What can we learn from the man born blind?

The man born blind displays no arrogance whatsoever. He refuses to pass judgment on Jesus. He’s still not ready for a full confession of faith but there is one thing he does know: “I have received my sight,” an unquestionable fact. The Pharisees, though, leave the man with one choice: if you follow Jesus, then you are no longer a disciple of Moses. This counteraction of Moses to Jesus is seen by the Pharisees as the worst possible sin: to no longer be a disciple of Moses made the man born blind guilty of apostasy. The experience of the blind man is that of the first century Christians: they cannot define Jesus, but they will not deny their own experience. “He has enlivened us, healed us, forgiven us, delivered us from evil.” Once the man born blind is physically expelled from the synagogue, Jesus takes responsibility for this and asks: “Do you believe?” Jesus now asks the man for a confession of faith. But only Jesus can give the man what is needed to do this. “Sir, who is he?” And Jesus answers: “you have seen him.” This is the real gift: to see and believe who Jesus is. Today, many of us have adult children or siblings who no longer wish to be Church or have dismissed any faith they once had in Jesus. Why have they abandoned their resurrection glasses for the blindness that impedes them from seeing the Lordship of Jesus or the divine nature of our Church? When our adult children or siblings experience trauma: a natural disaster, a fatal accident, an incurable disease, a crime, Jesus may seem to be absent from the scene or, worse, powerless in the face of evil. Sometimes, figures who represent the institutional church have been less than charitable with our children or siblings. Sometimes, the people in the pews are viewed by our adult children or siblings as insincere because their conduct outside of Mass does not resemble how they act in the church. The Church’s teaching on homosexuality, the ordination of women, artificial birth control and in-vitro fertilization may seem, to them, to be cruel. Unfulfilled expectations of Jesus, dour encounters with people who represent the Catholic Church and counter-cultural dogmas certainly can cloud the vision of faith—to the point of spiritual blindness. Let us pray that the same Jesus who brought the man born blind from darkness to the light of truth may restore the faith of our adult children or siblings. We love them—we want what is best for them. But the sad truth is: we cannot make anyone believe. Only Jesus can do what Jesus does. We must surrender our attempts to control and leave their spiritual welfare in the hands of the Master. What is needed here is not control but patience and trust: patience to accept our limitations and trust that the God who can change others, will, in his own time, through Jesus. “Do you believe?” Yes, you believe; otherwise, you would not be here. Be patient and trust for, in Jesus’ vocabulary, the word “impossible” does not exist! By Fr. Glenn J. Comandini, Managing Editor