February 19, 2024 – Wednesday Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021925.cfm)
Have you ever experienced searching for something yet could not find it? After a while, that object was actually right in front of you. You must have seen it but was not able to recognize that it is was what you were looking for. Perhaps, as you were walking on a street, a friend met you and greeted you, yet, you were unresponsive. You’ve seen the person but was not able to recognize that it was a friend of yours.
In medical term, it is called as “agnosia.” This is a disorder of which a person sees an object despite the normal vision but cannot identify what the object is. In particular, this is called as “visual agnosia.” There is also so called “auditory agnosia” of which we heard something but cannot recognize what it was.
In psychology, this is referred to as “inattentional blindness.” This means that we fail to notice or see something within our visual field because our attention or consciousness is so focused on something or somewhere else. This also applies to our hearing. As a result, we become absent-minded and out-of-focused.
In our Christian faith, this can also happen. And this is best described in today’s healing story of the blind man in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus who took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village performed the healing. Jesus has to do it twice for the person to see and recognize clearly. The man’s eyes were healed at the fist attempt yet, cannot distinguish between people and trees, thus, a “spiritual agnosia”. And so, for the second time, Jesus touched his eyes then his sight was completely restored.
What the man received was not only physical healing but also spiritual healing. This means that he was both blind physically and spiritually. As he was healed and restored completely only then that he recognized the Lord’s face in front of him. Then, he was told not to go back to the village of Bethsaida.
The actions in this healing story are filled with spiritual insights and so, let us take them one by one. Jesus needed to take the blind man out of the village and later told him not to go back. Bethsaida was a symbol of a place of evil, sin and rejection of God’s presence. Jesus was not accepted there.
Hence, in order for the man to be freed from his illness, he too needed to be freed from that place that made him blind. He was told not to go back but to go home, so that he won’t be able to go back to his old cycle of darkness and sin.
Jesus also allowed his disciples to witness this event to make them realize of the importance not just of our physical sight but also of our spiritual insight. The disciples actually struggled and found difficulty at recognizing of the wonders that Jesus did. They remained anxious on what to eat even though Jesus fed five thousand people. They were troubled when things got rough and difficult even when Jesus was with them in the boat. At this time, they were still figuring out who Jesus really was. Indeed, they too were blind, spiritually blind because their hearts were still filled with fear, anxieties and doubts. Hence, they too had spiritual agnosia.
Yet, Jesus remained patient just like with the blind man, until such a time they too received the spiritual insight and recognized that God was with them all along.
This calls us now to ask for the grace of spiritual insight. This begins by humble owning and acknowledging the beliefs, attitudes or experiences that continually bring us into darkness and sin.
Indeed, we may have a perfect physical vision and some may have blurred vision and so the need of eye glasses, but most importantly, may we too have a perfect spiritual sight to see and recognize the Lord, his gifts and manifestations. Hinaut pa.
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 