Jesus as the source, end, and sustaining force of our lives.