We are born in this world with a kind of spiritual blindness; that is, we either are unable, or have difficulty perceiving spiritual realities. Our focus and attention is mostly on the material world, the realm of being which experience with our empirical senses. This is why some think that only material reality exists, because it is all they can perceive, however, if they contemplated it philosophically, they would see that we engage non-material truths throughout their lives, and as such, experience a non-material or spiritual form of being as well. There are some who have a keener spiritual sense than others, and they tell the world of their experiences, and just as those who are blind can and do believe what others tell them about what they see, so those who are spiritually blind can believe what they are told. This is not to say we should trust everything people tell us about spiritual realities because charlatans exist, but on the other hand, we often can see through them if we exercise our mind and the limited spiritual senses we have; and, we might find out, the more we do so, the more we find ourselves actually exercising our spiritual senses, and we might become more personally aware of the spiritual or non-material realm in which the material realm exists (albeit, still rather dimly).
Because it is not based upon something which we did before we were born, we are not the cause of our own initial spiritual blindness. We might hinder the development of our spiritual perceptions, but our initial state of being is not on us. We are limited beings, who find ourselves growing in our potentiality and ability, including our spiritual abilities; the potential for growth means we can help direct ourselves in that growth, and in doing so, form who and what we will be, not just in the present, but in eternity. But, we must be open to the growth by exercising whatever new potentiality we gain in and through such growth, because if we do not, we might find that potentiality atrophying. This is true for many things, including our spiritual senses. We can find them slowly developing, and if we do not hinder that development, but work with it, we might find that we will have some sort of ability to perceive spiritual realities, however, there is only so much we can do by ourselves. That growth will come to an end and we will find there is much which lies beyond our perception, and only through grace, can our growth continue until we reach a state which finds us unquestionably capable of perceiving spiritual realities the same way we can material ones. We will also find out that all our growth has always had some element of grace connected to it; it is what provides us the means to realize our natural (or initial) potential and even transcend it. Grace is like the sunlight. Even those who are not blind will see nothing in a room devoid of any light. Thus, without grace, without the eternal light of God coming to us, helping us become aware of the spiritual world around us, we would remain spiritually blind, but when we find it coming to us (in and through Jesus, thanks to the glory of the resurrection), we will have the light we need for our spiritual sight.
This Sunday, the Sunday of the Man Born Blind in the Byzantine tradition, comes to us, revealing the way Jesus healed one man of his physical blindness to show us how Jesus, now in his glorified form, can and will not only come to heal us of our spiritual blindness, but will give us the light we need to use our spiritual sight:
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him” (Jn. 9:1-3 RSV).
Jesus said the man born blind was not born that way as the cause of some sin he or his parents did. This suggests there was a natural cause for his blindness which God allowed to happen, as God allows many such things happen in the world. The man was not being punished, and so, we should not believe ourselves being punished when experience such “natural evils.” God has a way to turn things around, to take something which we deem as bad and make something great out of it, and this is what Jesus said was going to happen to the man born blind; God was going to manifest the divine glory in healing the man and helping him become something greater than he could ever have imagined, for the man was going to more than see the material world around him he was going to have a direct experience of the power of God in his life, suggesting his spiritual senses were going to be opened. Jesus shows us how God can take anyone where they are at in a given moment and transform them. If we are open to it God can do so with us in our lives, and when that happens, we will experience a manifestation of God’s eternal glory, we will have the light of grace over us, allowing us to engage our spiritual senses. Jesus does the work he was sent into the world to do, healing people, showing them the love and care that they need, and by doing so, giving them the opportunity and means they need to have a better life, not just in temporal existence, but in eternity: ,
“We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing (Jn. 9:4-7 RSV).
In a poetic sense, Jesus, the divine artist, made humanity out of the clay of the earth; when he came upon the blind man, he used his divine artistry to refashion the man, adding clay to his eyes so that they could be made to see. Jesus acts similarly with us, and indeed, the whole of creation; he refashions us, giving us the grace we need to be perfected, a perfection which includes giving our spiritual senses what they need to open up and be put to proper use, a use which lies in the way we follow after Christ, willing to go where he will send us to go, doing the things he would have us do as his hands and feet in the world. Then, we will awaken to and experience the presence of God all around us, and perceive that we are truly in the kingdom of God, that it is and always has been within and all around us.
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