Jesus asked the blind man, “What do you want me to do for
you?” The blind man answered, “I want to see.”
Pope Benedict XVI, in talking about faith, wrote that faith
makes us see. Faith makes us see beyond the physical, beyond what we can touch
or understand. Faith makes us see God, working in and around us. Faith makes us
see Christ in our neighbors.
But sometimes there are obstacles to this faith. There are
hindrances that blind us spiritually. Allow me to give three.
When we are full of ourselves – our successes, our
achievements, our opinions – we begin to believe we are self-sufficient. We
cling to the illusion of total independence. We fail to see what good other
people offer us. We fail to see how much we need God. Then, pride blinds us.
When we are in pain and we allow it to close our hearts and
to focus only on ourselves, making us withdraw from family and friends, then,
we fail to see the giftedness of people around us. We fail to open up. Then,
pain blinds us.
When we are too satisfied with how things are for ourselves,
too comfortable, we become complacent. We fail to become sensitive to needs of
other people and realize what we can do to make things better for our less
fortunate brothers and sisters. Then, comfort blinds us.
Pride, pain and comfort; they can make us spiritually blind.
May kasabihan po sa Pilipino:
Mahirap gisingin ang nagtutulog tulugan.
Mahirap makakita ang nagbubulag bulagan.
We may be spiritually blind and not know about it, or we may
know about it and we just don’t care. The gospel today invites us to “Take
courage; get up, he is calling you.” The Lord is calling us. He is calling us
to see with the eyes of faith. But we need to take courage, to get up and to pull down the
blinders. When we do so, we will see!
