“Do you still not understand?” Jesus said this to his disciples in Mark’s gospel right after he cured a blind man who only gradually gains his sight. He has to lay his hands on the man’s eyes a second time before he sees clearly. Is that the way we see and understand, gradually?
The cross Jesus says we all must bear takes many forms and I wonder if one form it takes in our time is the cross of confusion. We like clear sight for ourselves and everyone else, but in times of great change confusion is inevitable. Like the man in the gospel we’re living in a world of “talking trees” and that’s hard to take, reasonable, resourceful people that we are. It’s humbling to live in confusing times like ours..
It makes us angry. There’s a lot of anger around us today, the anger that boils over and lashes out, or the anger that retreats into a fortress of resistence and isolation.
Pope Francis often speaks of patience. He said patience keeps the church going. It keeps the world going too. He spoke once of the music of patience, a patience that hears and waits, like the patient blind man who waits for the hand of Jesus to reach out again.
That’s one of the lasting teachings of the Gospel of Mark. We’re human, we think as humans do, and that means we learn gradually, by patience.
“When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida,
people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked,
“Do you see anything?”
Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”
Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly;
his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.
Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village.”
(Mark 8,22-26)
The Victor's Place 
Faith grows gradually, the more we let God touch us the deeper our belief in God’s love.
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St Paul writes that now we see “As through a glass darkly.” William Blake said that “If the doors of perception were to be cleansed we would see every thing as it is: eternal.” Our Lord works on us every day to remove the veils that prevent from seeing the beauty of Creation, and the eternal dignity of everyone of His children. The only power that can clean us of this mutual doubt, fear, and hatred is His precious blood that lovingly falls upon us from His Cross.
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Dear Father Victor, Thank you as always for your reflection. We learn by patience and may we have the capacity to remember what we have learned, as St. Thomas Aquinas says.
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Perfect vision is 20/20 until
Physical sight clouds with age.
Modern medicine corrects;
Removes eye lens defects.
That takes an operation.
After surgical removal,
New lens implantation.
Jesus offers spiritual insight,
Provides inner vision.
Not a medical operation,
More of a transformation.
Seeing as God sees creation,
It’s good and very good.
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