I Can See You, Son, Light of My Eyes!

June 5, 2009

Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

By Melanie Rigney

(After Tobiah spread fish gall on his blind father’s eyes and peeled off the cataracts, restoring Tobit’s vision, Tobit) threw his arms around him and wept. He exclaimed, “I can see you, son, light of my eyes!” Then he said: “Blessed be God ... Because it was he who scourged me, and it is he who has had mercy on me.” (Tobit 11:14, 15)

The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord raises up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord protects the stranger, sustains the orphan and the widow, but thwarts the way of the wicked. (Psalms 146:8-9)

As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said: ‘The Lord said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.”‘ David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?” The great crowd heard this with delight. (Mark 12:35-37)

Piety

Father, help me to see more clearly that I truly am the light of Your eyes.

Study

Fathers and Sons

Writers as diverse as Hemingway, Turgenev, Mike Rutherford and the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens explored the relationship of men and their sons since time began. Today we remember St. Boniface, who was born into a family of privilege... to a father who wasn’t thrilled when his son chose to lead a monastic life. We find a more positive father and son dynamic in today’s first reading, with Tobiah facilitating the return of Tobit’s sight. Tobit is so overjoyed he calls his son “light of my eyes.”

An even more profound Father-Son relationship is the subject of today’s Gospel reading. Jesus challenges the teaching that the messiah will come from David’s line. How can that be, he asks, when David referred to God as “Lord,” not “Father”? It’s not that I’m just of David, Jesus in essence says, but that I am the Son of God. The crowd that would later turn on Jesus gets what he’s saying and likely cheers.

One wonders what the authorities would do today with such a “dangerously” charismatic man who implied such a relationship and held himself up to be closer to a supreme being than a heroic king was. Perhaps order up a DNA test to prove to his followers once and for all who this fool was? Or what if Joseph had demanded such a test to determine just how his wife-to-be became pregnant? What would such a test have shown? After all, Jesus was fully God and fully man.

Or maybe, by posing such questions, we, like the scribes, display our own blindness.

Let us pray for the wisdom to accept the miracles God puts in our path every day ... and the way He shows Himself in our fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and brothers and sisters in Christ.

Action

Identify your own blind spot in faith or in relationships. Dedicate some time in study to finding the resources that will help remove the scales.