Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                     Man born blind
                    (John IX, 1-35)
                       19 May 1974
                           ----

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Before  his meeting with Christ the blind man had never seen anything.
Everything  was  dark,  he  had to guess at things, to explore them by
touch,  to  use  his  imagination.  He had no clear authentic image of
things.  Then  he met Christ, and Christ opened his eyes. And what was
the  first  thing this man saw? The face of Christ, His gaze; the face
of  God  become  man, the divine gaze full of attentive, compassionate
love  resting  on  him,  on him alone out of the whole crowd. Straight
away  he  came  face  to  face with the living God and encountered the
miracle  which  so  astonishes us: that God can focus His attention on
each  one of us - as on the lost sheep - and not see the crowd but see
the  one  and  only  person.  After  that  the  man  probably surveyed
everything  around  him,  and  what  he  had  known by description, by
hearsay, became reality - "now I see".

It  happens at the present time also; it can happen to each one of us.
Like the man born blind we live most of our lives on alms, we sit like
beggars  at  the  roadside holding out a hand in the hope that someone
will  notice,  if  not  us at least our hand, and give us something to
sustain  us  for the next few hours at any rate. Such sustenance comes
for  us  in the form of a friendly gaze resting upon us, a word spoken
to  us,  a  kindness  done  to us. But all this still leaves us by the
roadside, blind and begging for help.

When Christ was passing another blind man, Bartimeus, that one did not
wait  for the Saviour to come up to him and ask him if he wanted to be
saved,  if  he  wanted  his sight. As soon as he sensed that something
unusual  was  happening  in  the  noisy  crowd,  and  in answer to his
question  was  told  who  was  passing by, he began to shout for help.
True,  people  tried  to stop him; true, a slight doubt may have crept
into his mind, was it worth shouting, calling for help, would the Lord
hear,  would  He  respond  to  such a trifling need as his? He went on
clamouring  for  help because his suffering was so great, his need was
so  desperate.  He was prepared to push past the people, fight his way
through the crowd in order to reach God and be heard by Him.

If  only  we  could realise how blind we are! If only we could realise
that our knowledge of life, not only eternal, divine life, but earthly
life,  depends  almost entirely on hearsay, that the life around us is
dim  and ghostly because we are blind, or (like the other blind man in
the  Gospel, not immediately cured by Christ) see things in a mist. If
only  we could remember what the Saviour tells us about the beauty and
the  glory  of both eternal and earthly life and not be satisfied with
our blindness, how earnestly would we try to detain Christ, so that He
might  pierce  us  with  His  gaze  and  speak His sovereign, healing,
life-giving  word  to  us.  Then  indeed  we might see the astonishing
beauty  of  Christ's  face,  the  fathomless beauty of the divine gaze
resting  upon  us with mercy and compassion and tenderness. We use our
eyes so easily, but we see little, and that superficially. Let us seek
the  vision  that  can be ours only, when our hearts become bright and
pure. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God; and in the
brilliance  of God's presence we might see each other, each one either
illuminated  by God's love, shining with the glory of eternal life, or
else  wounded,  darkened,  expecting  from  us  not  just alms but the
surrender  of  our  whole  life  through  love  in order that he might
receive sight, that to him also the Kingdom of Heaven might already

                           ----
* All texts are copyright:   Estate of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                            ---
           Metropolitan Anthony of  Sourozh Library
           http://www.metropolit-anthony.orc.ru/eng


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