And Their Eyes Were Opened

December 7, 2007

Memorial of Saint Ambrose, bishop and doctor of the Church

But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest! On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the LORD, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 29:17-19

When he entered the house, the blind men approached him and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they said to him. Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” Matthew 9:28-29

Piety

Master, we want to see. Yet there are so many idols blocking our vision – including ourselves. Help us overcome our personal and social blindness to the needs of your children around us not only in this Holy Advent Season but throughout the year. Give us the faith to put your Word to work in your world. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/120707.shtml

There is yet another sensational new “pseudo-reality” show clogging the airwaves called Phenomenon. In one recent program, one of the alleged stars put on a blindfold and stuck his hand into a row of clay jars. One jar contained poisonous snakes. He was supposed to be clairvoyant and not stick his hand in with the vipers. But he was not and he was bitten. Were people (like me) watching to see if he would succeed or hoping he would fail? What difference would it make to anyone except the network accountants and the commercial sponsors?

We can try to be God-like (all-knowing and all-seeing) but we will never succeed alone. You know what that got Lucifer. When we make ourselves blind, we succeed in only one thing – making ourselves blind. Only God can cure that blindness and give us the sight that he gives to Bartimaeus.

Isaiah tries to get us ready for the real thing. He predicts the kind of upheaval and change which the world will know when Jesus walks with us. Forests of cedars will be converted into orchards! The deaf will hear! The blind will see! Despite the foretelling, the people are not ready for Jesus changing everything in their world. Yet the blind men on the road are ready for Jesus. They are ready for faith. They are ready for sight. They are ready for a miracle.

Maybe we should call Phenomenon’s producers and tell them to dramatize the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

Action

Jesus tells the blind men not to tell anyone what happened. (Jesus warned them sternly,
“See that no one knows about this.”) Yet they can not contain their joy and word spreads far and wide. (They went out and spread word of him through all that land.)

We on the other hand are asked to be prophets and tell the world about our faith yet how many of us keep silent. We want our faith to be private despite the weekly (daily) dismissal mission – “Go in peace to love and serve the world!”

Take a public stand on a cultural issue like the commercialization of Christmas. Thanks to Susan Raposa for alerting me to the "Open Letter to Christmas Culture Warriors" from Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good here: http://www.christmascampaign.org/letter.php.

Let some corporation or department store know that you don’t appreciate their advertising (Best Buy, are you listening? Please ditch that commercial about driving by Grandma’s house to hurry home to open presents!).

Stand up against how Hollywood depicts and exploits religion and faith in the movie “Hitman.” The sheer unmitigated violence of the commercial and trailer while the hymn “Ave Maria” plays in the background and the sign of the cross is mocked are both revolting! If that’s not bad enough, 20^th Century Fox even promotes the movie with the teaser line: “It is said that a man will walk this earth with the power to strike down evil wherever it hides to bring us peace.” This not only distorts this description of Jesus in the month that we join Christians worldwide celebrating His birth but also replaces our Savior with the acts of a sinner who turns to violence, exactly the opposite of the Gospel message.