Our readings this morning focus on true and false
vision.
In
the first book of Maccabees we see men and women that were swept away by Greek
culture and religion. They removed
the marks of circumcision—a visible sign of a Jewish man’s faithfulness to God—and
participated in forbidden practices.
Worse of all, they turned from God to worshiping what was not gods,
setting up shrines to pray to these false deities.
But
some of the Israelites had true vision—“But
many in Israel were determined and resolved in their hearts not to
eat anything unclean; they preferred to die rather than
to be defiled with unclean food or to profane the holy covenant;
and they did die.” These
saw what was true—God—and were not swayed by cultural influence.
The
blind man from Jericho, ironically, could see better than the crowds. When he heard a ruckus he asked what
was happening. They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” It is important to know that this title—Jesus of Narazeth—would have been Jesus’
human designation as he was from Nazareth. Yet remember how the blind man responded, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me!” The son
of David was no mere man, he was to be the longed for Messiah. By this cry the blind man expressed
faith in Christ.
Christ
said it was this faith that made the blind man see. Like many of the miracles of Jesus, a physical healing took
place. Yet the point of Jesus’
works was not to remain at the physical level but to inspire a spiritual
conversion. In this case, the
blind man received even clearer vision of who Christ was.
We
pray that we may see clearly the Truth in our lives and respond in turn.
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