Homily on the 6th Sunday of Pascha The Blind Man
The Holy Prophet Isaiah, prophesied of our Lord's loving kindness and compassion towards mankind in his 35 chapter within the 5th verse, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped!”
Thus, there is a two fold meaning for us present in this verse. The first one being the prefiguration of today’s gospel – restoring sight to the blind man. Secondly, through Christ’s mission, the spiritual eyes of those blinded by the notion of the Levitical law, (sin) were given the chance to see (in the spiritual sense) for the first time, the love of God which surpasses all things!
And His disciples asked Him, saying “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jn 9:2
Sadly, the Scribes and Pharisees became so obsessed with the Levitical law that in due time God was made out to be a monster! Something that sadly is still the case within the ranks of the clergy and ever present in various denominations which disgraces the mystery of the Incarnation!
In addition, many times several of these clergymen slam other denominations for the practices and/or beliefs as heresies - persecuting them because they are not part of the orthodox fold; yet these very same clergy men and fundamentalist laity (clergy are not the only ones to blame) are the ones that focus solely on sin, rather than the salvific grace bestowed upon humanity via the
Lord’s outpouring love via being nailed to the wood of the cross!
This Wednesday I came across a clip on YouTube of an ex orthodox member that had joined an evangelical form of Christianity, whom shared his experience on leavening the orthodox Church. The video was quite short, but the man way stating that every time he would approach his priest and ask him questions regarding the faith, the priest would answer him with, “Who are you to question our orthodox teachings!” An extremely disheartening reality within the Church due to, firstly the lack of knowledge of the presbyter; secondly, some clergy do not like to pass on their knowledge onto the faithful concerning the fait. This of course is due to jealousy, pride and lust for power; believing that they know everything and that the people are nothing without them. A repugnant and delusive attitude to harbor; sentiments that truly steam from evil personified due to the persons compliance!
When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. Jn 9:6
In the past, as I have mentioned several times, the translation of Holy Scripture has been misinterpreted due to the grammatical differences between languages, and the cultural mentality of the time! For example, if you translate word for word from Italian to English it will not make sense or be grammatically correct.
Furthermore, we have all heard of the game Chinese whispers; well when you start off with a phrase and it progresses down the line to the twentieth person – that phrase will have changed dramatically from let's say, “I would play a round of bowling with you” to “I want to eat a bowl of soup with Sue.”
Having stated thus, it is interesting to note that Jesus did not make a paste with His saliva as is written; in actual fact Jesus made two eye balls - for the man was not born blind but born with no eyes at all: proof that he (Jesus) is in the Father Pantocrator!
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Jn 9;5
At the age of 24, after fighting a spiritual battle within myself, I closed the door of the spiritual eyes of my heart in order for God not to enter into my life! To put it into perspective, I had everything any person wanted; a good job, a loving wife, a wonderful family and of course close friends whom I considered to be the equivalent to brothers. However, even with all that - my life was a misery! God was not in the picture! Each day I was merely existing not living! No matter what I tried to do to make render myself whole, I could not fill that void within myself, for I had wilfully removed myself from God’s grace!
Hence, when I finally came to my senses and our Lord presented me to His Church which is orthodox and has safeguarded it’s 2000 + year old faith; that dark place which I had once placed myself in via my own rebellion and stupidities was illumined by He who is the light. (Jesus) May I add, he reminds me through the grace of his presence that even should I begin to revert; he swiftly comes to my aid – embracing me in my pain and bestowing courage to fight the good fight again!
Therefore, some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Jn 9:16
It is terribly frighting to hear someone say that, helping someone or going out of one's way to do what is needful for an individual is classed as work! How contrary to God commandments is that! Did not Holy Isaiah also say, “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” Isa 1:17
Moreover, when the administrator of the synagogue questioned Jesus for working on the Sabbath; after He had healed the demon possessed woman, He said to the administrator,
“Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it way to water it?” Lk 13;15
In addition, the Scribes and Pharisees had seen all the wondrous miracles Jesus bestowed, yet they refused to believe that Jesus was of God; making excuse after excuse to justify their stupidities; such as the time when Jesus had cast out a demon and some said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” Lk 11:15
What utter nonsense! May I put this in a way that all may comprehend. If an unholy entity which we call a demon, for example demon A wants to expel demon B, firstly it is contrary to its nature and allies assist one another; it will not leave the person alone; it will re-possess the person as its objective (as is the case of a virus) , for we are the perfection of God’s work having bodies - spiritual powers do not. These energies seek to possess the bodies of people in order to blaspheme the all Holy name of God via crippling his creation. For if they were to utter the Lord's Holy name, they would instantly burn- they get us to do it instead; how many times do we hear in violence and anger the name JESUS CHRIST announced???; “Your touch is as the heat of the volcanos; the purifying lava.” Psalm 104
Finally, as we draw near the end of our Paschal celebration; which brings forth the celebration of Pentecost, may we prepare our hearts for the Holy Spirit to come and energies us with His outpouring grace; giving us the wisdom of discernment and the grace of spiritual knowledge/sight.
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jn 9:35-38
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