Faith heals our blindness

THAT gospel episode about the blind man whose vision was restored because of his great faith gives us a good lesson to learn. (cfr Lk 18,35-43) And that is that we have to be like that blind man eager to ask Christ for a cure.

Regardless of how others may restrain us from getting the attention of Christ, as what happened to that blind man, we should just insist, fearlessly and shamelessly, in asking Christ for a cure. Christ will always attend to us, no matter how disturbing we may appear to him according to our human standards.

But first of all, we should be like that blind man, acknowledging our own blindness. Yes, we are all blind, even if we may be gifted already with immense knowledge of things because of our studies and experiences.

In fact, we can say that we are more blind the more knowledge of things we seem to accumulate, because this latter status usually sheds some light that blinds us rather than clarifies things for us. It tends to take us away from God rather than lead us to him.

Let’s hope that we can echo what is attributed to Socrates, i.e., that “the more I know, the more I realize that I know nothing.” These Socratic words somehow also find basis on some words of St. Paul who said: “The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.” (1 Cor 8,2).

And that’s because a knowledge that is not guided or enlightened by faith is a knowledge that does not lead to charity. It leads to pride, vanity and arrogance instead. Again, St. Paul in this regard said: “Knowledge puffs up, but charity builds up.” (1 Cor 8,1)

We have to be wary of our tendency to think that we are just fine because we happen to be very knowledgeable about things in general, or that we know much more and better than the average fellow in the street.

This is our usual problem which we should resolve by always deepening our humility. If we notice that the growth of our knowledge of things does not lead us to a greater love for God and for others, then it is bogus knowledge no matter how scientific that knowledge may be.

We need to humble ourselves so that our pursuit for knowledge will always be inspired and accompanied by the desire to a growth of faith, of an insistent faith like that of the blind man in the gospel, so that that knowledge will lead us to have greater charity.

Remember that gospel episode of the cure of the man born blind. (Jn 9,1-41) Christ cured that blind man, and that is why the cured man could now see Christ, believe him and worship him. But the self-righteous, know-all leading Jews, who prided themselves as being knowledgeable, turned out to be actually blind—that is, spiritually blind—because they could not recognize Christ as the redeemer even if Christ was right in front of them.

The relevant passage goes this way: “Jesus heard that they had cast him (the blind man with restored sight) out, and when he found him, he said to him: Do you believe in the Son of God? He answered and said: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?

“And Jesus said to him: You have both seen him, and it is he that talks with you. And he (the blind man) said: Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Jesus said: For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” (Jn 9,35-39)

We have to acknowledge our blindness, ask Christ for a cure with a lot of faith, so that we can actually see and know things as they really are.