"I came into the world to divide it...to make the sightless see and the seeing blind."
In the gospel today, Jesus is calling all of us, especially those who are sightless, to see Him with the eyes of faith. For those of us who already have a mustard seed of faith, we are called to see Him more as the Truth, the Life, and the Way. We are called to have more faith in Him. There are times in our spiritual journey when we see ourselves as righteous and 'in the right'. When we do so in an attitude of pride and arrogance, we really blind ourselves to the truth that we are weak and sinful. We become so obsessed with the idols of power, money, fame and success that we become blind to the true God in Jesus. Often, we become so when we are too much involved in the affairs of the world that we forget that it is in Christ that we have our strength and our power in life. It will take only a sudden turn of events where we may experience the pain of others, a sickness in the family, or a sudden accident, or a tragedy that we realize how blind we were to the truth that God is really there for us and we refuse to believe that He is so and that we don't need Him. But when we realize that we are wrong and when we realize our sinfulness and our being also in the wrong despite our lawfulness in terms of obeying all the rules of our society, we still lack the love we should show our Lord. And this makes us blind. Accepting our sinfulness and swallowing our pride will make us see Christ as our Savior and Healer and Redeemer of all mankind. If we do not accept our sinfulness and our pride, then what we think that we know and what we assume that we see, really is not and we are really in the darkness. Only the light of Christ's grace can make us see. And we shall indeed see and always return to sight whenever we turn to God in humility and repentance and ask His mercy and forgiveness for the sins we have committed. Then we shall see as clear as the light of day and the light of the Spirit of God shall indwell in us forever. Just as the blind man in the gospel was healed from his blindness, so shall we be healed from our blindness when we turn to Christ alone, and to turn to Him in utter faith and ardent belief in His love and mercy.
