Vision

On this sixth Sunday of Pascha, we are given the healing of the man born blind from the ninth chapter of the gospel according to Saint John to contemplate. But we are also given a number of other examples of sight, of vision, and of blindness to contemplate in the scripture readings.

To begin with, let’s examine the kind of vision that our Lord exhibits. He sees the man born blind and focuses His attention on the man. At that time, anyone with a severe infirmity would depend on the mercy and care of others. There was no system for helping such a person; if you didn’t have someone to care for you, you had to ask others for help. In this man’s case, his parents were still alive, and we even meet them in the later parts of the story, but he would not have been able to work, and they evidently could not care for him themselves. Experience tells us that the more people we find in this kind of situation, the more invisible they become. We find it difficult to be merciful to one or two people, much less crowds of people in need. But what we have seen over and over again in the gospel of Saint John is that Christ sees people. And when He sees someone whose heart is ready to repent He goes to them and gives them that which will benefit them. 

The Lord heals the man born blind. This miracle is all the more marvelous because he was not blind from an accident, or from illness, or from old age. He was born without eyes. Our Lord, in making clay from the ground, did what only God can do and fashioned eyes for the man as once He created Adam from the dust of the ground. And in doing so, he gave the man eyes to see, not just in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense as well. He recognizes Christ for Who He is and testifies that Christ is more than just an ordinary man. Within the narrative, we see him say that Christ must be a worshipper of God in order to do such a work; then he says that Christ must have been sent by God, and when he encountered Christ once more, he confesses Him as the Son of God, professes his belief in Him, and even worships Him, This man, who is identified by some as Saint Celidonius, though born in a pitiful state is given the greatest gift, the gift to see God and to know Him. 

But there is another aspect to this kind of spiritual vision which is presented to us in the Epistle reading this morning. In the city of Philippi, Saints Paul and Silas were on their way to pray, and a young woman followed them crying out, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” This statement was absolutely true, but it was being proclaimed by a demoniac. Saint Paul became annoyed and rebuked the evil spirit and it came out of her. This young woman saw the truth because the demons knew the truth about Saints Paul and Silas. The demons wanted to make the girl look like she had a genuine spirit of prophecy given by God, and so she spoke the truth that would be revealed to any who had eyes to see. Saint Paul saw that this girl was under the influence of a demon and freed her from this influence, and in doing so she lost her “ability” as a fortune teller. 

Spiritual vision is not infallible. We must couple it with discernment. We are like small children seeing all of the colors in the crayon box but without the ability to say what they all are. If we are given discernment, we can make sense of the things that we see, if we don’t have that gift we subject our understanding to those who do: to spiritual fathers, to elders and saints who are granted a greater vision and greater understanding. Even those people seek counsel from others when they are unable to discern the truth. 

We heard in the gospel another example of blindness, that of spiritual blindness. They could see with their physical eyes that this man had been healed. They made inquiries and knew that his man had been born blind and had been given the most marvelous healing. But all they could see was that the Lord had broken a rule by healing on the Sabbath. They thought the Lord was not from God and a sinner because He was not keeping the rules as they thought He should. What a terrible blindness this was. How many people have longed to see God as they did? But they were blinded by their presumptions. By comparison, a man who had lived for many years without eyes in his head was less pitiable. 

In the Beatitudes that we sang this morning, and indeed at most liturgies, we heard: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” To see things in this world is a gift from God, but a rather insignificant one if that is all we see. To see heavenly realities is a far greater gift, but it requires discernment. We must continuously seek to purify our hearts if we want to be given this kind of vision and especially if we want to see rightly with discernment. WIth this sight we are able to live according to God’s Will. We have eyes to see and ears to hear and a desire to follow Him. 

Saint Matrona of Moscow was born in the late 19th century, and like the blind man she was born without eyes. Unlike the blind man, she was never healed physically, but she was given the most marvelous healing of her spiritual eyes. She could see whatever was necessary to help the people who came to her for her intercession. She could see the realities of what was happening in the world around her in ways that others could not. She even knew who was depicted in icons that she couldn’t physically see. She had greater sight than any one of us without having eyes. 

We should desire to see God. Imagine the joy of the Myrrhbearing women or Saint Thomas beholding the Lord risen from the dead. Imagine the amazement of seeing a paralyzed man walk again, or the blind receiving their sight. Imagine what Peter, James, and John saw on Mount Tabor when the Lord was Transfigured, or when Christ ascended in glory into heaven bodily and was received into a cloud. These are the kind of things that are available for us to see, not just one day when we die, but in this life, if we stop being content with being able to see flowers and trees or cars and asphalt. No telescope or microscope, television or computer, can give us things to see that compare with what God has prepared for those who purify themselves and seek the Lord with all their heart.